Indianz.Com > News > Gavin Clarkson: It’s past time to end double taxation in Indian Country
It’s past time to end double taxation in Indian Country
Thursday, April 7, 2022
The following is the text of an open letter to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland.
Dear Secretary Haaland and Assistant Secretary Newland,
I am writing to you both publicly because attempts to contact you individually have not been successful. I realize that, as a former Donald Trump administration official, taking my calls or responding to my inquiries presents a challenge in the present political climate. I hope, however, that we can all agree that Indian Affairs does not need to be overly partisan, and it is in that spirit that I am writing to you today.
In late 2016, the outgoing Barack Obama administration proposed updating the Indian Trader regulations to eliminate the problem of double taxation created by the U.S. Supreme Court in Cotton Petroleum. This was an issue that I had studied for years, and I published an article at the 2017 Sovereignty Symposium, American Indians versus the Billion-Dollar Tax Weevil, calling for the elimination of double taxation on job creators in Indian Country.
The chance to advance that policy objective was the primary reason I accepted President Trump’s appointment as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Economic Development, and during my time at Interior, we developed a strong economic argument that not only Indian Country, but the entire nation, would be better off if double taxation was eliminated for on-reservation job creators.
Dr. Gavin Clarkson, Esq., served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Economic Development – Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior in 2017.
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