As used in the Laboratory Partnership with Small Business Tax Credit Act:

A. "contractor":

(1) means a person that:

(a) has the capability to provide small business assistance; and

(b) may enter into a contract with a national laboratory to provide small business assistance; and

(2) includes:

(a) a gas, water or electric utility owned or operated by a county, municipality or other political subdivision of the state;

(b) a national, federal, state, Indian or other governmental unit or subdivision, or an agency, department or instrumentality of any of the foregoing; or

(c) an organization that: 1) demonstrates to the department that the organization has been granted exemption from the federal income tax by the United States commissioner of internal revenue as organizations described in Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as that section may be amended or renumbered; and 2) has a place of business in New Mexico;

B. "department" means the taxation and revenue department, the secretary of taxation and revenue or an employee of the department exercising authority lawfully delegated to that employee by the secretary;

C. "national laboratory" means a prime contractor designated as a national laboratory by act of congress that is operating a facility in New Mexico;

D. "qualified expenditure" means an expenditure by a national laboratory in providing small business assistance, limited to the following expenditures incurred in providing the assistance:

(1) employee salaries, wages, fringe benefits and employer payroll taxes;

(2) administrative costs related directly to the provision of small business assistance, the total of which is limited to forty-nine percent of employee salaries, wages, fringe benefits and employer payroll taxes;

(3) in-state travel expenses, including per diem and mileage at the internal revenue service standard rates; and

(4) supplies and services of contractors related to the provision of small business assistance;

E. "rural area" means an area of the state outside of the exterior boundaries of a class A county that has a net taxable value for rate-setting purposes for any property tax year of more than seven billion dollars ($7,000,000,000);

F. "small business" means a business in New Mexico that conforms to the definition of small business found in the federal Small Business Act; and

G. "small business assistance" means assistance rendered by a national laboratory related to the transfer of technology, including software, manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, environmental, agricultural, information and solar and other alternative energy source technologies. "Small business assistance" includes nontechnical assistance related to expanding the New Mexico base of suppliers, including training and mentoring individual small businesses; assistance in developing business systems to meet audit, reporting and quality assurance requirements; and other supplier development initiatives for individual small businesses.

History: Laws 2000 (2nd S.S.), ch. 20, § 3; 2007, ch. 172, § 15; 2019, ch. 64, § 1.

Cross references. — For the federal Small Business Act, Public Law 85-536, see 15 U.S.C.S. § 631 et seq.

The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, revised the definition of "contractor" as used in the Laboratory Partnership with Small Business Tax Credit Act to include certain tax-exempt organizations having a place of business in New Mexico; and in Subsection A, added Subparagraph A(2)(c).

The 2007 amendment, effective July 1, 2007, revises the definitions of "contractor", "qualified expenditures" and "rural area" to include areas outside the exterior boundaries of a class A county.