By The CUJ
MISSION – Most enrolled members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) will not receive the U.S. tax form 1099 for tax year 2025, CTUIR officials said.
CTUIR Finance Department officials said the majority of tribal members who received 1099 tax forms in the past will not receive one this year because the quarterly General Welfare payments are tax-exempt and will not be reported on the 1099 form.
In October 2023, the Board of Trustees (BOT) moved from the previous Gaming Revenue Allocation Plan (GRAP) in favor of a general welfare distribution model. The new model made the quarterly payments tax-exempt, so more money was available to tribal members to pay for living expenses.
CTUIR officials made the change after the IRS changed rules to allow such payments to be made tax free as long as tribal members pledged they were using the funds to pay for common expenses such as food, housing and utilities. But only about half of the tribal members returned the one-page form that was required to ensure they wouldn’t face any tax penalties.
However, in talks with federal tax officials, CTUIR leaders learned that the IRS would likely allow tribal governments to issue declarations on behalf of their entire tribal membership that payments were being used for allowable expenses.
So in February 2025, the BOT adopted a resolution that rescinded the documentation requirement that was instituted after the CTUIR changed the GRAP by reclassifying payments as untaxed General Welfare payments.
Prior to the resolution, tribal members who failed to return required paperwork regarding the GRAP payments would have been required to pay taxes on the quarterly disbursements. The resolution came after tribal officials learned that the federal government was likely to disregard individual certification mandates.
