Well, maybe the Amish pay taxes, but I’ve heard that American Indians living on federal reservations are tax-exempt. Anyone care to confirm or deny this?
Legally, reservations are sorta-kinda foreign countries.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
True – that’s why there are so many Indian reservations with casinos. They don’t have to obey the whole “gambling is illegal” hoohah (ever hear of any Indian casinos in Nevada?), and they don’t have to pay Uncle Sam taxes on the revenue.
'Course, it still doesn’t make up for what the Americans did to them…
Most amish and mennonite people do not have social security numbers. Thus, they don’t all pay taxes. However, there are forms for the more enterprising amish/mennonite persons if they have self-employment and want to file their taxes. They just have to obtain these forms which inform the IRS that they don’t have SSNs, but they will have ID numbers. In turn, they also don’t pay self-employment taxes (I’m guessing being amish makes them exempt).
I used to work at the IRS and saw a few returns where the taxpayer had a SSN, but none of their children did, so I asked and the above is the info I received.
Column is here:
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mamish.html
I don’t believe this is the whole story. In Connecticut where I live, the reservations were allowed to have casinos only after a leagal battle. The decision in their favor cited the state’s allowing charaties to have casino nights and a reason the state had to allow the reservations to have casinos. The sate has since repealed this law, and there will certainly be another legal battle when the newly recognized Indian tribes try to start Casinos. Donald Trump is backing a tribe that wants to put one in Bridgeport.
Indian reservations are not at all "foreign counties’. They are more like States. Each has it’s own laws but they are subject to federal oversight, the US Constitution, and they can’t have any foreign relations. In general, they are not subject to the laws of the Sate they are in, but there are many exceptions, codicils, treaties & such not.