David C. Sylvester - Page 6




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          1992-404, the taxpayer, a member of the Mohawk Nation, contended            
          that members of the Iroquois Confederacy of the Six Nations were            
          exempt from Federal income taxation on the basis of the same                
          legal sources petitioner now relies on: The Treaty of the Six               
          Nations, the Jay Treaty, the Treaty of Ghent, and the                       
          Constitution.6                                                              
               The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit               
          held that neither the treaties nor the cited provisions of the              
          Constitution created a Federal income tax exemption for members             
          of the Iroquois Confederacy of the Six Nations.                             
               This Court has also specifically held that members of the              
          Seneca Nation were not exempt from Federal income taxes based on            
          the same legal sources relied on by petitioner.7  Nephew v.                 
          Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1989-32.                                           
               Existing case law is clear and specific.  We find that                 
          petitioner is not exempt from taxation because of his status as a           
          member of the Seneca Nation. Additionally, petitioner's apparent            
          contention that his income is somehow attributable to his status            
          as a member of the Seneca Nation is vague and unsupported by the            
          record, and we find that none of petitioner's income was derived            


          6    Specifically, U.S. Const. art. I, sec. 2, cl. 3, and U.S.              
          Const. amend. XIV, sec. 2.  These are the same provisions on                
          which petitioner relies.                                                    
          7    It should also be noted that the taxpayer in Nephew v.                 
          Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1989-32, submitted essentially the same            
          affidavit as petitioner.                                                    




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