Veterans Alliance is privately owned and operated to serve veterans. We are not affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Veterans Alliance — Veterans Alliance
← All New Mexico benefits
businessstate

Resident Veteran Business Preference — Ten Percent of the Evaluation

A certified resident veteran business or contractor is credited with ten percent of the total weight of every factor used to evaluate proposals, or the equivalent in points. The certificate comes from Taxation and Revenue and lasts three years.

Verified August 22, 2026

What this benefit is

A certified resident veteran business or contractor is credited with ten percent of the total weight of every factor used to evaluate proposals, or the equivalent in points. The certificate comes from Taxation and Revenue and lasts three years.

What it's worth: Ten percent of the total evaluation weight

  • Ten percent of the total weight of all factors used in evaluating proposals, or the equivalent of ten percent of the points where the award is point-based.
  • It is an evaluation credit, not a price discount and not a set-aside.

Who is entitled to it

  • You served in the U.S. armed forces.
  • You served in the armed forces.
  • You own, or are forming, a business that could bid.
  • Your home is in New Mexico.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

Deadline: The certificate must exist before you bid — a copy goes in with the proposal
  1. 1Apply to Taxation and Revenue for the certificate first. The preference cannot be claimed without one.
  2. 2Submit a copy of the valid certificate with the bid or proposal itself. That is the step the statute makes decisive.
  3. 3Diarise the three-year expiry. A lapsed certificate is the same as no certificate on the day a bid closes.
  4. 4Keep performing the share of the contract the certificate assumes. Using a certificate without doing so, or giving false information to get one, bars the business from a certificate or preference for five years.
Form
Application for a resident veteran business or resident veteran contractor certificate
File with
New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department — application questions (505) 231-6893
Documents you will need
dd214
Periodic recertification
The certificate is valid for three years from issuance so long as the requirements continue to be met.
CorrectionThis is an evaluation weight, not a price preference. Ten percent of the scoring weight can decide a close award and changes no one's price.
Worth knowingThe certificate is issued by the tax department rather than by the purchasing department — an unusual split, and the reason bidders often look for it in the wrong place.
Worth knowingMisusing a certificate carries a five-year bar from any certificate or preference, running from the date the department became aware of the violation.

Sources

Why only one source type: The certifying department's own page carries the ten-percent evaluation weight, the three-year validity and the requirement to hold a certificate before bidding. NMSA 1978, §13-1-22 is named because the department's programme sits under it; the section text has not been read from a legislative source this session.

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.