Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)

Flip the Rez Tax to Pump Money Into Indian Country

Just as the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in White Mountain Apache Tribe v. Bracker, 448 U.S. 136, 143 (1980), has been construed to allow state governments to reach into Indian country and collect taxes on reservation transactions involving non-Indians, tribal governments should be able to reach beyond their boundaries, and generate revenue from off-reservation transactions involving their members.

Bracker and its progeny stem from the notion that states are entitled to tax revenue on, for instance, sales to non-Indians buyers, because those buyers rely on state infrastructure and should not be able to spend money without supporting that infrastructure. But for Tribes whose members leave the reservation to spend money, the same rationale should be true. Just as those members use tribal infrastructure, taxes on sales to such members should go to the jurisdictions where they live: reservations.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/05/06/flip-rez-tax-pump-money-indian-country

 

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