WINNERS
Working-class taxpayers
Need help with your taxes? If you made less than $40,000 during the 2007 tax year, you're in luck. A joint effort by the state Taxation and Revenue Department and Tax Help New Mexico is helping qualified filers prepare returns through April 30. If you made more than that, you'll just have to pick up your Personal Income Tax (PIC) packet at the state Taxation and Revenue Department's 1200 S. St. Francis Drive office, the city's public libraries or post offices.
Solar energy early adopters
New Mexicans who went through the expense and trouble of installing a solar-energy system (solar photovoltaic or solar thermal) prior to Dec. 31, are entitled to a sunny $9,000 tax credit. According to the state's Energy Conservation and Management Division, part of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, '07 marked the third year that solar energy credits were available. The state doled out 215 of the credits last year for an estimated $4 million investment in solar energy, according to Division Director Fernando Martinez.
New Mexico gamers
According to an April 7 press release from the conservative, free-market Heartland Institute, New Mexico is currently under assault from a dreaded proposal: a "video game nanny tax." The release pillories State Rep. Gail Chasey, D-Bernalillo, for sponsoring a bill that would have imposed a 1 percent excise tax on purchases of video games, gaming consoles and TVs, and diverted the money to outdoor-education programs. Well, gamers already won this one since the Legislature adjourned nearly two months ago and Chasey's bill didn't even make it through its first committee. Maybe someone should tell the Heartland Institute.
LOSERS
Santa Fe's tax scofflaws
According to the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, the City Different is awfully well represented on the department's most recent Top Delinquent Taxpayers list. The list, mostly comprised of businesses, documents unpaid income and gross receipts taxes. The following are the city's three highest-dollar tax scofflaws and how much they owe: H&J Roto-Rooter Inc. ($695,760), Western Partners ($384,433), Chaboney Inc. ($279,266). The state's top tax evader is Grants-based EE Autry Trucking, which owes a whopping $1,043,651.
Convicted cheaters
Thinking about fudging your taxes this year? Just be sure to avoid First Judicial District Judge Stephen Pfeffer's courtroom if you do. Last month, Pfeffer sentenced Marshall Johnson of Albuquerque to 12 years in prison, in addition to $13,455 in restitution, for 10 felony counts of false statements and fraud involving fictitious tax forms he filed back in 2004. Luckily for Johnson, the prison time was suspended, but the message is still clear enough: The green-lampshade crowd at the state's Tax Fraud Investigations Division is eager to nab more tax cheaters.
Oil industry
With average New Mexico gas prices shooting past $3.31 as of April 7, according to NewMexicoGasPrices.com, it seems more than a little curious that the nation's largest oil companies could be commanding billions in tax breaks. A proposal (House Bill 5351) working its way through Congress would rescind $18 billion in tax subsidies for the country's five biggest oil companies during a time of record prices and profits. The bill passed the House with votes to spare in late February, but now languishes in the Senate Finance Committee.
