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SPONSOR: |
Beffort |
DATE TYPED: |
02/01/02 |
HB |
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SHORT TITLE: |
Transfer TRD Independent Hearing Officer |
SB |
SJM32 |
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ANALYST: |
Hayes |
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APPROPRIATION
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Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
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FY02 |
FY03 |
FY02 |
FY03 |
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NFI |
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(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)
Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD)
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of Bill
Senate
Joint Memorial 32 requests the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) to
study the feasibility of transferring the hearing officer function to the AOC
or another appropriate agency within state government. The AOC is directed to seek input from the
New Mexico Society of Certified Public Accountants, the State Bar of New Mexico
and appropriate advocacy organizations representing taxpayers of New
Mexico. The AOC is then requested to
report its findings to the Legislative Finance Committee prior to the First
Session of the Forty-Sixth Legislature (2003).
Significant
Issues
The memorial outlines the following reasons to
study the feasibility of transferring the hearing officer function:
1. NMSA
7-1-1 et.seq. grants taxpayers the right to protest action taken by TRD
to an independent hearing officer.
2. Taxpayers
should have a neutral forum with no perceived bias in favor of TRD.
3. New
Mexico law places the independent hearing officers at TRD within the Office of
the Secretary, Legal Bureau; therefore, the hearing officers are not totally
segregated from and share resources with the legal staff which represents TRD
during a protest.
4. The
hearing officers have been known to assist in the drafting of rules and regulations,
the application of which these hearing officers may have to rule on in the
course of a protest.
5. The
only alternative to the hearing process is to file suit in the district court
in Santa Fe County.
6. Many
taxpayers cannot afford to hire a professional to advise them or to represent
them, so they must represent themselves.
7. There
are insufficient numbers of protest cases to justify a separate tax court.
8. The
hearing officers of TRD are administrative law judges.
In
summary, the hearing officers may not be “independent,” and there may exist a
conflict of interest by having the hearing officers housed and directly
employed by the Taxation and Revenue Department.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
Since
this is a Memorial, there is no fiscal impact.
If, in the future, it is decided that a transfer of the hearing officer
function is necessary, then costs associated with that function will need to be
calculated and transferred to the recipient agency.
The
AOC believes that there will be costs associated with performing the study
proposed although the agency does not indicate what type of costs may be incurred.
[1]Begin typing on the * in replace mode. Do not add or delete spaces.