Appellate Court Issues Stay in Seneca Case

The temporary restraining order blocks the state from collecting taxes on cigarettes sold only by the Seneca Indian Nation.

June 13, 2011

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Last week, a judge ruled that New York state could collect sales tax on tobacco sold by the Seneca Indian Nation to non-Indians, but the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court almost immediately issued a stay to the Senecas, WBEN-AM reports.

The temporary restraining order only applies to cigarettes sold by the Senecas to non-native customers, according to the New York Department of Taxation and Finance.

"If New York State courts eventually allow this New York State law to stand, it will have two primary results. One, good-paying retail jobs, selling a legal product in Western New York, will be lost; and, two, there will be no change in the Seneca Nation€™s stand that it will never collect or impose sales taxes for New York State," said Seneca Nation President Robert Odawi Porter in a statement.

"Mr. Porter's saber-rattling notwithstanding, our federal courts have ruled repeatedly and unequivocally that New York is entitled to collect these taxes, and that its collection system will not unreasonably infringe on the right of Indian tribes to self-govern," Jim Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores told NACS Daily. "The taxes are pre-collected from wholesale distributors prior to delivery to the reservation, not one dime of tax is collected from any tribal member, and no state tax inspector need ever set foot on Indian land. €¦Ultimately, the law is the law, and once the courts reject the Senecas€™ frivolous stall tactics, these taxes will be collected in accordance with that law."

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