Andrea Joy Campbell: “today I would like to co-sponsor the Indian Tribal Government Unemployment Compensation Act Tax Relief Amendments of…”

“today I would like to co-sponsor the Indian Tribal Government Unemployment Compensation Act Tax Relief Amendments of 1997 introduced by Senator McCain. The Federal Unemployment Tax Act of 1935 [FUTA] is a joint Federal-State tax system which imposes on each employer a tax on wages paid to their employees. These taxes are used to provide unemployment insurance to out-of-work citizens. The Federal portion of the tax can range up to 6.2 percent on wages paid, and the State portion ranges from near zero to 9 percent of wages paid. Indian tribes from around the country have contacted me expressing a great deal of confusion with the FUTA tax system and the difficulties they are having in planning as a result of the varying interpretations given FUTA by the IRS and the Labor Department. This problem is national in scope and experienced by tribes in the Great Lakes region such as the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, and by tribes in my own State of Colorado--the Ute Mountain Ute and the Souther Ute tribes. The FUTA encourages States to undertake their own unemployment insurance programs by permitting employers to take the State unemployment insurance taxes they have paid and use them to offset their Federal unemployment insurance tax bill. This legislation is necessary to clarify the status of tribal governments under the FUTA and the Internal Revenue Code.”