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270.60 Tax refund agreements with Indians.

Subdivision 1. Taxes paid by Indians. The commissioner of revenue is authorized to enter into a tax refund agreement with the governing body of any federally recognized Indian reservation in Minnesota. The agreement may provide for a mutually agreed upon amount as a refund to the governing body of any sales or excise tax paid by the total resident Indian population on or adjacent to a reservation into the state treasury, or for an amount which measures the economic value of an agreement by the tribal government to pay the equivalent of the state sales tax on items included in the sales tax base but exempt on the reservation, notwithstanding any other law which limits the refundment of taxes. The total resident Indian population on or adjacent to a reservation shall be defined according to the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, as determined and stated in its Report on Service Population and Labor Force.

Subd. 2. Sales, use, and excise taxes. (a) The commissioner of revenue is authorized to enter into a tax agreement with the governing body of any federally recognized Indian reservation in Minnesota, that provides for the state and the tribal government to share sales, use, and excise tax revenues generated from on reservation activities of non-Indians and off reservation activities of members of the reservation. Every agreement entered into pursuant to this subdivision must require the commissioner of revenue to collect all state and tribal taxes covered by the agreement.

(b) The commissioner of revenue is authorized to collect any tribal taxes imposed pursuant to any agreement entered into pursuant to this subdivision and to make payments authorized by the agreement to the tribal government from the funds collected.

(c) The commissioner shall pay to the tribal government its share of the taxes collected pursuant to the agreement, as indicated in the agreement, and grant the taxpayer a credit for the taxpayer's share of the amount paid to the tribal government against the taxpayer's Minnesota tax.

Subd. 3. Appropriation. There is annually appropriated from the general fund to the commissioner of revenue the amounts necessary to make the refunds provided in this section.

Subd. 4. Payments to counties. (a) The commissioner shall pay to a county in which an Indian gaming casino is located ten percent of the state share of all taxes generated from activities on reservations and collected under a tax agreement under this section with the tribal government for the reservation located in the county. If the tribe has casinos located in more than one county, the payment must be divided equally among the counties in which the casinos are located.

(b) A county is a qualified county under this subdivision if one of the following conditions is met:

(1) the county's per capita income is less than 80 percent of the state per capita personal income, based on the most recent estimates made by the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis; or

(2) 30 percent or more of the total market value of real property in the county is exempt from ad valorem taxation.

(c) The commissioner shall make the payments required under this subdivision by February 28 of the year following the year the taxes are collected.

(d) An amount sufficient to make the payments authorized by this subdivision, not to exceed $1,100,000 in any fiscal year, is annually appropriated from the general fund to the commissioner. If the authorized payments exceed the amount of the appropriation, the commissioner shall first proportionately reduce the payments to counties other than qualified counties so that the total amount equals the appropriation. If the authorized payments to qualified counties also exceed the amount of the appropriation, the commissioner shall then proportionately reduce the rate so that the total amount to be paid to qualified counties equals the appropriation.

HIST: 1977 c 203 s 9; 1983 c 342 art 6 s 1; 1989 c 277 art 1 s 7; 1991 c 291 art 9 s 5; 1994 c 510 art 3 s 1,2; 1997 c 231 art 16 s 6; 1Sp1997 c 5 s 37; 1998 c 389 art 16 s 11

Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes