Maryboy v. Utah State Tax Commission

904 P.2d 662, 273 Utah Adv. Rep. 7, 1995 Utah LEXIS 56, 1995 WL 546276
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 14, 1995
Docket930173
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 904 P.2d 662 (Maryboy v. Utah State Tax Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Maryboy v. Utah State Tax Commission, 904 P.2d 662, 273 Utah Adv. Rep. 7, 1995 Utah LEXIS 56, 1995 WL 546276 (Utah 1995).

Opinions

STEWART, Associate Chief Justice:

Petitioners Mark and Roselyn Maryboy appeal a decision of the Utah State Tax Commission assessing Utah income tax on their earnings as a county commissioner and a state employee, respectively, during the years 1988 through 1990. The Maryboys also appeal the Commission’s decision requiring them to pay $10,855.38 in taxes, penalties, and interest prior to pursuing this appeal.

The Maryboys are enrolled members of the Navajo Tribe and at all relevant times lived in Montezuma Creek, Utah, on the Navajo Reservation (“the Reservation”). Mr. Maryboy is employed as a San Juan County Commissioner and was elected by voters in district three of San Juan County, a political subdivision of the State of Utah. Nearly ninety-nine percent of district three lies within the Reservation. Approximately ninety percent of the voters in district three are Navajo, but not all of these Navajos live on the Reservation. Mr. Maryboy is paid by San Juan County.

During the years in question, Mr. Maryboy spent much of his time as a county commissioner working on the Reservation. Mr. Maryboy’s responsibilities included coordinating with the Navajo Nation county programs dealing with such matters as public safety and natural resources; meeting with thé six Navajo governmental units, known as chapters, located within district three; consulting with constituents; and performing other county commission duties. Because he speaks Navajo, Mr. Maryboy also assisted the county commissioner in district two and met with the two Navajo chapters located on the Reservation within district two boundaries.

Mr. Maryboy was also employed as the Division Director of the Utah Navajo Development Counsel (UNDO) during the years in question. As a division director, Mr. Mary-boy supervised education and teen pregnancy programs on the Reservation. Although UNDO headquarters was located off the Reservation in Bluff, Utah, Mr. Maryboy spent a large percentage of his time as a division director working on the Reservation. Mr. Maryboy was paid from UNDO funds which were derived from the Utah Navajo Trust Fund.

Mrs. Maryboy is employed by San Juan Mental Health of the Utah Department of Human Services to provide mental health services and outpatient counseling to Utah Navajos living on the Reservation. She works out of the state office located at Montezuma Creek, Utah, and also sees clients in her home. During the years in question, Mrs. Maryboy performed approximately eighty percent of her duties on the Reservation.

Mrs. Maryboy’s duties off the Reservation included attending staff meetings one day a week at the main office in Blanding, Utah. She also received clinical training and updated her records there. In addition,. Mrs. Mar-yboy worked off the Reservation at Bluff School once a month and at San Juan High School once a year.

The Commission’s Auditing Division determined that all income earned by the Mary-boys during the years 1988 through 1990, except Mr. Maryboy’s income as a director of the UNDO, was fully taxable in Utah. The Maryboys appealed the determination, and a hearing was held before the Commission. The Commission ruled that Mrs. Maryboy’s income as a state employee and Mr. Mary-boy’s income as a county commissioner were fully taxable to Utah. The Maryboys appealed.

On a motion for summary disposition, this Court remanded for the Commission to determine whether the Maryboys were required to pay the assessed taxes, penalties, and interest as provided by Utah Code Ann. § 59-1-505 prior to pursuing their appeal. The Commission held a formal hearing and ruled that the Maryboys were required to deposit the deficiency to pursue their appeal. The Maryboys now challenge both the Commission’s determination of their Utah income tax liability and the Commission’s decision that they were required to pay $10,855.38 in taxes, penalties, and interest as a condition of pursuing this appeal.

[665]*665I. STATE INCOME TAX

We first address the Maryboys’ contention that the Commission erred in ruling that Mr. Maryboy’s income from employment as a county commissioner and Mrs. Maryboy’s income from her state employment is taxable. This issue presents a question of law. Accordingly, we grant the Commission no deference but apply a correction-of-error standard. Utah Code Ann. § 59 — 1—610(l)(b) (Supp.1994); Fatt v. Utah State Tax Comm’n, 884 P.2d 1238, 1234 (Utah 1994).

The Maryboys assert that McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Commission, 411 U.S. 164, 93 S.Ct. 1257, 36 L.Ed.2d 129 (1973), controls the issue of the taxability of their incomes. In McClanahan, the Court held that Arizona could not impose its personal income tax on “reservation Indians with income derived wholly from reservation sources.” 411 U.S. at 165. The Maryboys argue that under McClanahan, Utah has no authority to tax income they earned from on-Reservation activities. The Maryboys also rely on Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones, 411 U.S. 145, 93 S.Ct. 1267, 36 L.Ed.2d 114 (1973), which held that the gross receipts of a tribally operated ski resort located outside the boundaries of a reservation were subject to state taxation. The Court explained that when tribal members go beyond the boundaries of the reservation, they have “generally been subject to nondiscriminatory state law otherwise applicable to all citizens of the state.” Id. at 148-49, 93 S.Ct. at 1270-71. The Maryboys assert that McClanahan and Mescalero require that their income tax liability be tailored to include only that portion of their income received for activities that occurred outside the Reservation boundaries.

The Commission contends that McClana-han does not preclude taxation of the Mary-boys’ income because McClanahan did not deal with “ ‘Indians who have left ... reservations ... [but] involve[d] the narrow question whether the State may tax a reservation Indian for income earned exclusively on the reservation’ ” (quoting McClanahan, 411 U.S. at 167-68, 93 S.Ct. at 1259-60 (citations omitted)). Citing White Mountain Apache Tribe v. Bracker, 448 U.S. 136, 142,100 S.Ct. 2578, 2583, 65 L.Ed.2d 665 (1980), the Commission argues that the validity of the tax turns on whether the imposition of the tax infringes tribal sovereignty and whether the right of the state to tax the governmentally paid salaries of the Maryboys is preempted by federal law. The Commission asserts that the tax does not interfere with tribal sovereignty, i.e., the right of the Navajo Nation to make its own laws, because the State of Utah merely seeks to tax its own elected officials and employees. The Commission also argues that the tax is not preempted by federal law because no federal law expressly precludes states from taxing their own elected officials and employees and because Native Americans who go “ ‘beyond reservation boundaries have generally been held subject to nondiscriminatory state law otherwise applicable to all citizens of the state’ ” (quoting Mescalero, 411 U.S. at 148-49, 93 S.Ct. at 1270-71).

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Bluebook (online)
904 P.2d 662, 273 Utah Adv. Rep. 7, 1995 Utah LEXIS 56, 1995 WL 546276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maryboy-v-utah-state-tax-commission-utah-1995.