Puyallup Tribal Impact
NATIVE AMERICANS DO PAY TAXES: $68 MILLION IN 2011
59th Street Project in Fife - financed by Tribal tax dollars.
Indian people do pay taxes. They pay the same taxes non-Indians pay, and in some cases additional Tribal taxes as well. Indians have a few tax exemptions, just as non-Indians do.
Indian tribes do collect taxes and send them to the appropriate taxing bodies. The Puyallup Tribe and its members dramatically demonstrate both of these realities. The Tribe withheld federal income tax from its employees (who include Puyallup Tribal members, other Indians, and non-Indians), from the per capita payments it makes to its members, and from prizes it pays at its casino. As federal law provides, the Tribe sent that money to the I.R.S., a total of about $41 million in FY 2011.
The Tribe also pays and withholds payroll taxes from its employees and sends them to the Social Security Administration and other government agencies. Those added up to about $15 million in FY 11.
Under the terms of agreements with the State of Washington and local governments, the Tribe collected and paid tax funds to those governments, including about $11 million to the State of Washington, and more than a million dollars to Pierce County, the City of Tacoma, and the City of Fife, all in FY 11 through agreements with those municipalities.
The total amount in taxes collected, withheld, or paid to the various governments by the Tribe in FY 11 was thus over $68 million and does not include money paid to local governments in lieu of taxation.