Number: RS22321
Title: Wagnon v. Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation: State Tax on Motor Fuels Distributed to Indian Tribal Retailers
Authors: M. Maureen Murphy, American Law Division 
Abstract: On December 6, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Wagnon v. Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation (No. 94-631), upheld the application of a non-discriminatory Kansas motor fuels tax to gasoline sold by off-reservation distributors to Indian tribal retailers for on-reservation sales. Important to the Court's reasoning were: (1) the fact that the state law specified that the legal incidence of and the liability for paying the tax fell on the distributor; (2) that the transaction being taxed,the receipt of the motor fuels in Kansas by the distributor,took place off-reservation; and (3) that the state taxes were being passed on to beneficiaries of state services,the non-Indian patrons of the tribal gasoline operation and its gaming casino. Wagnon follows a series of cases that have upheld state authority to tax on-reservation tobacco and gasoline sales to non-tribal members, but which have raised questions about the ability of states to collect these taxes because of the bar that tribal sovereign immunity imposes to enforcement actions against Indian tribes. Although legislation has been introduced in several recent Congresses to compel tribes to remit state sales taxes on retail sales to non-Indians, to date no such requirement has been enacted.
Pages: 6
Date: December 9, 2005