Have you received New Mexico’s $500 tax rebate? Here’s why you might be ineligible

SANTA FE — At least some taxpayers now living in New Mexico will be left out of the $500 rebates starting to hit bank accounts and mailboxes this week.

And some people who’ve moved away might get them.

The discrepancy is based on a quirk in the legislation that authorized the rebates: The checks go to people who filed 2021 personal income tax returns.

In other words, individuals and families who moved to New Mexico last year and paid 2022 taxes — the forms that were due in April this year — aren’t eligible.

And people who filed taxes for 2021 but later moved away remain eligible. The state didn’t have an estimate on many tax filers are in that category.

The use of the 2021 tax year, state officials said, allowed the Taxation and Revenue Department to distribute the money more quickly.

The 2021 tax year, for example, is largely in the books.

2022 tax returns, by contrast, are still being processed. Filers who requested an extension, for example, have until October to submit their returns for last year.

“Using the 2021 filing enables us to expedite the delivery of rebates to taxpayers,” Taxation and Revenue Department spokesman Charlie Moore said in a written statement to the Journal.

“At this time of year, we are still processing the most recent tax returns (in this case, the 2022 tax year); processing of the 2021 tax returns is essentially complete,” he said.

The rebates are showing up in the accounts this week of taxpayers who have direct deposit, and the department began mailing checks. Checks will continue going in the mail through Thursday of next week, with the state expecting everyone to have the rebate by early July.

Individual filers who aren’t a dependent are due to receive $500. Couples filing jointly and heads of household will get $1,000.

It’s expected to cost the state $690 million overall.

Taxpayers don’t have to apply for the rebate. It’s going out automatically.

The state also has $15 million to make economic assistance payments to low-income New Mexicans, such as people who made too little to require the filing of a 2021 tax return.

An online application portal for the economic assistance payments opened at www.yes.state.nm.us and will remain open until 5 p.m. Friday.