State Of New Mexico Allows Tax Refund Donation Option To Support Farms & Ranches

Submitted by Carol A. Clark
on March 13, 2023
- 9:57 am

Courtesy photo

STATE News:

SANTA FE — The State of New Mexico allows residents who qualify for a refund on their personal income tax return to donate all or part of it to the Healthy Soil Program.

The program was enacted in 2019 and is being administered by the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA).

NMDA provides financial assistance through the Healthy Soil Program to help land managers implement conservation projects focusing on one or more of five “healthy soil principles”: keeping soil covered; minimizing soil disturbance on cropland and minimizing external inputs; maximizing biodiversity; maintaining a living root; and integrating animals into land management, including grazing animals, birds, beneficial insects or keystone species, such as earthworms.

The program and adoption of these principles can have a major impact on water retention, public health, producer success, rural economic development, pollution reduction, carbon sequestration and working lands resiliency.

Any New Mexico tax paying resident who qualifies for a refund on their personal income tax return can voluntarily donate all or part of their refund to the Healthy Soil Program. Residents can use the PIT- D, Schedule for New Mexico Voluntary Contributions, when filing taxes.

Residents who are not due a refund can donate to the Healthy Soil Program by sending contributions directly to the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (3190 S. Espina St., Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003 —checks should be made payable to “New Mexico Department of Agriculture” with “Healthy Soil Program” in the memo).

This is the only donation option benefitting agriculture. In 2022 (the first year this contribution option was available) NMDA received over 600 individual donations.

All donations will directly benefit farmers, ranchers, foresters and other land managers as they are funded through the Healthy Soil Program.

About NM Healthy Soil Working Group

The NM Healthy Soil Working Group is a grassroots advocacy group committed to the success of the state’s farmers and ranchers, knowing that their vital work building soil health creates co-benefits including rural and state economic gains, water availability and quality, more nutrient dense food leading to better public health, carbon drawdown and other key ecological services. Formed in the fall of 2018, the Working Group succeeded in passing the NM Healthy Soil Act by assembling an extensive coalition of hundreds of food and agriculture related organizations, farms and ranches, consumers, health practitioners and environmental groups.

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