Val Kilmer loses tax refund case

Kilmer and his ex-wife sought a refund of over $300,000

Val Kilmer and his ex-wife, actress Joanne Whalley, have lost a legal dispute over a tax refund of more than $300,000 (£167,027) sought by the pair.

The state Court of Appeals in Santa Fe, New Mexico, ruled against the couple.

It said the Taxation and Revenue Department had no authority to act on the refund claim because the time period for doing so had expired.

The refund claim was for $304,217 (£169,382.44) in personal income taxes paid for the year 1995.

Kilmer, who starred in The Doors and Heat, has a ranch near Santa Fe.

The couple said they were due the refund because Whalley, who had filed for divorce, moved to California in the latter part of that year.

The claim was filed in 1999, after California tax officials made a preliminary ruling that she had been a California resident as of August 1995.

'Sympathetic' court

But the amended 1995 New Mexico return claiming the refund, which was filed by the couple's accountant, was not processed because the department lost it.

In addition, for three months in early 2000 the agency decided to delay work on prior-year claims while it caught up with processing the current returns.

Under state law, if the department does not approve or deny a claim within 120 days, taxpayers then have 90 days to either file a protest or go to court.

Kilmer and Whalley failed to do either and the 210-day window for the department to act on a claim expired, the court said.

On these grounds it decided to uphold a department hearing officer's ruling.

The Legislature "intended a clear and definite outer limit, of 210 days, on the department's authority to act on a claim for refund," the court held.

The court said it was "sympathetic to taxpayers' plight" and did not approve of the department's conduct.

However, it rejected the claim that the couple's accountant had been misled in conversations with department employees.