New Mexico ranked mediocre 31st for “remote work” in new report

Considering New Mexico’s usual location at the top of the bad lists and bottom of the good ones New Mexico’s 31st ranking on a new National Taxpayers Union Foundation report which ranks the US states on their attractiveness as places to work remotely. You can find the full report here.

Since the COVID 19 Pandemic remote work has become an increasingly popular option including right here in New Mexico.

The authors had the following to say about New Mexico’s status as a work-from-home location:

While the states that come out best are those with no income tax, there are lots of other things that states can do to make their policy environments friendlier to remote workers.

The state manages to salvage an average rank by virtue of its 16-day withholding threshold. Though this is half the gold standard of 31 days, a 16-day threshold is a not-insubstantial protection. New Mexico could improve its rank further by reaching reciprocity agreements with high-traffic neighbors and instituting a filing threshold to benefit individual mobile employees.

To improve, New Mexico should consider adopting a defined-day filing threshold and raising its existing withholding threshold to greater than 30 days, as well as entering into reciprocity agreements with neighboring states.

Of course, with the massive surplus New Mexico policymakers have available to them, they could and should consider reducing income taxes. You can click through on the interactive map below.

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