1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Settlement Trust Improvement Act of 2017 . 2. Exclusion for ANCSA payments assigned to Alaska Native Settlement Trusts (a) In general Part III of subchapter B of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting before section 140 the following new section: 139G. Assignments to Alaska Native Settlement Trusts (a) In general In the case of a Native Corporation, gross income shall not include the value of any payments that would otherwise be made, or treated as being made, to such Native Corporation pursuant to, or as required by, any provision of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act ( 43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), including any payment that would otherwise be made to a Village Corporation pursuant to section 7(j) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act ( 43 U.S.C. 1606(j) ), provided that any such payments— (1) are assigned in writing to a Settlement Trust, and (2) were not received by such Native Corporation prior to the assignment described in paragraph (1). (b) Inclusion in gross income In the case of a Settlement Trust which has been assigned payments described in subsection (a), gross income shall include such payments as and when such payments are received by such Settlement Trust pursuant to the assignment and shall have the same character as if such payments were received by the Native Corporation. (c) Amount and scope of assignment The amount and scope of any assignment under subsection (a) shall be described with reasonable particularity and may either be in a percentage of one or more such payments or in a fixed dollar amount. (d) Duration of assignment