One More Misunderstanding About Native Americans
by Taxes – Do we pay or not pay?
In my other article I covered religion, government money/casinos, our existence, and drug use. In this article I want to address one more thing that I didn’t even think about adding at the time:
Taxes – Yes Native Americans pay taxes. I thought that everyone knew that everyone pays taxes. Apparently many people still believe that we do not pay taxes. On our own reservations we do not have to pay taxes when buying things. However, most reservations that I know of don’t have a lot of shopping access. I mean they don’t have grocery stores, shopping malls and such on tribal land, which means we have to travel to non tribal land to do that type of shopping.
If we go onto another reservation we have to show our tribal ID in order to get the perk of not paying taxes. Honestly, many of us don’t carry around our IDs, so if we’re on a reservation or casino it would be decently rare to find someone whipping out their ID so that they can get 7 -10 cents off a magazine or something. I’ve been to one to one Indian casino and they didn’t ask for my tribal status or even automatically take the tax off what I bought. I didn’t care or really notice because it’s not a routine thing that I’ve grown accustom to.
Believe me, I for one would absolutely be excited and proud about not paying government taxes. That would be a lot of money in my pocket but the truth is; what ever amount of “normal” taxes comes out of your pay check comes out of mine.
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Post CommentDuff D Moss
On May 10, 2009 at 8:23 am
The only people who get out of paying taxes are the super rich and the dead (or do the dead pay taxes).
I didn’t realise this was a common thought amongst the American public.
C Jordan
On May 10, 2009 at 10:14 am
Informative to a non American.
clay hurtubise
On May 10, 2009 at 11:42 am
Good info., to be honest I never gave it any thought either way.
Thanks,
Clay
Glynis Smy
On May 10, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Very interesting, I learned something new, thanks
Daisy Peasblossom
On May 10, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Very interesting information. Living so near Oklahoma (and being a fifth generation immigrant), I would love to see more articles like this one. I am certainly ignorant of tribal life–other than seeing a license plate that says thus and such tribe going down the road–I’m sure there are others who would also enjoy reading about this topic.
payge
On May 10, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Many years ago,I was married to a native american indian.It was something i never forgot plus all I learned about them.Has read previous articles about misunderstandings,your has been informative for those with no knowledge of such things.
S A JOHNSON
On May 10, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Thank you for all your comments. These types of misconceptions don’t make me angry or anything but it can be irritating when you hear it enough times.
Anyway, thanks for reading this.
skylite
On May 10, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Intersting and informative as well as nicely written !
spiritwalker
On May 10, 2009 at 9:56 pm
dont you hate it when people ask you questions just to be nosey and pretend that they care. I think some are forgetting who owned this land first.
Ruby Hawk
On May 10, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Interesting, I didn’t know that Indians didn’t have to pay taxes. My neice is married to a native American but the subject never came up.
STEVE666
On May 11, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Great insight. Well written.
Kate Smedley
On May 11, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Very informative article.
Debra.
On May 11, 2009 at 9:06 pm
So very true, Johnson. Most places rarely ask because generally it’s up to the person them self. I, for one, only whip out my status card for identification purposes along with the rest of my ID.
Poetic Enigma
On May 12, 2009 at 12:26 am
Very interesting and informative article,
I learned something new as well,
Thanks for sharing!