The Taxation Exemption of Canadian Indians as Governments and Individuals: How Does This Compare with Australia and New Zealand?

This paper contributes to the emerging scholarship on the issue of Indigenous peoples and taxation, an area that has been neglected to date, through comparing the experiences in three nations. It argues that the use of legislation to exempt First Nations peoples from taxation in Canada in certain situations, and alternative approaches in New Zealand, provide models against which this nascent area can develop in Australia. The paper explores the Canadian approaches regarding Indian reserves, both exempting activities from mainstream tax regimes and accommodating taxation by Indian governments in their own right as well as the different strategy invoked in New Zealand. The more nuanced approaches to taxation of Indigenous peoples in both countries contrast with the Australian situation, where the focus in Indigenous rights has been on land rights, recognition of which has been subject to judicial inertia and political whim over the past decade. The concept of a ‘charitable’ organization is discussed as an alternative method for minimizing the tax burden: this approach has the further requirement that it must be in the public interest or the interest of an appreciable sector of the community. While charities also have limitations, they may be relied upon as a means of reducing tax liability for community benefit purposes such as economic development, health and education.