Dear Shareholders,
It’s an exciting time of year as we’re gearing up for the 2019 Annual Shareholders Meeting to be held on July 27, in McGrath.
We hope you received your copy of the 2019 Annual Report, Proxy Card, Proxy Statement and other important 2019 Annual Meeting information mailed earlier this month.
It’s been a successful year at MTNT. We’ve stabilized revenues, declared dividends, increased business development activities, secured contracts, issued scholarship awards and more.
The MTNT Board of Directors and management team continue to research opportunities to ensure long-term sustainable benefits to its Shareholders. An opportunity MTNT has monitored closely is the benefit of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law in December 2017.
This Act included an amendment related to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act 39 (1)(b) and 1988 Legislation which authorized Alaska Native Corporations to establish Settlement Trusts to hold and manage Native-owned assets in perpetuity to promote the health, education and welfare of its beneficiaries and preserve the heritage and culture of Alaska Native people.
The 2017 Tax Act provides MTNT the opportunity to further benefit our Shareholders and realize some increased tax savings. The new Tax Act allows Alaska Native Corporations to transfer cash and/or assets to a Settlement Trust on a pre-tax basis while allowing for nontaxable distributions to be paid to the Shareholder-beneficiaries of the Trust. This means that if a Settlement Trust is established and dividends are distributed through the Trust, the income would be tax free to the Shareholder.
In addition, the 2017 Tax Act is intended to reduce the overall taxes on the Corporation’s income if placed in a Trust, significantly reducing the corporate tax burden for MTNT. Therefore, if MTNT contributes to an MTNT Settlement Trust, it is taxed at a much lower rate compared to the normal corporate income tax rate. The reduction would potentially allow more money to be available for future distributions and/or investments.
The 2019 Proxy Card includes a Ballot Question: Binding Resolution to Approve the MTNT Settlement Trust. In order for MTNT and its Shareholders to capitalize on the benefits of a Settlement Trust, an absolute majority (i.e., more than 50% of all outstanding voting shares) must vote “Yes” to approve the Resolution. The MTNT Board of Directors strongly encourages Shareholders to vote “Yes” in support of approving the MTNT Settlement Trust.
Further details about the benefits of supporting the Settlement Trust are included in the Proxy Statement and Annual Report. A copy of the draft MTNT Trust Agreement is available at https://MyMTNT.com and will be provided to you upon request.
If you have any questions or need further information, please call MTNT at (907) 644-1200 or email
info@mtnt.net.
We hope you can join us at the 2019 MTNT Annual Meeting and remember, your vote counts.
Sincerely,
Michele Christiansen
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