AGO 97062.

• Court: Nebraska

Nebraska Attorney General Opinions 1997. AGO 97062. DATE: December 2, 1997SUBJECT: Taxation of Real Property Owned by the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. REQUESTED BY: John Thomas, Knox County AttorneyWRITTEN BY: Don Stenberg, Attorney General L. Jay Bartel, Assistant Attorney General You have requested our opinion concerning the taxability of certain real estate in Knox County acquired by the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. The deeds provided with your request indicate the properties were transferred to the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska [hereinafter the "Tribe"] in October, 1997. The real estate transfer statements you have provided indicate the real estate consists of improved and unimproved agricultural land. You ask whether the lands are subject to real property taxation. With respect to the taxability of lands owned by Indian tribes outside Indian country, one leading commentator on Indian law has stated: Tribal property located outside the governmental jurisdiction of the tribe (that is, outside tribal Indian country) has been the subject of few contests over state taxes. Most tribal real property is associated with tribal Indian country and thus not subject to state taxing jurisdiction in any case. Some statutes specify that particular off-reservation interests shall be taxable or nontaxable. . . .[O]ff reservation interests have been assumed by all concerned to be taxable when unrestricted and previously taxable, and nontaxable when held in trust. F. Cohen, Handbook of Federal Indian Law, 430 (1982 ed.) (emphasis added) (footnotes omitted). "It is well-established that states have the right to impose taxes on Indian property located outside the boundaries of reservations, so long as the tax is nondiscriminatory." Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community v. Yavapai County, 50 F.3d 739, 740 (9th Cir. 1995). "Absent express federal law to the contrary, Indians going beyond reservation boundaries have generally been held subject to non-discriminatory state law otherwise applicable to all citizens of the State." Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones, 411 U.S. 145, 148-49 (1973). This includes application of "a State's tax laws" to "tribal activities conducted outside the reservation. . . ." Id. The information you have provided indicates the real estate is owned directly by the Tribe, not held in trust by the United States. Consistent with the...