Department of the Treasury January 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Pub. L. 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning an existing final regulation, REG-120168-97 (TD 8798), Preparer Due Diligence Requirements for Determining Earned Income Credit Eligibility.

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13(44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning existing final regulations, REG-142299-01 and REG-209135-88, Certain Transfers of Property to Regulated Investment Companies (RICs) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).

An open meeting of the Earned Income Tax Credit Committee of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted (via teleconference). The Committee will be discussing issues pertaining to the IRS administration of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning an existing final regulation, LR-1214 (TD 7430), Discharge of Liens(Sec. 301.7425-3(b)(2)).

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has received a petition proposing the expansion of the existing Russian River Valley viticultural area in Sonoma County, California. The proposed 30,200- acre expansion would increase the size of this viticultural area to 126,200 acres. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase. We invite comments on this proposed amendment to our regulations.

This document contains proposed regulations that would revise final regulations that were issued on December 17, 2003, under section 417(a)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code concerning content requirements applicable to explanations of qualified joint and survivor annuities and qualified preretirement survivor annuities payable under certain retirement plans. These regulations affect plan sponsors and administrators, and participants in and beneficiaries of, certain retirement plans.

This document contains corrections to final regulations (TD 9171), that were published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 (69 FR 77625) relating to the new markets tax credit under section 45D.

The OCC, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on a continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Currently, the OCC is soliciting comment concerning its extension, without change, of an information collection titled ``(MA) Loans in Areas Having Special Flood Hazards (12 CFR 22)''.

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning an existing final regulation, PS-262-82 (TD 8600), Definition of an S Corporation. (Sec. 1.1361-3).

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13(44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning Form 2553, Election by a Small Business Corporation.

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13(44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning Form 8609, Low-Income Housing Credit Allocation Certification and Schedule A (Form 8609), Annual Statement.

This document contains final regulations that would modify the circumstances under which certain forms of distribution previously available are permitted to be eliminated from qualified defined contribution plans. These final regulations affect qualified retirement plan sponsors, administrators, and participants.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau proposes to establish the ``High Valley'' viticultural area in Lake County, California. Located above the eastern shore of Clear Lake near the town of Clearlake Oaks, the proposed 14,000-acre area is about 85 miles north of San Francisco, and is largely within the established Clear Lake and North Coast viticultural areas. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase. We invite comments on this proposed addition to our regulations.

This document contains a correction to an open meeting of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel Multilingual Initiative (MLI) Issue Committee being conducted (via teleconference) which was published in the Federal Register on Thursday, January 13, 2005 (70 FR 2465). This notice relates to the solicitation of public comments, ideas, and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service.

The Department of the Treasury (Treasury) is issuing this proposed rule as part of its implementation of Title I of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (Act). The Act established a temporary Terrorism Insurance Program (Program) under which the Federal Government will share the risk of insured loss from certified acts of terrorism with commercial property and casualty insurers until the Program ends on December 31, 2005. This proposed rule is a clarification that, for purposes of calculating insurer deductibles and meeting the requirements for claiming the Federal share of compensation for insured losses, affiliations are to be determined based on the insurer's circumstances as of the date of the first certified act of terrorism in a Program Year.

In accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, the Department of the Treasury exempts a new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) system of records entitled ``IRS 42.031Anti- Money Laundering/Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Form 8300 Records'' from certain provisions of the Privacy Act.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) makes two amendments to its regulations in response to two petitions submitted by producers of raisin and honey wines. One amendment allows the production of dried fruit wines with an alcohol by volume content of more than 14 percent. The other amendment lowers the minimum starting Brix of 22 degrees to 13 degrees in the production of honey wines. In addition, TTB corrects a technical error in the wine labeling regulations by raising the maximum limit on alcohol content derived from fermentation from 13 to 14 percent for ameliorated agricultural wines.

An open meeting of the Wage & Investment Reducing Taxpayer Burden (Notices) Issue Committee of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted (via teleconference). The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is soliciting public comments, ideas and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service.

In accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, the Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), is proposing to add to the categories of individuals covered by the system and categories of records in the system of records entitled ``Treasury/IRS 34.037IRS Audit Trail and Security Records System.'' These additions will permit the IRS to monitor system resources and enable IRS to deter, deny and detect unauthorized access to internal computer hardware and software and misuse of IRS resources to access external objects, like Web sites that feature pornography, gambling, etc. The IRS is also proposing to add a routine use to the system of records to permit disclosure to contractors.

In the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is issuing temporary regulations relating to the requirements for filing corporate income tax returns, S corporation returns, and returns of organizations required under section 6033 on magnetic media under section 6011(e) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). The text of those regulations also serves as the text of these proposed regulations. This document also provides notice of a public hearing on these proposed regulations.

An open meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted (via teleconference). The TAP will be discussing issues pertaining to lessoning the burden for individuals. Recommendations for IRS systemic changes will be developed.