Golf New Mexico / Golf West

14-43

On February 11, 2013, the Department issued two assessments to the Taxpayer for gross receipts tax, penalty and interest, for the tax years ending December 31, 2008 and December 31, 2009, after determining through a federal mismatch that the Taxpayer was a nonfiler.  The Taxpayer filed a protest to the assessments.   The Taxpayer’s owner explained that, due to depression issues in 2008 and 2009, she stopped filing gross receipts tax reports.  She also explained that some money was mistakenly included in the federal returns, and the Taxpayer’s gross receipts were actually less than the amounts assessed.  The Department adjusted the assessments, and the Taxpayer no longer disputed the assessed gross receipts tax, but still wished to pursue the protest on the penalty and interest.   The Taxpayer argued that penalty should be abated, because the failure to pay taxes was because of the owner’s depression.  However, there was not sufficient evidence that this rendered her incapable of taxing care of the taxes, especially because she filed the federal returns.  Interest is mandatory and was correctly assessed.  The Taxpayer’s protest was denied.