New Mexico Agrees to Stop Withholding Immigrants' Tax Refunds

The New Mexico tax department has agreed to stop automatically withholding income tax refunds from many foreign nationals without Social Security numbers who file under alternative identification numbers provided by the IRS, a New Mexico state senator said Friday.

 

Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said he co-signed the settlement as a plaintiff that says state tax authorities will no longer withhold refunds based solely on discrepancies between a taxpayer’s individual taxpayer identification number, or ITIN, and any Social Security number submitted on corresponding W-2 income forms.

 

The Taxation and Revenue Department and other parties to the settlement declined to comment or acknowledge the agreement.

 

The agreement resolves a lawsuit against the department alleging a practice of withholding tax refunds owed to foreign nationals starting in 2012 based on mismatched tax identification numbers.