Raising the possibility of scandal in the Cambridge mayor's office, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) indicated yesterday that it will begin an inquiry into whether Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72 paid state income taxes in 1992.

A DOR official said the agency has no record that Reeves filed a 1992 state tax return.

"The department shows no record for the taxpayer given his name, address and social security number, for the 1992 tax returns," Catherine S. Bromberg, DOR communications director, said yesterday.

In response, Reeves insisted yesterday that he had paid all his income taxes. The mayor, in fact, said he received a state tax refund in 1992.

But despite requests by The Crimson and other media outlets, the mayor refused to produce a copy of his 1992 state tax returns.

"Under the [Freedom of Information Act], one is not required to release one's tax returns, nor are elected officials," he said yesterday. "I don't envision that I'll be releasing any tax returns."

The mayor declined to speculate why DOR had no record of his 1992 returns. "I'm not responsible to answer why DOR doesn't have the information," he said. "I don't run DOR."

In addition, Reeves faxed a five-page letter last night to the Cambridge Chronicle. The letter, which was obtained by The Crimson, countered a Chronicle report that Reeves had failed to account for more than 275 expenses he made on his city-provided MasterCard over the pass year.

"I would like to reiterate that at no time has City money been spent for personal expenditures," Reeves said in the statement.

Meanwhile, Reeves admitted yesterday that a visit from two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents to his City Hall office Monday concerned the more than $30,000 in extra pay he received from the school committee over the past three years.

'Extremely Remote'

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a state official said it was unlikely that Reeves had filed the 1992 tax return. The official said the possibility of a data-entry error was "extremely remote."

"It's very slim," the official said. "In order for [the return] to not show at all, there would need to be scads of misfed information. It's highly, highly unlikely."

Bromberg said DOR had records of Reeves' 1990, 1991 and 1993 returns. Returns for 1994 are not yet due.

"As a general rule, when it comes to DOR's attention that an income tax form does not seem to have been paid, we routinely look into it," Bromberg said.

She said DOR first discovered the absence of Reeves' returns last week, when the Boston Globe requested them. The Globe first reported the missing returns yesterday.