Cherokee/Choctaw Man’s Suit against Employer for Withholding Federal Taxes Dismissed

Here are the materials in Bey v. UPS (E.D. N.Y.):

UPS Motion to Dismiss

DCT Order Granting Motion to Dismiss

IRS Notice 2012-60 (Per Capita Payments from Proceeds of Settlements of Indian Tribal Trust Cases)

Here:

Notice 2012-60

New York City Shows No Injury in Fact in Sale of Unstamped Cigarettes by Day Wholesale

Here is the opinion in City of New York v. Milhelm Attea & Bros. (E.D. N.Y.):

DCT Order Granting Summary J to Day Wholesale

An excerpt:

The City of New York has brought an Amended Complaint against the above-captioned defendants,  [2] cigarette wholesalers who are state-licensed cigarette stamping agents. The principal contention of the City is that the wholesalers violated the Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act (“CCTA”), 18 U.S.C. § 2341 et seq., by shipping in excess of 10,000 unstamped cigarettes to Native American reservation retailers who re-sold the cigarettes to the public. According to the City, the former version New York Tax Law § 471 applied a tax to cigarettes sold to reservation retailers for re-sale to the public, and the defendant agents violated that provision by distributing large quantities of cigarettes to reservation retailers without purchasing and affixing the requisite state tax stamps. The City currently seeks civil penalties or disgorgement of profits pursuant to the CCTA, and also brings state law claims for public nuisance and violations of the Cigarette Marketing Standards Act (“CMSA”), New York Tax Law § 484. The parties have engaged in multiple rounds of motion practice, as well as some discovery, and now cross-move for summary judgment.

The defendants’ principal contentions are that the City lacks standing to pursue this action against them, that they were not legally required to  [3] affix state tax stamps to the cigarettes at issue, and that they lack the requisite scienter for liability. The City counters that the defendants’ arguments can all be rejected as a matter of law, and that there are no outstanding issues of material fact regarding its entitlement to monetary relief under the CCTA.

For the reasons stated below, the Court grants summary judgment to Day Wholesale, Inc. on the grounds that the City has failed to put forth sufficient evidence that it suffered an injury-in-fact from Day’s sales of unstamped cigarettes. The Court concludes that the City is entitled to summary judgment on the issue of the liability of defendants Gutlove & Shirvint, Inc. and Mauro Pennisi, Inc. for CCTA violations, and that some amount of civil penalties is appropriate. The Court will hold a further hearing for the purpose of assessing the penalty amount. The Court denies the cross-motions as to the City’s CMSA claim, and deems the public nuisance claim withdrawn.

Michigan Bar Journal Article on Michigan Taxes and Indian Tribes

Here.

State Continues to Hold Cigarettes While Challenging Court Order

News coverage here.

Previous coverage of HCI Distributing v. New York State Police here.

H/T C.G.

N.Y. Supreme Court Opinion in Favor of Ho-Chunk Industries in Cigarette Confiscation Case

Here:

HCI Decision 6 18 2012

Prior posts here and here.

June 2012 Report of the Advisory Committee on Tax for Indian Tribal Governments Division of IRS

Here.

And here:

tege_act_rpt11 [starts on page 175 of the pdf]

SCIA Hearing on Tax Burdens on Tribes

Here is the witness list (prepared testimony linked to the witness name):

Witnesses

Panel # 1
The Honorable John Yellow Bird Steele
President
Oglala Sioux Tribe, Pine Ridge, SD

The Honorable Athena Sanchey-Yallup
Secretary of the Tribal Council, Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation
Toppenish, WA

Panel # 2
Mr. Aaron Klein
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Coordination
U.S. Department of the Treasury, Washington, DC

Ms. Christie J. Jacobs
Director
Office of Indian Tribal Governments, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Department ofthe Treasury, Washington, DC

Panel # 3
Ms. Lynn Malerba
Chief of Mohegan Tribe
on behalf of the United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc., Nashville, TN

Mr. William Lomax
President
Native American Finance Officers Association, Washington, DC

Senate Finance Committee Testimony on Tax Reform

Here:

Member Statements

Max Baucus 
(D-MT)
Orrin G. Hatch
(R-UT)

Witness Testimony

Ms. Sarah Hall Ingram, Commissioner, Tax Exempt and Govenment Entities, Internal Revenue Service, Washington, DC
The Honorable Robert Odawi Porter, President, Seneca Nation of Indians, Salamanca, NY
Dr. Lindsay G. Robertson, Professor of Law, University of Oklahoma College of Law, Norman, OK
Dr. Steven Maguire, Specialist in Public Finance, Congressional Research Service, Washington, DC

Arizona SCT Briefs in Ariz. Dept. of Revenue v. South Point Energy

Well, petition for review stage anyway:

South Point Petition for Review

Arizona Response

The lower court materials are here.