Mary Elizabeth Bonney

24-06

The Department assessed the Taxpayer for personal income tax from 2016 through 2019 based on federal reporting in those tax years. The Taxpayer did not file a New Mexico tax return in those years, nor had she filed any federal tax returns. The Taxpayer argued that she did not need to file or pay personal income tax because none of the reporting information she received was valid. She explained she had sent letters to the entities who issued her W-2s and 1099s demanding that they respond verifying the reporting on those documents and stating that if they did not respond by a certain date, she would assume that the reporting was invalid. She also made arguments about the authority of the State of New Mexico to impose income tax on her. However, the Hearing Officer determined that the Taxpayer’s arguments about governmental jurisdiction and authority of the state to tax income, as well as the affidavits she produced to support the invalidity of the reported income was without legal support and entirely without merit. The Hearing Officer cited numerous cases that rejected similar arguments used by the Taxpayer. On the facts of the case, the Taxpayer was able to produce no evidence to contradict the Department’s assessment and indeed provided evidence that actually supported it. The Taxpayer acknowledged that she was domiciled in New Mexico and did not ever testify that any of the information on the W-2s or 1099s was incorrect. Since the evidence entirely supported that she received income while she was a resident of New Mexico in those tax years, the Hearing Officer denied the protest.