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The Supreme Court in Squire v. Capoeman, 351 U.S. 1, 6
(1956), has stated that “to be valid, exemptions to tax laws
should be clearly expressed.”
On the theory that the tribe qualifies as a sovereign
government and that petitioner has the status of a “public
official” of such government, petitioner argues that the entire
$57,845 she received from the tribe in 2001 should not be subject
to Federal income tax. According to petitioner, her performance
for the tribe of “essential government functions” precludes the
taxability of the income she received from the tribe.
Because no explicit statutory exemption exists with regard
thereto, respondent contends that the entire $57,845 petitioner
received from the tribe constituted taxable income to petitioner.
Respondent relies on Squire v. Capoeman, supra at 6, in which the
Supreme Court stated that American Indians are citizens, and “in
ordinary affairs of life, not governed by treaties or remedial
legislation, they are subject to the payment of income taxes as
are other citizens.” In that case, the taxpayers were American
Indians and the beneficial owners of lands allotted to them and
held in trust by the Federal Government under the General
Allotment Act of 1887, ch. 119, 24 Stat. 388, currently codified
at 25 U.S.C. sec. 331 (2000), and because of an explicit
exemption in the General Allotment Act of 1887, the Supreme Court
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