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| SPONSOR: | Godbey | DATE TYPED: | 03/04/01 | HB | 462 | ||
| SHORT TITLE: | Criminal Violations of Tax Laws | SB | |||||
| ANALYST: | Rael | ||||||
| Recurring
or Non-Rec |
Fund
Affected | ||||
| FY01 | FY02 | FY01 | FY02 | ||
|
NFI |
|||||
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD)
Public Defender Department (PDD)
Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
The Criminal Violations of Tax Laws bill proposes to "grade" offenses according to the dollar amount involved as follows:
| Current Provision | Proposed | |
| Attempts to evade or defeat tax (7-1-72 NMSA 1978) | Fine of $1,000 to $10,000
Imprisonment for 1 year to five years.
|
|
| Amount evaded is $100 or less | Petty misdemeanor per 31-19-1 | |
| Amount evaded $100 to $250 | Misdemeanor per 31-19-1 | |
| Amount evaded $250 to $2,500 | 4th felony per 31-18-15 | |
| Amount evaded $2,500 to $20,000 | 3rd felony per 31-18-15 | |
| Amount evaded greater than $20,000 | 2nd felony per 31-18-15 | |
| Revealing Information concerning taxpayers (7-1-76 NMSA 1978) | Misdemeanor: fine not more than $1,000; imprisonment not longer than 1 year; cannot be employed by state for five years. | Misdemeanor per 31-19-1; cannot be employed by state for five years |
| Burden of proof in tax evasion cases | Burden of proof on Department or state | Clarify "civil proceeding"; burden of proof clarified to be "preponderance of the evidence; burden of proof remains on Department or state |
| Time limitations for commencing prosecution (30-1-8 NMSA 1978) | Misdemeanor - 2 years; petty misdemeanor - one year. | Misdemeanor or petty misdemeanor offense in violation of the tax laws --three years. |
| Assault and battery of a department employee | Fine $100 to $500; imprisonment 3 days to 6 months. | Repealed in favor of general law prohibiting assault and battery. |
| Current Penalties for Various Crimes |
| Fine | Imprisonment | |
| Section 31-19-1 NMSA 1978 | ||
| Petty misdemeanor | Less than $500 | Less than six months in county jail |
| Misdemeanor | Less than $1,000 | Less than 1 year in county jail |
| Section 31-18-15 NMSA 1978 | ||
| 4th felony | Less than $5,000 | 18 months |
| 3rd felony | Less than $5,000 | 3 years |
| 2nd felony | Less than $10,000 | 9 years |
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
TRD reports no fiscal impact. The rational fines under this bill are not significantly different than the range previously allowed a judge on conviction.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
It will cost the judicial system $400 for statewide update, distribution, and documentation of statutory changes. Any additional fiscal impact on the judiciary would be proportional to the enforcement of this law and commenced prosecutions. New laws or amendments to existing laws have the potential to increase caseloads and/or judge time spent on cases in the courts, thus requiring additional resources to handle the increase.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
The Public Defender notes that the graduated sentences for the offenders who "cheat" with progressively larger sums does not target the act as much as it targets the amount. In other words, a person in a lower tax bracket may have as much culpability, as much deliberate intent, as the person in the higher tax bracket, but only be subject to a petty misdemeanor, while the more affluent citizen who evades paying a proportionately identical amount will face a second degree felony. Unlike the existing statute, the legislation connects the punishment to the amount rather than the crime and therefore may be unconstitutional in that it proscribes significantly different penalty for an identical act.
FAR/lrs:ar