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Indian tribe not entitled to partial refund of state cigarette tax, Wisconsin Supreme Court holds  

Wisconsin Supreme Court held an Indian tribe is not entitled to a partial refund of the state tax on cigarette sales occurring in 2003 and 2004 on its land on the east side of Madison in Dane County.

Under Wis. Stat. Sec. 139.323, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR) refunds 70 percent of the state excise tax on cigarettes that an Indian tribe collects for the state on its reservation or trust lands, provided that the land in question "was designated a reservation or trust land on or before Jan. 1, 1983."

In Ho-Chunk Nation v. Wisconsin Department of Revenue, 2009 WI 48, the court agreed with the DOR that the five-acre DeJope trust land was not "designated" until completion of the formal transfer of the land from the tribe to the federal government on Jan. 31, 1983. Writing in dissent, Justice David Prosser said the majority had given a meaning to "designated" that failed to account for the statute's legislative history.

Majority's statutory interpretation

Justice N. Patrick Crooks, writing for the majority, set out a timeline for the DeJope trust land.

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