Hilary Tompkins, Solicitor at the Interior Department, speaks at tribal trust fund settlement announcement at the White House in April 2012. Photo from Indianz / Twitter
More than 70 tribes have reached trust fund settlements with the Obama administration, according to the latest list from the Internal Revenue Service. The ball started rolling in April 2012, when the White House announced settlements with 41 tribes for a total of $1.023 billion. The list has grown steadily since then. An IRS notice from December 2012 updated the number to 61. An even newer notice, from May, puts the number at 72. The more recent settlements include ones for the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Yakama Nation of Washington and Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. The Navajo Nation isn't on the list but the tribe recently agreed to a $554 million settlement. That means the Obama administration has finalized deals with 73 tribes, or nearly three-quarters of all the tribal lawsuits that were filed prior to a statute of limitations that expired in December 2006. The IRS periodically updates the list because per capita payments made from tribal settlements are not subject to the federal income tax. Relevant Documents:
Per Capita Payments from Proceeds of Settlements of Indian Tribal Trust Cases (May 2014)
Per Capita Payments from Proceeds of Settlements of Indian Tribal Trust Cases (December 2012)
Notice 2012-60: Per Capita Payments from Proceeds of Settlements of Indian Tribal Trust Cases (September 2012)
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