AI Generated Opinion Summaries

This summary was computer-generated without any editorial revision. It is not official, has not been checked for accuracy, and is NOT citable.

Facts

• The Taxation and Revenue Department issued two assessments to Maria and Robert Cloutier for gross receipt taxes due in 2005 and 2006, including interest and a twenty percent penalty. The Cloutiers protested these assessments, leading to a hearing officer's decision that reduced the penalty to ten percent based on the 2007 amendment to Section 7-1-69, which adjusted the maximum penalty for tax assessments.

Procedural History

• Taxation and Revenue Department, Monica Ontiveros, Hearing Officer: The hearing officer denied the Cloutiers' protest but reduced the penalty from twenty percent to ten percent based on the 2007 amendment to Section 7-1-69.

Parties' Submissions

• Plaintiff-Appellant (Taxation and Revenue Department): Argued that the twenty percent penalty was correctly imposed on the assessments for the 2005 and 2006 tax years based on the 2007 amendment to Section 7-1-69.
• Defendants-Appellees (Maria and Robert Cloutier): Protested the assessments, leading to a reduction of the penalty to ten percent by the hearing officer. They did not file an answer brief after the Department appealed the hearing officer's order.

Legal Issues

• Whether the hearing officer erred in reducing the penalty from twenty percent to ten percent for the tax assessments for the years 2005 and 2006 based on the 2007 amendment to Section 7-1-69.

Disposition

• The decision of the hearing officer regarding the assessments for the tax years 2005 and 2006 was partially reversed to the extent that it imposed a ten percent maximum penalty. The Court held that the Department correctly imposed a twenty percent maximum penalty for the assessments made for the 2005 and 2006 tax years.

Reasons

• Per Timothy L. Garcia, J. (James J. Wechsler, J., and Linda M. Vanzi, J., concurring): The Court based its decision on the precedent set in GEA Integrated Cooling Technology v. New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, which established that the date of the assessment under Section 7-1-69 determines the maximum penalty that the Department is to apply. Since the Department issued its assessment on November 3, 2008, after the 2007 amendment to Section 7-1-69 was in effect, the twenty percent maximum penalty was correctly applied to the assessments for the 2005 and 2006 tax years.