Resident vs non-resident alien
A resident alien is taxed by the United States on worldwide income; a non-resident alien only on US-source income and income connected with a US business.
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A resident alien is taxed by the United States on worldwide income; a non-resident alien only on US-source income and income connected with a US business.
Side by side
| Resident alien | Non-resident alien | |
|---|---|---|
| Test | Green card, or the substantial presence day-count | Neither test met |
| Income taxed | Worldwide | US-source and effectively connected income |
| Rate structure | Graduated, with the ordinary deductions | Graduated on connected income, flat on gross passive income |
| Foreign reporting | Full account and asset reporting applies | Generally not |
| Return | The resident individual return | The non-resident return |
Which one applies to you
Run the day-count first, then check the exits: the closer-connection statement, an exempt-individual claim, or the treaty tie-breaker. Any one of them can move a person who met the count back outside residence — but each requires a filing.
Where to go from here
We will tell you if you do not need us. That happens more often than you would expect.
Reviewed against current guidance for the 2025 and 2026 filing seasons by Udit Gupta, Cross-Border Tax Expert, Legal Quotient Consultants. This is general information rather than advice about your file — a short call is the way to get the second.
Resident alien non resident alien, in practice
The subject here is resident vs non-resident alien, which is what people mean when they search for resident alien non resident alien. This page covers who it applies to, the filings it produces, and the fixed fee agreed before work begins.
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The fee is fixed before we start
Quoted from your documents and agreed in writing. The number you accept is the number you pay.
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Every page on this site and every file we deliver says which practitioner reviewed it — a person, not a team inbox.
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Where a rate or a threshold appears in our writing it names the tax year it belongs to. Where it could not be confirmed, the page describes the mechanism and quotes no number.
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Nothing is priced from a phone call. We read what you have first, then the fee is set — so the scope and the number are agreed on the same evidence.
What these engagements turn on
Student taxed on worldwide income who was never resident at all
A postgraduate on a temporary visa had been filing the resident individual return for several years, having crossed the substantial presence day-count while at university. The category of visa placed the student within the exempt-individual rules, so those days should never have entered the count in the first place. The work consisted of reconstructing the day-count year by year from entry records, establishing which years the exempt-individual claim covered, and filing the correct non-resident returns with the claim attached. The engagement produced a corrected filing position and removed the worldwide reporting obligation the student had been carrying.
Snowbird who crossed the day-count without meaning to
A retired Canadian couple wintering in a southern state had never counted their days and assumed a long holiday carried no tax consequence. The weighted count across successive years put them over the line. Their home, family, doctors and financial life were all in Canada, which is what the closer-connection route is for. We reconstructed the count from travel records, prepared the closer-connection statements for the years still open, and set out in writing how many days each of them could spend in future years before the position stopped being available. They kept non-resident status and a rule to plan around.
Green card holder in Canada deciding whether to take the tie-breaker
A client had moved back to Canada years earlier and kept a green card without using it, filing nothing on the US side. The green card test does not lapse with absence, so every one of those years was a resident alien year with worldwide income and full foreign asset reporting. We set out the two available paths, the treaty tie-breaker as a filing position on a US return and formal abandonment of the status, with the reporting each one leaves behind. The engagement produced a documented decision, a set of back filings consistent with it, and no surprises later.
Assignment year split between resident and non-resident treatment
An engineer transferred to a US employer partway through a year, so residence began mid-year rather than covering the whole of it. The income before arrival and the income after it belong to different regimes, and the foreign asset reporting attaches only to the part of the year inside residence. The work consisted of fixing the residence start date against the day-count, splitting employment and investment income either side of it, and preparing the return on that basis. The engagement produced a filed dual-status year and a clean starting point for the first full resident year.
Flat withholding on income that was effectively connected
A non-resident investor was having the flat gross rate taken off payments from a US venture and had assumed nothing more could be done. Examining the arrangement showed part of the income was effectively connected with a US business, which belongs on the non-resident return at graduated rates with the deductions against it, not in the flat gross basket. We separated the connected income from the genuinely passive income, prepared the non-resident return on that split, and documented the characterisation for the payer. The engagement produced a filed return and recovery of withholding taken on the wrong basis.
Non-resident returns filed for years the client was actually resident
A client working in the United States on a rolling contract had filed the non-resident return each year on the strength of holding no green card. The day-count had been met for most of those years and no exit had ever been filed, so the correct return was the resident one, with worldwide income and foreign account reporting. The work was to establish which years were residence years, quantify the foreign income and accounts for each, and file corrected returns with the reporting that belonged to them. The engagement produced a complete and consistent filing history.
A Home Kept in Canada After the Move Abroad
A dwelling left available is the tie the CRA weighs most heavily, and its treatment differs depending on whether it is rented at arm's length. The file settles the residence position first and the rental reporting second.
Read how this one runsComing Back to Canada After Years Abroad
Returning restarts Canadian residence and re-values what you own on the day you arrive. Foreign pensions, employer plans and accounts opened abroad each land differently, and the reporting thresholds are tested against the whole portfolio rather than each account.
Read how this one runsAll case studies — every published engagement in one place.
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Working from anywhere doesn't mean taxed nowhere: residency defaults, employer payroll exposure and treaty relief decide where income actually lands.
Working from another country does not by itself end tax residence in the one you left, and it can start one where you are sitting. Day counts, ties, the employer's own exposure and the treaty tie-breaker all point at the same question, and the year you move is the year it has to be answered on paper.
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