Under apparent direction from the White House, the IRS is looking to tax per capita distributions of gaming revenues. What this means is that the income tribes generate from their gaming operations and distributed to tribal members is becoming taxable income. Additionally, the IRS is taking the stand that if some of the gaming revenues are used by the tribal government to provide services for its membership, the value of those services is taxable to the members who receive benefit of those services.
Many Americans picture the tribes as getting rich off of oil and gas royalties as well as gambling profits. While that is true in a few cases, most the of tribal governments still struggle to provide essential human services to members. Poverty on reservations averages over 50% of the population. The Federal Government has been notorious for decades for not meeting its statutory financial obligations to tribes, as evidenced by the abundance of lawsuits filed and won by tribes. The tribes who are fortunate enough to have additional sources of revenue are, by-and-large, using those monies to try and pick up the slack.
If the government is going to go after such income and tax it, then the government has a responsibility to come to the table with the funding and assistance that tribes need to meet the essential requirements for taking care of their people. Otherwise, their tactic is but one more example of government oppression and constitutes unjust confiscation.
That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.
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