From ANDREA DETERMAN
Chair
DPLA
Think New Mexico’s proposed legislation to fully repeal New Mexico’s Gross Receipts Tax (GRT) on medical services is approaching its critical decision point.
This morning, House Bill 344 passed the House Health & Human Services Committee unanimously and it now heads to the House Taxation and Revenue Committee. Meanwhile, the Senate version of the bill, Senate Bill 295, received a positive hearing in the Senate Tax, Bustiness & Transportation Committee yesterday afternoon.
The House and Senate tax committees will soon be meeting to decide which tax reforms will be included in this year’s tax reform omnibus bill: please email your legislators and encourage them to include Senate Bill 295/House Bull 344, fully repealing the tax on medical services!
The GRT on medical services is a major factor driving doctors to retire early or leave our state.
New Mexico is one of only two states that impose a Gross Receipts Tax (GRT) on the medical services. The other is Hawaii, and that state’s tax is capped at 4.7%. New Mexico’s GRT averages 7.05% and exceeds 8% in many parts of the state.
Unlike most businesses, which simply pass on the GRT to their customers, medical providers cannot pass the tax on to insurance companies, Medicaid, or Medicare. As a result, doctors, dentists, and other health care providers end up bearing the full burden of the tax, making it more expensive to practice medicine in New Mexico than in other states.
We are also encouraging the tax committees to include House Bill 52 in this year’s tax package. This bill would expand access for the Rural Health Care Practitioner Tax Credit to include EMTs, paramedics, occupational therapists, audiologists, speech and language pathologists, and licensed practical nurses, among others. The shortages of these providers in New Mexico’s rural communities is even more severe than in our urban areas, and this tax credit helps encourage practitioners to serve patients in rural areas.
This is non-partisan and has affected our doctors here in Los Alamos.
Please contact the following officials and ask for their support:
- MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM
4th floor of the New Mexico State Capitol in Room 400
Phone: (505) 476-2200 - HOWIE MORALES
Lieutenant Governor of the State of New Mexico
4th floor of the New Mexico State Capitol in Room 417.
Phone: (505) 476-2250 - Senator Roberto “Bobby” J. Gonzales
Email: roberto.gonzales@nmlegis.gov
Office: 217A / Office Phone: 505-986-4362 - Senator Leo Jaramillo
Email: leo.jaramillo@nmlegis.gov
Office: 300D / Office Phone: 505-986-4260 - Representative Christine Chandler
Email: christine.chandler@nmlegis.gov
Office: 308A / Office Phone: 505-986-4411