New Mexico Administrative Code › Title 22 - COURTS › Chapter 600 - ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS OFFICE › Part 3 - HEARINGS UNDER THE TAX ADMINISTRATION ACT › Section 22.600.3.8 - REQUESTS FOR HEARING, ANSWERS, SCHEDULING OF MERITS HEARINGS, SCHEDULING HEARINGS, SCHEDULING ORDERS, AND PEREMPTORY EXCUSALS

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 13, July 16, 2024
A. Pursuant to Subsection B of Section
				7-1B-8
				NMSA 1978, TRD shall file a request for hearing with the administrative
				hearings office no less than 60 days and no more than 180 days from the date of
				its acknowledgement of a valid protest on a form and in a manner specified by
				the chief hearing officer
B. In
				instances where TRD has not yet filed a hearing request, pursuant to Subsection
				B of Section
				7-1B-8
				NMSA 1978, a taxpayer may but is not required to file a request for hearing
				with the administrative hearings office on or after the
				60th day from the date on which TRD acknowledged its
				protest.
C.If neither party has
				filed a request for hearing by 180 days from the acknowledgement of a valid
				protest, a Taxpayer may request relief from interest under Subsection E of
				22.600.3.18
				NMAC.
D. In addition to other
				requirements of this section, a hearing request submitted by TRD shall be
				accompanied by an answer to a taxpayer's protest. If the taxpayer is the party
				requesting a hearing, then TRD shall file and serve its answer to the protest
				within 30 days of the filing of Taxpayer's request for hearing.
E. An answer shall state TRD's response to a
				taxpayer's protest, including the legal and factual bases for TRD's position
				plus other issues it perceives as relevant or in dispute. Matters asserted in
				the protest which TRD's answer does not explicitly oppose or dispute with
				reasonable specificity may be deemed admitted or conceded. An answer may be
				amended no less than 10 days before a scheduled hearing on the merits of the
				protest, unless another deadline is stated in the governing scheduling order.
				An amended answer, even if otherwise timely filed, may still be disallowed if
				the hearing officer determines that the lateness of the amendment unfairly
				prejudices the taxpayer. In evaluating the issue of prejudice, the hearing
				officer shall consider whether any newly asserted facts, legal conclusions, or
				other matters contained in the amended answer were known or should have been
				known to TRD earlier. Alleging new facts, legal conclusions, or other matters
				that were known or should have been known earlier will weigh in favor of
				finding the amended answer to be prejudicial.
F. Requests for hearing shall include (if
				available) a copy of TRD's initiating document (such as a notice of assessment
				or denial of claim for refund or credit), action, or inaction that led to the
				protest, a copy of the taxpayer's protest letter, TRD's acknowledgement letter,
				any taxpayer information authorization filed with TRD allowing someone other
				than the named taxpayer (or bona fide employee of the taxpayer) to represent
				the taxpayer before TRD, the address of record of the taxpayer with TRD, and
				TRD's answer to the protest if TRD is the party requesting the hearing. If the
				taxpayer submits the request for hearing, it shall not be required to include
				TRD's answer, but may do so if it is in the taxpayer's possession. The
				administrative hearings office may require additional information on any
				request for hearing or referral and may require the parties to submit such
				request on a form developed by the administrative hearings office.
G. If both parties submit timely hearing
				requests in reference to the same protest, the request filed later in time
				shall be merged with the request filed earlier in time, and the first-filed
				timely hearing request shall control the establishment of pertinent
				deadlines.
H.The party requesting
				the hearing shall specify whether they believe the matter will be ripe for a
				merits hearing within 90-days of the request for hearing or whether the parties
				need additional time to complete discovery, prepare motions, and to ensure both
				sides have ample and fair opportunity to present their respective cases. The
				chief hearing officer shall give consideration to the requests of either party
				for a scheduling hearing but is not bound to such requests if in the view of
				the chief hearing officer after reviewing the record and the docket, another
				hearing type is more appropriate to the case.
I. Upon receipt of the hearing request, the
				chief hearing officer or designee thereof shall review the matter to assess the
				complexity of the case, the potential discovery required, the potential need
				for motions practice before conducting the merits hearing, the tax hearing
				docket, and the preference of the party that filed the hearing request to
				determine whether the matter should be set promptly for a merits hearing or set
				for a scheduling hearing within 90 days of the date on which TRD's answer to
				the protest was filed.
J. Absent a
				timely objection before or at the time of the scheduling hearing, conducting a
				scheduling hearing within 90 days of TRD's answer was filed or within 120 days
				from the filing of taxpayer's request for hearing satisfies the under
				Subsection F of Section
				7-1B-8
				NMSA 1978 while allowing sufficient and meaningful time for completion of the
				statutory requirements contained under Paragraph (2) of Subsection D of Section
				7-1B-6
				NMSA 1978. Upon completion of the scheduling hearing, the hearing officer will
				issue a scheduling order and notice of administrative hearing or other form of
				notice or order as the circumstances require.
K. Upon objection to conducting a scheduling
				hearing, the administrative hearings office may set the matter for a merits
				hearing on an expedited basis with a minimum of seven days notice unless the
				parties consent to a lesser period for notice. All other notices will be sent
				at least 14 days before the scheduled hearing unless the parties consent to a
				lesser period for notice.
L. Upon
				receipt of the notice of scheduling hearing, the parties may consult with each
				other and agree to a proposed scheduling order, in a format specified by the
				administrative hearings office, articulating discovery and motions deadlines,
				length of the potential hearing, a proposed month or months of merits hearing,
				and an express waiver of the hearing deadlines under Subsection F of Section
				7-1B-8
				NMSA 1978. If the assigned hearing officer accepts or substantially adopts the
				proposed scheduling order, the scheduling hearing will be vacated.
M. At the sole discretion of the chief
				hearing officer, a series of cases involving similar substantive issues or
				involving small controversies may be scheduled to be heard individually as part
				of a trailing docket commencing at the beginning of the day, to be heard at
				some indefinite point during that day after the time of commencement of the
				docket. If the protest is to be heard as part of a trailing docket:
(1) All parties and their representatives in
				a case set on a trailing docket shall report at the time and place specified in
				the notice of hearing for commencement of the trailing docket in a method and
				manner specified by the administrative hearings office.
(2) Failure to report at the commencement of
				a trailing docket shall be deemed a non-appearance for the purposes of Section
				7-1-16 NMSA
				1978.
(3) After the reporting time
				for the trailing docket, the assigned hearing officer or hearing officers for
				the conduct of the trailing docket will determine the order of the cases to be
				heard that day, considering the appearance or nonappearance of the various
				parties on that day's docket, the complexity of the cases, the number and
				availability of witnesses, and if possible, accommodating any scheduling
				conflicts of the parties on that date.
(4) Upon receipt of notice of hearing set on
				a trailing docket, a party may file a written objection at least seven days
				before the scheduled hearing citing good cause as to why the matter should be
				given a unique setting rather than heard as part of a trailing docket, which
				the chief hearing officer or the assigned hearing officer may review and
				determine whether the case should be continued to a specific date with a firm
				time of commencement of the proceeding.