A. The person responsible for paying the oil and gas severance tax on natural gas or oil produced from a production restoration project shall qualify to receive a ten-year production restoration incentive tax exemption upon:

(1) application to the department in the form and manner prescribed by the department for approval for the ten-year production restoration incentive tax exemption;

(2) submission of the certification of approval from the division and designation of the natural gas or oil well as a production restoration project; and

(3) submission of any other relevant material that the secretary of taxation and revenue deems necessary to administer the applicable provisions of the Natural Gas and Crude Oil Production Incentive Act.

B. The person responsible for payment of the oil and gas severance tax on natural gas or oil produced from a well workover project shall qualify for the well workover incentive tax rate on all the natural gas or oil produced by that project upon:

(1) application to the department in the form and manner prescribed by the department for approval to apply the well workover incentive tax rate to the natural gas or oil produced from a well workover project;

(2) submission of the certification from the division of approval and designation of the natural gas or oil well as a well workover project; and

(3) any other relevant material that the department considers necessary to administer the applicable provisions of the Natural Gas and Crude Oil Production Incentive Act.

C. The person responsible for paying the oil and gas severance tax and the oil and gas emergency school tax on natural gas and crude oil produced from a stripper well property shall qualify to receive the stripper well property incentive tax rate for the fiscal year following certification by the division in the form and manner agreed to by the division and the department designating the property as a stripper well property. The division shall certify stripper well properties for calendar year 1998 no later than June 30, 1999 and no later than June 1 of each succeeding year for the preceding calendar year.

D. The production restoration incentive tax exemption shall apply to natural gas or oil produced from a production restoration project beginning the first day of the month following the date the division certifies that production has been restored and ending the last day of the tenth year of production following that date. The well workover incentive tax rate applies to the natural gas or oil produced from a well workover project beginning the first day of the month following the date the division certifies that the well workover project has been completed. The stripper well property incentive tax rates apply to the natural gas or oil produced from a stripper well property in the twelve months beginning May 1 prior to July 1 of the fiscal year to which the certification of the property as a stripper well property applies.

E. The person responsible for payment of the oil and gas severance tax on natural gas or oil production from an approved well workover project may file a claim for credit against current tax liability or for refund in accordance with Section 7-1-26 NMSA 1978 for taxes paid in excess of the amount due using the well workover incentive tax rate. Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection E [F] of Section 7-1-26 NMSA 1978, any such refund granted shall be made in the form of a credit against any future oil and gas severance tax liabilities incurred by the taxpayer.

F. Well workover projects certified prior to July 1, 1999 shall be deemed to be approved and certified in accordance with the provisions of this 1999 act and natural gas or oil produced from those projects shall be eligible for the well workover incentive tax rate effective beginning July 1, 1999.

G. The secretary of taxation and revenue may adopt and promulgate rules to enforce the provisions of this section.

History: Laws 1995, ch. 15, § 6; 1999, ch. 256, § 7.

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law. The reference to Subsection E of 7-1-26 NMSA 1978 should now be a reference to Subsection F in light of the 1997 amendment to 7-1-26 NMSA 1978.

Compiler's notes. — The phrase "this 1999 act," referred to in Subsection F, means Laws 1999, Chapter 256, which was compiled as 7-29-2, 7-29-4, 7-29B-2 to 7-29B-6, 7-31-2 and 7-31-4 NMSA 1978.

The 1999 amendment, effective June 18, 1999, inserted "and stripper well property" in the section heading; inserted "all' preceding "the natural", substituted "by" for "in excess of the production projection for" in Subsection B; deleted "in excess of the production projection" following "produced" in Subsections B(1) and D; deleted "and of the production projection for the well workover project" following "project" in Subsection B(2); added Subsections C and F, and redesignated the remaining subsections accordingly; added the third sentence of Subsection D; inserted "credit against current tax liability or for" in the first sentence of Subsection E; and deleted "and regulations" following "rules" in Subsection G.