Rules of Gold in New Mexico

New Mexico has not enacted a statute recognizing gold or silver coin or specie as legal tender for public or private debts. Industry coverage explicitly notes that "New Mexico has not taken any steps to reaffirm its constitutional duty to treat gold and silver coins as tender in payment of debt as Oklahoma and Utah did" with their respective sound-money statutes. No legal-tender bill has been identified in the 56th Legislature (2023-2024) or 57th Legislature (2025-2026) as of capture date. New Mexico is absent from the legal-tender state list (UT/WY/OK/AR/ID/LA/TN/TX plus pending FL/NH).

New Mexico taxes capital gains as ordinary income at the standard graduated rate schedule with a narrow capital-gains deduction. Effective for tax year 2025 and forward, NM uses a 6-bracket schedule from 1.5% (lowest) to 5.9% (top), as restructured by HB 252 (2024) signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on March 6, 2024 as Chapter 67 of the Laws of 2024. The general capital-gains deduction is the greater of (a) $2,500 per taxpayer OR (b) 40% of capital gains up to $1,000,000 of gain from the sale of a New Mexico business. Because bullion is not a "New Mexico business," only the $2,500 floor deduction applies to bullion gains for NM residents. The pre-2025 framework had been broader (greater of $1,000 or 40% of net capital gain regardless of source); HB 252 substantially narrowed the 40% deduction to NM-business sales only. New Mexico's top rate of 5.9% is moderate within the dataset — well below NJ (10.75%), MA (5%-9% LT), MD (6.5%+2% surcharge), but above MO (4.7% phasing to 4.0%) and IN (3.0% phasing to 2.9%).

New Mexico has not enacted enabling legislation for a state-administered bullion depository. No depository bill has been identified in the 56th or 57th Legislatures. The State Treasurer does not operate, license, or otherwise authorize a public bullion depository facility.

The New Mexico State Treasurer does not hold physical gold or silver as a reserve asset. The New Mexico State Investment Council (SIC), which functions as the state's sovereign wealth fund managing the Land Grant Permanent Fund (~$30+ billion) and Severance Tax Permanent Fund (~$10+ billion) as well as investments for 23 other governmental clients, does not disclose a physical-precious-metals or commodities allocation in its FY25 Annual Investment Plan or 2024 Investments and Pensions Oversight Committee Interim Final Report. New Mexico is one of a handful of US states with substantial sovereign-wealth-fund infrastructure (alongside Alaska APFC, North Dakota Legacy Fund, Texas PSF, Wyoming Permanent Mineral Trust Fund) but, like all of them except Texas (UTIMCO physical-gold legacy from 2011 Hayman Capital position), holds no physical metals.

New Mexico's two major public pension systems — the New Mexico Public Employees Retirement Association (NMPERA, covering general state and municipal employees) and the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board (ERB, covering K-12 and higher-education employees) — do not disclose physical-precious-metals or commodities allocations. Both systems set their own asset allocations independent of the SIC's investment policies. Standard institutional asset classes only (public equities, fixed income, alternatives sleeves of private equity, real estate, real assets/infrastructure, private credit). The 2024 Investments and Pensions Oversight Committee Interim Final Report does not flag any precious-metals exposure across the NM pension landscape.