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SPONSOR: | Aragon | DATE TYPED: | 03/01/01 | HB | |||
SHORT TITLE: | New Mexico Taxpayer Bill of Rights | SB | 770 | ||||
ANALYST: | Williams |
Recurring
or Non-Rec |
Fund
Affected | ||||
FY01 | FY02 | FY01 | FY02 | ||
Minimal |
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates HB 930
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Taxation and Revenue Department
Administrative Office of the Courts
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
Endorsed by Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee. The bill creates the New Mexico Taxpayer Bill of Rights for the purposes of:
The rights included in the bill include:
The bill would require the taxation and revenue department to develop a brochure stating the taxpayer's bill of rights in simple, nontechnical language. The department would be required to distribute the brochure to taxpayers with the annual income and semiannual CRS tax forms.
The bill would allow a taxpayer who prevails in court proceedings covering the determination, collection or refund of any tax or penalty and interest on taxes governed by the provisions of the Tax Administration Act to be awarded a judgement or settlement for reasonable administrative costs.
The bill provides that a penalty against a taxpayer shall be abated if the failure to pay any amount of tax when due results from a mistake of law or fact made in good faith and on reasonable grounds.
The effective date of the bill is July 1, 2001.
Significant Issues
The recovery of litigation costs for taxpayers who prevail against the Department is a substantive expansion of taxpayer rights; however, only if TRD violates its own published guidelines will the plaintiffs be awarded attorney's fees. Note that TRD reflects zero to minimal fiscal and administrative implications.
The payer position is also enhanced by changing "disregard of rules and regulations" to "willful disregard of Department rules and regulations".
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
TRD reports zero to minimal fiscal impact
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
TRD reports minimal administrative impact.
AW/prr/njw