As previous chapters of this book evidence, critical tax perspectives are not unique to the United States. This chapter adds another dimension to the international application of critical tax perspectives by demonstrating their relevance to crossborder tax issues. The relevance of critical perspectives to cross-border tax issues should come as no surprise, because what is commonly referred toas “international tax” is not really a separate and distinct set of tax rules. Rather, it is more akin to an overlay that must be placed on top of the generally applicable rules in the Code – which have been addressed at length in all of the previous chapters of this book.

In international tax parlance, cross-border issues generally fall into one of two categories: inbound and outbound. “Inbound” refers to situations where non-U.S. persons come to (or engage in transactions in) the United States, and “outbound” refers to situations where U.S. persons go (or engage in transactions) abroad. The contributions to this chapter have been grouped together in keeping with this common division of cross-border tax issues.

The first three contributions to this chapter concern what might be termed “inbound” situations. In Toward a Global Critical Feminist Vision: Domestic Work and the Nanny Tax Debate, Taunya Lovell Banks begins with an examination of the “nanny tax” debate that followed Zoe Baird's failed nomination for U.S. Attorney General by President Clinton in 1992. Baird withdrew from consideration after it came to light that she had failed to pay Social Security taxes for her live-in child-care worker, who was an undocumented immigrant.