Opinion ID: 626865
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: State Power to Enforce Tax

Text: Defendants also argue that the state of Washington lacks jurisdiction to enforce [state cigarette taxes] against reservation Indian[s]. We disagree. As a matter of federal law, the Supreme Court held in Colville that the State may validly require the tribal smokeshops to affix tax stamps purchased from the State to individual packages of cigarettes prior to the time of sale to nonmembers of the Tribe. 447 U.S. at 159, 100 S.Ct. 2069. Defendants suggest that Washington state law somehow deprives Washington of the authority to apply its cigarette taxes to Indian sales to non-Indians. As the district court noted, however, the very state cases cited by Defendants explicitly recognize and endorse Colville, and recognize state authority to tax on-reservation sales of cigarettes to non-Indians. See Bercier v. Kiga, 127 Wash.App. 809, 103 P.3d 232, 237 (2004) ( Colville . . . allows state taxation of non-Indians and nonmember Indians on reservations where tribal members are exempt from taxation.); Matheson v. Washington State Liquor Control Bd., 132 Wash.App. 280, 130 P.3d 897, 900 (2006) ([N]on-Indians and non-tribal Indians, those not enrolled with the tribe where they are doing business, must pay tax on cigarette retail sales on reservations.). We recently affirmed the continuing validity of Colville in Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Indian Nation v. Gregoire, 658 F.3d 1078 (9th Cir.2011).