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Appeals court bars Indian tobacco tax(Buffalo News, The (NY) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 3--Score another win for Native American businesses. An appeals court on Friday upheld a Buffalo judge's decision to bar the State Legislature from forcing tax officials to begin imposing new regulations on tobacco wholesalers dealing with Native American businesses on reservations. The five-judge Appellate Division of State Supreme Court in Rochester agreed with a Franklin County wholesaler and Seneca Indian businessman Scott B. Maybee that the three-year-old effort by state lawmakers and former Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer is not in effect. In a decision written by Senior Associate Justice Samuel L. Green of Buffalo, the court affirmed the Feb. 20, 2007, injunction of State Justice Rose H. Sconiers of Buffalo blocking new taxes on reservation sales. The state attorney general's office did not comment Friday. The Green decision affirmed that the Legislature's most recent effort to collect taxes on cigarettes sold on Indian reservations is not currently state law because state Department of Taxation and Finance never issued new rules for businesses. The appellate court stressed that while the State Legislature directed the Tax Department to come up with rules and regulations to implement the taxing of non-Indian smokers on reservations by March 1, 2006, no such rules were ever drafted. Rather on March 16, 2006, the Tax Deparment issued an advisory opinion setting forth its position that, consistent with its long-standing policy, it would not begin enforcement of the 2005 law revision, Green noted. "There is no question that the Legislature intended to create a procedure that would permit the state to collect cigarette taxes on reservation sales to non-Indians and nonmembers of the nation or tribe," he wrote. But the senior judge stressed that as of now "no system has been drafted to allow wholesale dealers and reservation sellers to verify sales to tax-exempt purchasers on reservations." [email protected] To see more of The Buffalo News, N.Y., or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.buffalonews.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Buffalo News, N.Y. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |