HOUSE BILL 464

48th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2008

INTRODUCED BY

Justine Fox-Young

AN ACT

RELATING TO TAXATION; PROVIDING THAT STAMPS FOR CIGARETTE PACKAGES FOR EXCISE TAX PURPOSES BE AFFIXED BY DISTRIBUTORS WITHIN THIRTY DAYS.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     Section 1. Section 7-12-5 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1971, Chapter 77, Section 5, as amended) is amended to read:

     "7-12-5. AFFIXING STAMPS.--

          A. Except as provided in Section 7-12-6 NMSA 1978, all cigarettes shall be placed in packages or containers to which a stamp shall be affixed. Only a distributor with a valid license issued pursuant to the Cigarette Tax Act may purchase or obtain unaffixed tax-exempt stamps or tax stamps. A distributor shall not sell or provide unaffixed stamps to another distributor, manufacturer, export warehouse proprietor or importer with a valid permit pursuant to 26 U.S.C. 5713 or any other person.

B. Stamps shall be affixed by the distributor to

each package of cigarettes to be sold or distributed in New Mexico within [ten] thirty days of receipt of those packages.

          C. A distributor shall apply stamps only to packages of cigarettes that it has received directly from a manufacturer or importer of cigarettes that possesses a valid and current permit pursuant to 26 U.S.C. 5713.

          D. Packages shall contain cigarettes in lots of five, ten, twenty or twenty-five.

          E. Unless the requirements of this section are waived pursuant to Section 7-12-6 NMSA 1978, a tax stamp shall be affixed to each package of cigarettes subject to the cigarette tax and a tax-exempt stamp shall be affixed to each package of cigarettes not subject to the cigarette tax pursuant to Section 7-12-4 NMSA 1978.

          F. A tax-exempt stamp is not an excise tax stamp for purposes of determining units sold pursuant to Section

6-4-12 NMSA 1978.

          G. Stamps shall be affixed inside the boundaries of New Mexico, unless the department has granted a license allowing a person to affix stamps outside New Mexico."

     Section 2. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2008.