Rev. Rul. 54-456

The Internal Revenue Code of 1939 contains no provision exempting an individual from the payment of Federal income taxes solely on the ground that he is an Indian.

Based on the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in Superintendent of Five Civilized Tribes v. Commissioner , 295 U.S. 418, Ct. D. 974, C.B. XIV-1, 158 (1935), and in Henry Choteau v. Burnet , 283 U.S. 691, Ct. D. 352, C.B. X-1, 355 (1931), cited therein, it is the position of the Internal Revenue Service that exemption from the payment of Federal income tax may not be implied, and that if exemption of Indians from the payment of such tax exists, it must derived plainly from the Federal tax statutes, or from treaties or agreements with the Indian Tribes concerned or some Act of Congress dealing with their affairs. The position so taken is in accord also with the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Bert Taunah et al. , v. Jones , 186 Fed.(2d) 445, certiorari denied, 341 U.S. 904.