places tribal nations at a disadvantage when it comes to providing for the health, safety, and wellbeing of their communities. WHEREAS , Congress should provide parity for tribal governments with state governments and Indian nations and tribes have many important unresolved tax issues, yet Congress failed to include tribal government tax issues in the 2018 Tax: NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that to promote tax equity and fairness for Indian nations and parity with state and local governments, Congress should enact legislation in the following areas: • Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC): LIHTC provides tax incentives, via state allocations, to developers to create affordable housing. Tribal nations have been left out of this program and should have increased access to Low Income Housing Tax Credits by including Indian country in the direct allocation of these credits. • New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC): The NMTC Program attracts private capital to economically distressed communities with tax credits to investors. The rate of NMTC deployment in Indian Country is low. Proportional allocation modeled after the rural allocation and incentives would address this issue by bringing capital investment in tribal infrastructure and employment to Indian Country. • Tax-Exempt Bond Parity: State and local governments can issue tax-exempt bond debt for commercial activity to raise revenue. Tribal nations are permitted to only issue bonds for essential government functions and not economic development activity. This restricts economic stimulus and limits bond market access for tribal nations. • Indian Employment Tax Credit Improvement: The Indian Employment Tax Credit promotes job creation on Indian lands. The program was enacted more than 25 years ago and needs improvement: Simplify, expand, and make the Indian Employment Tax Credit permanent to increase Indian country jobs and opportunity. • Parity for Indian Health Service Health Professionals. Indian Health Service Health Professionals should have the same recruitment and retention tax incentives as other public sector health systems. • Government Pensions Parity. Like other governments, Indian nations should have the same opportunity to provide pensions to tribal employees through governmental pension plans; • Excise Tax Parity. Tribal Governments are exempt from some excise taxes, but not others. Tribal Governments should receive the full excise tax exemptions available to state and local governments and eliminate the tribal “essential government function” test; • Tax Parity for Tribal Government Charities —provide tax parity for tribal government foundations and charities as “public charities,” like state and local charities and foundations to increase the opportunity for tax deductible contributions; • Tax Parity for Tribal Youth : the 2018 Tax Act imposed a penalty on unearned income allocated to youth, including tribal government per capita gaming payments, and this penalty should be eliminated; • Parity under the Adoption Tax Credit for Indian parents with “special needs” adoptive children by recognizing the authority of tribal governments to promote the interests of special needs “adoptive children” in parity with state governments;
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