Enchantment State News

A bill aimed to cut a break on interest and penalties for taxpayers in New Mexico has become law after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) signed House Bill 6, which was overwhelmingly passed in a special session of the state legislature. 

The bill sets aside tax penalties and interest on several types of unpaid taxes if the bills are paid in full by the 2021 deadlines. Those types of taxes include personal income, property and gross receipts taxes. Those filing deadlines are approaching, but the payment will not be required until next year's tax filing deadline. 

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is also now in effect. It allows trade to flow across the borders of those three North American countries. It also entices American companies to bring manufacturing jobs back within the borders of the United States. The USMCA requires American companies to mostly do their manufacturing in the U.S. to get tax benefits. That would translate into higher wages for American workers. Similar to the previous trade agreement, there won't be tariffs on agricultural goods between the three countries. 

The New Mexico Business Coalition (NMBC) said they were the state's strongest advocate for the USMCA agreement. The coalition said the agreement's importance to manufacturing, trade and intellectual property in the state is enormous.

In a release on the coalition's website, the NMBC said 27,133 manufacturing workers in the state and more than two million across the country depend on exports to the border countries of Canada and Mexico. The coalition said two years ago New Mexican manufacturing companies sold $1.5 billion worth of goods to Canada and Mexico.

The NMBC believes this new trade agreement not only strengthens, but updates rules dealing with intellectual property while establishing guidelines in the era of an online economy.