Miccosukee tribe may be on hook for over $1 billion in gambling taxes

Miami Herald ^ | June 4-5, 2018 | DAVID OVALLE

[ConservativeStatement]

A Miccosukee tribal member owes back taxes on gambling revenue, a federal appeals ruled Monday in a decision that experts believe could pave the way for the federal government to collect more than $1 billion in overdue personal income taxes.

The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Miami federal judge who ruled that tribal member Sally Jim must pay the Internal Revenue Service $278,758 in taxes, interest and penalties for failing to file a tax return in 2001. The ruling came two years after U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga decided her family's gaming income — a distribution of casino profits — was not exempt from U.S. tax laws.

The panel of three appellate judges agreed, saying lawmakers long ago mandated that Indian gambling money must be taxed.

[coloradan]

Those are voluntary, and, in any case, no worse (and probably better) than state-run lotteries.

[vette6387]

“No - their roots go back to the Heckawi Tribe.”

And there I thought it was that now extinct tribe, the Fugawis, whose disappearance caused the following phrase to be coined: “Where the Fugawi?”

[i_robot73]

>
2. Because the Congress, which explicitly has both the power to tax, and the authority to govern relations with the Indian tribes, said so.
>

2B: to tax....to pay for that which they are authorized, via A1S8.

Unlike Rights, the power to tax is not absolute and unlimited.