New Mexico
In the Matter of the Protest of Wall Company Inc.
- Year:
- 2018
- Case No.:
- D&O No. 18-08
- Court:
- New Mexico Administrative Hearings Office
- Subject:
- New Mexico Technology Jobs Tax Credit — incorrect taxpayer name and CRS number on timely application
The New Mexico Administrative Hearings Office denied a technology jobs and research and development tax credit application filed under the wrong company name and an incorrect tax identification number, holding that the correction — submitted just days later but after the statutory deadline — could not relate back to the timely but invalid original filing.
Download source PDFWall Colmonoy Corp. mailed its application for the Technology Jobs and Research and Development Tax Credit two calendar days before the December 31, 2016 statutory deadline, but the application identified the applicant as 'Wall Co., Inc.' and listed an incorrect Combined Reporting System (CRS) identification number. The Department received the application on January 3, 2017 — after the deadline — and denied it because the named applicant was not registered to do business in New Mexico. The correct name and CRS number were provided the same day the denial issued, February 3, 2017, but by then more than a month had passed since the deadline.
The Errors Went to Taxpayer Identity Itself
The Hearing Officer found that the name and CRS number errors were not minor clerical mistakes, because the Act restricts eligibility to a defined 'taxpayer,' and the CRS number is the Department's primary mechanism for identifying which registered entity is applying. Because the application as filed could not be matched to any valid, registered taxpayer, it failed at the threshold question of taxpayer identity before even reaching the merits of the credit claim.
No Statutory Authority to Allow the Correction to Relate Back
Applying Team Specialty Products, Inc. v. New Mexico Taxation & Revenue Department, 2005-NMCA-020, the Hearing Officer held that the Department, as a creature of statute, had no authority — express or implied — to treat the later correction as relating back to the original timely submission, or to accept the corrected information as a late-filed application in its own right. The Hearing Officer further found the taxpayer had not shown due diligence, noting that its own evidence suggested preparation of the application did not begin until roughly eleven days before the deadline, during the holiday season, leaving no margin for error.
The Department's motion for summary judgment was granted, and the taxpayer's protest was denied.
Significance: This decision illustrates how strictly New Mexico's Administrative Hearings Office applies the Technology Jobs Tax Credit Act's filing deadline — an application that is timely mailed but names the wrong legal entity or contains an incorrect tax ID is treated as no better than a late filing, with no administrative mechanism to cure the defect after the deadline passes.