New Mexico Taxation

Online Resources

 * 1862-1874 - U.S., Internal Revenue Assessment Lists, 1862-1874 at FamilySearch. Images only. Images include annual, monthly, and special lists, as well as a research guide.
 * 1862-1918 - U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918 at Ancestry. (Free /$) This collection includes annual, monthly and special assessment lists.

Why Use Tax Records
By studying several consecutive years of tax records you may determine when a young men came of age, when individuals moved in and out of a home, or when they died leaving heirs. Authorities determined wealth (real estate, or income) to be taxed. Taxes can be for polls, real and personal estate, or schools.

Tax record content varies and may include the name and residence of the taxpayer, description of the real estate, name of original purchaser, description of personal property, number of males over 21, number of school children, slaves, and farm animals. Tax records usually are arranged by date and locality and are not normally indexed. Tax records can be used in place of missing land and census records to locate a person’s residence.

County Level
Individual counties have property tax books from 1913 to the present.

State Level
The New Mexico State Records Center and Archives holds property tax records for the entire state beginning in the 1870s and continuing, in some cases, to approximately 1929. From 1884 to 1912, these records have been microfilmed and are also retained at the New Mexico State Special Collections Library. A comprehensive list of tax record holdings, including some poll tax lists, for the New Mexico State Records Center and Archives may be accessed through online records at Online Archive of New Mexico.


 * 1890 New Mexico tax assessments : a territorial census substitute by Karen Stein Daniel, Albuquerque : New Mexico Genealogical Society, 2003.
 * Internal revenue assessment lists for the Territory of New Mexico, 1862-1870, 1872-1874 by United States National Archives and Records Administration, United States Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, and Michael E. Pilgrim, Washington D.C. : National Archives and Records Service, 1981. Pamphlet describing M782.

New Mexico State Records Center and Archives 1205 Camino Carlos Rey Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507 Telephone: 505-476-7948 Archives & Historical Services Division



Tax Laws
Abraham Lincoln instituted the income tax in 1862, and on July 1, 1862, Congress passed the Internal Revenue Act, creating the Bureau of Internal Revenue (later renamed to the Internal Revenue Service). This act was intended to “provide Internal Revenue to support the Government and to pay interest on the Public Debt.” Instituted in the height of the Civil War, the “Public Debt” at the time primarily consisted of war expenses. For the Southern States that were part of the Confederate side of the Civil War, once Union troops took over parts of the Southern States, income tax were instituted on them.
 * To learn more about this Collection click here
 * To learn more about the Civil War taxes click here

What history has shown us is that while property taxes are locally levied, there is significant state involvement with the amount of tax local political subdivisions can levy, how property assessments are conducted, and what services local taxing subdivisions must provide for their residents. This comes at a cost to state taxpayers, because the state has obligations it must fund as well, with a limited amount of state tax dollars.