Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Real Estate & Property Law Blogs -> New York Zoning and Municipal Law Blog

Real Estate & Property Law

: New York Zoning and Municipal Law Blog

N.Y. Court of Appeals Rules in Favor Of Cayuga Indian Nation On Failure To Collect Cigarette Sales Taxes

By Steven Silverberg and Katherine Zalantis

In an action brought to prevent prosecution of members of an Indian nation for failure to collect cigarette sales taxes on sale to non-members of the nation, the Court of Appeals issued judgment in favor of the plaintiffs. In Cayuga Indian Nation v. Cayuga County Sheriff, the court noted that Federal law precludes collection of cigarette sales taxes on sales by Indians to members of their own tribe on reservation lands. The court found that the two parcels in question were qualified reservation land. Noting that the ultimate responsibility for payment of sales tax rests on the consumer, but that the practice has been for wholesalers to purchase tax stamps from the state and for the cost of those stamps to be passed up the chain to retailers and then consumers the court concluded: "Thus, the issue in this case is not whether sales taxes are due when non-Indian consumers purchase cigarettes from Indian retailers ? they are...continue to full post

Full post as published by New York Zoning and Municipal Law Blog on May 21, 2010 (boomark / email).