Here is the complaint in Keweenaw Bay Indian Community v. Khouri (W.D. Mich.):
indian taxation
Citizen Potawatomi Prevails in Dispute over Alcohol Sales and Taxes at Gaming Facility
Here is the AAA award in Citizen Potawatomi Nation v. State of Oklahoma:
an excerpt:
In 2014, the OTC sent an audit demand to the Nation questioning more than $27,000,000 of exemptions claimed on the Nation’s past sales tax reports. The Nation did not respond and declined to submit further sales tax reports. The OTC then filed and prosecuted an administrative complaint seeking to revoke all of the Nation’s alcoholic beverage permits relying on State law providing for revocation of any alcoholic beverage permit upon noncompliance with State tax laws. In its complaint, the OTC asserted for the first time that State sales taxes apply to all sales by an Indian Tribe to nontribal members.
Interesting negotiating strategy.
Commentary:
Justice Daniel J. Boudreau issued the attached arbitration award in Citizen Band Potawatomi Nation v. State of Oklahoma, No. 01-15-0003-3452 (AAA, April 4, 2016). The Award includes (i) a declaratory judgment that federal law protecting tribal sovereignty interests preempt and invalidate the State’s sales taxes on the Nation’s sales in question; and (ii) issues an injunction against the State from taking any further actions to divest the Nation’s Compact gaming facilities of the right to sell and serve alcoholic beverages or threaten enforcement actions against them on the ground that the Nation does not comply with the State’s sales tax laws. Justice Boudreau was the single arbitrator in this dispute.
The declaratory judgement applied the balancing test analysis in White Mountain Apache Tribe v. Bracker, 448 U.S. 136 (1980) and other federal Indian law cases. Judge Boudreau held that the evidence established (i) significant federal and tribal interests in the Nation’s self-governance, economic self-sufficiency, and self-determination; (ii) the Nation alone invests value in the goods and services that it sells, does not derive value through an exemption from State sales taxes and imposed its own equivalent tribal tax on the sales; (iii) the State possesses no economic interest beyond a general quest for revenue in imposing a sales tax on the Nation’s transactions and suffers no uncompensated economic burden arising therefrom; and (iv) the federal and tribal interests at stake predominate significantly over any possible State interests in the transactions upon which the State seeks to impose its sales tax.
Eleventh Circuit Rejects Miccosukee Members’ Federal Tax Challenge
Here is the opinion in Cypress v. United States:
An excerpt:
This appeal arises out of a dispute between sixteen members of the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida (the “Tribe members”) and the United States, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the Secretaries of the Treasury and of the Interior (collectively, “the Government”). The Tribe members seek declaratory relief to avoid paying federal income taxes on distributions, including gaming proceeds, paid out of the Tribe’s trust account. The district court dismissed the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, finding that the United States had not waived sovereign immunity for suits brought by individual Tribe members. The Tribe members now appeal the dismissal.
We agree with the district court that the Government did not waive sovereign immunity. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s dismissal of this matter.
Briefs here.
Seminole Tribe v. Stranburg Cert Petition
Here:
Seminole Tribe v. Stranburg Cert Petition
Question presented:
Florida imposes a tax on gross receipts from utility services that are delivered to retail customers. Under express statutory authority, utility providers may separately itemize this utility tax on a customer’s bill and add it to the total charge for utility services. If the utility provider does so, the customer is legally required to remit the tax to the utility provider, which then transfers the payment to the State. Here, petitioner is a federally recognized Indian tribe that has purchased utility services delivered to tribal reservations. Petitioner’s utility providers have exercised their statutory right to separately itemize the utility tax when billing the Tribe for such services.
The question presented is:
When a utility provider exercises a state-law right to expressly pass on a utility tax to a federally recognized Indian tribe for utility services delivered to the tribe’s reservations and the tribe is therefore legally obligated to pay the tax, is the tax an impermissible
direct tax on the tribe?
Lower court materials here.
Flandreau Santee Sioux Prevails in Tax Dispute with South Dakota
Challenge to Wash. Dept. of Revenue Tax Assessment on Tribal Casino ATMs
Here is the complaint in Everi Payments Inc. v. State of Washington Dept. of Revenue (Super. Ct. — Thurston Cty.):
Eleventh Circuit Briefs in Poarch Band of Creek Indians v. Hildreth
Here:
Lower court materials here.
Eleventh Circuit Briefs in Miccosukee Members’ Claims to Federal Tax Immunity
Here are the materials in Cypress v. United States:
Lower court materials here:
Eleventh Circuit Holds Florida’s Rental Tax is Preempted by Federal Indian Law, but Not Utility Tax
Here is the opinion in Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Stranburg. An excerpt:
Benjamin Franklin said, “[I]n this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” He was almost right. As this case illustrates, even taxes are not certain when it comes to matters affecting Indian tribes. In this appeal, we consider whether Florida’s Rental Tax and Florida’s Utility Tax, as applied to matters occurring on Seminole Tribe lands, violate the tenets of federal Indian law. For the reasons that follow, we find that the Utility Tax as it involves activities on Tribe land does not, but the Rental Tax does.
Briefs here.
Poarch Band Creek Sues Alabama Official over Taxes on Trust Property
Here is the complaint in Poarch Band of Creek Indians v. Hildreth (S.D. Ala.):
Turtle Talk 
You must be logged in to post a comment.