DENVER – Members of Colorado’s Ute Indian tribes should not have to pay sales taxes on cars they register on the reservation, legislators agreed Thursday.
No one objected to a bill by Rep. Mike McLachlan, D-Durango, and Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose, which clarifies that tribal members who live on their reservations do not have to pay sales taxes on products delivered to their homes.
House Bill 1080 passed the House Finance Committee on a 12-0 vote. There was no opposition because federal law already forbids states to impose sales taxes on Indian lands.
For the most part, the state and local governments follow the law. The bill is meant to bring extra clarity.
“This is just codifying what has been happening in most cases,” Coram said.
McLachlan showed the committee a state Department of Revenue paper from 1992 that clearly declares the state and its counties will not tax vehicles registered on reservations to tribal members, whether the car was delivered to the reservation or picked up at the dealership.
But since that policy statement from 1992, there have been a few problems, said Sam Maynes, attorney for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, in an interview.
“There have been instances where it has been inconsistently applied,” Maynes said.
No one specific case prompted the tribes to bring the bill. Instead, it was an effort to make state law extra clear, Maynes said.
Ute Mountain Ute Chairman Manuel Heart and Southern Ute Tribal Council member Howard Richards Sr. also testified for the bill.
It would affect about 800 members of the Southern Ute tribe and 2,100 members of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe who live on their reservations.
The bill’s next stop is the full House, where it should pass easily, based on Thursday’s vote.
jhanel@durangoherald.com
