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

An open meeting of the Area 6 committee of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted in Denver, CO. The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP) is soliciting public comments, ideas, and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service. The TAP will use citizen input to make recommendations to the Internal Revenue Service.

An open meeting of the Area 4 Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted (via teleconference). The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is soliciting public comment, ideas, and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service.

An open meeting of the Area 2 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.

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 1040-SS, U.S. Self-Employment Tax Return; Form 1040-PR, Planilla Para La Declaracion De La Contribucion Federal Sobre El Trabajo Por Cuenta PropiaPuerto Rico; and Anejo H-PR, Contribuciones Sobre El Empleo De Empleados Domesticos.

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35), the OCC, the Board, and the FDIC (the ``agencies'') may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. On April 29, 2004, the agencies requested public comment for 60 days on proposed revisions to the instructions for the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report), which are currently approved collections of information. After considering the comments received, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), of which the agencies are members, has adopted the proposed instructional revisions and also will add new items to the Call Report based on suggestions by commenters. In addition, on March 11, 2005, the agencies requested public comment for 60 days on other proposed revisions to the Call Report. The FFIEC and the agencies have considered the comments received on these additional revisions, which the FFIEC has adopted as proposed. The agencies are submitting the revisions adopted by the FFIEC to OMB for review and approval.

FinCEN invites comment on a proposed information collection contained in a revised form, ``Suspicious Activity Report by the Securities and Futures Industry (SAR-SF).'' The form will be used by the securities and futures industry to report suspicious activity to the Department of the Treasury. This request for comments also covers 31 CFR 103.17 and 31 CFR 103.19. This request for comments is being made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A).

In the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is issuing final and temporary regulations relating to the assumption of liabilities under section 752 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). Those temporary regulations contain rules related to the assumption of certain liabilities under section 358(h). The text of those temporary regulations also serves as the text of these proposed regulations.

An open meeting of the Area 1 Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted in Boston, Massachusetts. The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is soliciting public comments, ideas and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service.

The Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT) will hold a public meeting on Wednesday, June 8, 2005.

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-54-94 (TD 8668), Environmental Settlement FundsClassification (Section 301.7701-4).

This document contains temporary regulations relating to the computation and allocation of the credit for increasing research activities for members of a controlled group of corporations or a group of trades or businesses under common control. These temporary regulations reflect changes made to section 41 by the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1989 (1989 Act), which introduced the current computational regime for the credit, and the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996, which introduced the alternative incremental research credit. The text of the temporary regulations also serves as the text of the proposed regulations set forth in the notice of proposed rulemaking on this subject in the Proposed Rules section in this issue of the Federal Register.

This document provides advance notice of proposed rulemaking for the issuance of regulations relating to the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program as authorized by 26 U.S.C. 45D. This document invites comments from the public on certain issues regarding the designation of low-income communities for purposes of the NMTC Program. All materials submitted will be available for public inspection and copying.

This document contains proposed regulations explaining how to determine the attained age of an insured for purposes of testing whether a contract qualifies as a life insurance contract for Federal income tax purposes. This document also provides notice of a public hearing on these proposed regulations.

This document contains proposed regulations under section 1503(d) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) regarding dual consolidated losses. Section 1503(d) generally provides that a dual consolidated loss of a dual resident corporation cannot reduce the taxable income of any other member of the affiliated group unless, to the extent provided in regulations, such loss does not offset the income of any foreign corporation. Similar rules apply to losses of separate units of domestic corporations. The proposed regulations address various dual consolidated loss issues, including exceptions to the general prohibition against using a dual consolidated loss to reduce the taxable income of any other member of the affiliated group.

This document contains proposed regulations that provide guidance for the filing of information returns by donees relating to qualified intellectual property contributions. The text of the temporary regulations published in the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register also serves as the text of these proposed regulations. The regulations affect donees receiving qualified intellectual property contributions after June 3, 2004.

The Department of the Treasury (``Treasury,'' ``We,'' or ``Us'') is issuing in final form an amendment to the regulations issued under the Government Securities Act of 1986, as amended (``GSA''), that are applicable to depository institutions that hold government securities as fiduciary, custodian, or otherwise for the account of customers. The provisions of the GSA regulations for custodial holding of government securities held by depository institutions generally provide an exemption from these rules for a depository institution's holdings of such government securities that are subject to the fiduciary standards of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (``the Board''), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (``FDIC''), or the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (``OCC''). We published a proposed rule amendment to the exemption on September 23, 2004, and are now adopting the change as proposed. Specifically, this amendment modifies the exemption to include savings associations subject to the fiduciary standards of the Office of Thrift Supervision (``OTS'').

This document contains final regulations that provide guidance regarding the limitation on the effective rate of mortgage interest for purposes of mortgage revenue bonds issued by State and local governments. These regulations provide guidance to State and local governments that issue tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds.

This document contains a notice that the IRS has made available the grant application package (Publication 3319) for organizations interested in applying for a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) matching grant for the 2006 grant cycle (January 1, 2006, through December 31, 2006). The IRS will award a total of up to $6,000,000 (unless otherwise provided by specific Congressional appropriation) to qualifying organizations, subject to the limitations of Internal Revenue Code section 7526, for LITC matching grants.

This document contains final regulations revising the regulations governing practice before the Internal Revenue Service (Circular 230). These regulations affect individuals who practice before the Internal Revenue Service. These regulations clarify the standards for covered opinions.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau proposes to establish the ``San Antonio Valley'' viticultural area in southwest Monterey County, California, within the existing Central Coast viticultural area. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase. We invite comments on this proposed addition to our regulations.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau proposes to amend its regulations to expand the existing 96,000-acre Livermore Valley viticultural area in Alameda County, California. The proposed expansion would add 163,000 acres to the Livermore Valley viticultural area in northern Alameda and southern Contra Costa Counties. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify the wines they may purchase. We invite comments on this proposed addition to our regulations.