Distributions

The quarterly payments issued from the CST Distribution Fund and the CST Elders Fund are nontaxable; thus, tax forms will not be issued, and the payments will not be reported to the Internal Revenue Service.

In June 2019, CIRI Shareholders approved the creation of the CIRI Settlement Trust (CST). Thereafter, CIRI’s Board of Directors rescinded CIRI’s dividend policy in favor of contributing the amounts CIRI would have issued as quarterly dividends to the CST Distribution Fund, with the CST trustees agreeing to distribute the contributed amounts to CST beneficiaries who are CIRI Shareholders. Beginning in 2020, the CIRI Board also authorized CIRI to contribute amounts to permit the CST Elders Fund to distribute payments to qualified Elders on a quarterly basis.

Tax status of CIRI payments

CIRI IRS Forms 1099 for the tax year will be mailed no later than January 31. Shareholders with Qenek portal accounts will be able to access their 1099s before the forms are mailed, with an email sent to advise when the forms are available. Tax information remains accessible in Qenek for seven years, allowing Shareholders to easily view and print their forms, if desired.

Tax forms will reflect all payments made to affected CIRI Shareholders, and such Shareholders may receive more than one type of Form 1099 depending on type of CIRI income received. These include:

• Form 1099-MISC (resource revenue payments and prizes). Resource revenue—or 7(j)—payments derive from resource revenue sharing obligations among the 12 Alaska Native regional corporations, as required by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), will be reported on a 1099-MISC. Additionally, if you inherited at-large stock and received an estate settlement payment, a portion of that payment may have consisted of held 7(j) funds.

Resource revenue payments are not dividends and not considered investment income; they are reported in Box 3 – Other Income on a Form 1099-MISC. ANCSA requires that resource revenue amounts distributed in connection with CIRI village-class stock be paid to the associated village; therefore, CIRI does not report these payments as individual Shareholder income.

Shareholder prizes are also reported in Box 3 – Other Income on a Form 1099-MISC.

• Form 1099-DIV (estate payments). If you inherited CIRI shares, any held dividends paid by CIRI in connection with the inherited shares will be reported in Boxes 1a – Ordinary Dividends and 1b – Qualified Dividends on Form 1099-DIV. If you have held your shares for less than one year, please consult your tax advisor regarding the proper treatment of qualified dividends.

Please note that it is your responsibility to accurately report your CIRI income on your tax returns; CIRI cannot provide tax advice. The proper IRS forms and schedules to use when completing individual tax returns may vary depending on the types of CIRI payments received. Shareholders are encouraged to consult with a tax advisor regarding individual circumstances and applicable federal and state tax requirements.

Under Section 7(j) of ANCSA, the percentage of the 70% pool that a regional corporation receives is divided equally between itself, the village corporations and at-large Shareholders in its region.  

CIRI retains 50% for reinvestment, operating expenses and the funding of Shareholder distributions.  

The remaining 50% is divided among at-large Shareholders and village corporations in the CIRI region and paid out in the form of CIRI’s annual resource revenue distribution.  

It is important to note that although ANCSA requires the regional corporations to pay 7(j) amounts associated with village-class shares to the associated village, it does not require the village corporations to then distribute those amounts to their Shareholders. The decision to do so or not is made by the directors of the respective village corporations. To check if your village corporation distributes payments to Shareholders, check with your tribal or village headquarters.  

Because the amount of 7(i) monies CIRI and the other corporations distribute in any given year depends on the resource revenue activities for that year, it is not possible to predict 7(i) amounts. Since the 7(j) amounts depends on the 7(i) payment amounts, the same is true about the resource revenue payments CIRI makes to its at-large Shareholders and village corporations. 

The yearly amount of CIRI’s resource revenue distribution is calculated shortly after CIRI’s annual audited financial statements for the prior year are approved. Once calculated, the amounts are immediately announced to Shareholders online, the CIRI newsletter and the distribution hotline (907-263-5100 or 1-800-764-2435), with the actual distribution made shortly thereafter. 

Congress realized that the lands some regional corporations received as their ANCSA entitlement would be richer in natural resources (i.e., oil, timber, gas, coal, etc.) than others, and attempted to equalize this disparity by incorporating a requirement whereby regional corporations must share resource revenues received from ANCSA lands with the other 12 regional corporations within the state of Alaska.

Section 7(i) and 7(j) of ANCSA address this. Section (i) requires corporations to distribute a percentage of its net resource revenues with the Alaska-based regional corporations. Section 7(j) requires each regional corporation to take its allotment from 7(i) and distribute it equally between itself, the village corporations and at-large Shareholders in its region.

After certain allowable costs are deducted, each corporation keeps 30% of its net resource revenues and divides the remaining 70% among the 12 Alaska-based regional corporations — including the distributing region.  

The portion of the 70% pool that each regional corporation receives is calculated based on the number of original enrollees to the corporation under ANCSA.  

Because the payments made to the regional corporations are made under Section 7(i) of ANCSA, they are known as 7(i) payments.