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

This notice advises all interested persons of the location of the September 8, 2005, public meeting of the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform. This meeting was previously announced in 70 FR 49704 (August 24, 2005).

This document contains proposed regulations that provide guidance regarding methods under section 482 to determine taxable income in connection with a cost sharing arrangement. These proposed regulations potentially affect controlled taxpayers within the meaning of section 482 that enter into cost sharing arrangements as defined herein. This document also provides a notice of public hearing on these proposed regulations.

This document contains proposed regulations providing guidance on employer comparable contributions to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) under section 4980G. In general, these proposed regulations would affect employers that contribute to employees' HSAs.

This document contains proposed regulations under sections 162(k) and 404(k) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) relating to employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). The regulations provide guidance concerning which corporation is entitled to the deduction for applicable dividends under section 404(k). These regulations also clarify that a payment in redemption of employer securities held by an ESOP is not deductible. These regulations will affect administrators of, employers maintaining, participants in, and beneficiaries of ESOPs. In addition, they will affect corporations that make distributions in redemption of stock held in an ESOP.

This document contains final regulations under section 951(a) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) that provide guidance for determining a United States shareholder's pro rata share of a controlled foreign corporation's (CFC's) subpart F income, previously excluded subpart F income withdrawn from investment in less developed countries, and previously excluded subpart F income withdrawn from foreign base company shipping operations.

An open meeting of the Area 6 committee of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted (via teleconference). 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.

The proposed information collection requirement described below has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. OTS is soliciting public comments on the proposal.

Elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is issuing a temporary rule implementing the new certification requirements regarding production practices and procedures for imported natural wine contained in section 2002 of the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2004, which amended section 5382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. In this notice of proposed rulemaking, we are soliciting comments from all interested parties on the implementation of these new certification requirements. The text of the regulations in the temporary rule published in the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register serves as the text of the proposed regulations.

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 941 TeleFile, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return.

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.

An open meeting of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel Multilingual Initiative (MLI) Issue Committee 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 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. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), of which the agencies are members, has approved the agencies' publication for public comment of proposed revisions to the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report), which are currently approved collections of information. At the end of the comment period, the comments and recommendations received will be analyzed to determine the extent to which the FFIEC and the agencies should modify the proposed revisions prior to giving final approval. The agencies will then submit the revisions to OMB for review and approval.

An open meeting of the Area 1 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 an existing final regulation, REG-253578-96, Health Insurance Portability for Group Health Plans; and temporary regulation (TD 8716) Interim Rules for Health Insurance Portability for Group Health Plans (Sec. Sec. 54.9801-3T, 54.9801-4T, 54.9801-5T, and 54.9801-6T).

This document contains temporary regulations under section 408A of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). These temporary regulations provide guidance concerning the tax consequences of converting a non- Roth IRA annuity to a Roth IRA. These temporary regulations affect individuals establishing Roth IRAs, beneficiaries under Roth IRAs, and trustees, custodians and issuers of Roth IRAs. The text of these temporary regulations also serves as the text of proposed regulations set forth in a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Proposed Rules section of this issue of the Federal Register.

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 8850, Pre-Screening Notice and Certification Request for the Work Opportunity and Welfare-to-Work Credits.

An open meeting of the Joint Committee of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted. The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is reviewing public comment, ideas, and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service brought forward by the Area and Issue Committees.

An open meeting of the Area 5 Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted. The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is soliciting public comment, ideas, and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury is amending and reissuing in their entirety the Burmese Sanctions Regulations to implement Executive Order 13310 of July 28, 2003, which placed new sanctions on Burma.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau proposes to establish seven new viticultural areas within the boundary of the existing Lodi viticultural area, which lies within southern Sacramento and northern San Joaquin Counties in California. The seven proposed areas are Alta Mesa, Borden Ranch, Clements Hills, Cosumnes River, Jahant, Mokelumne River, and Sloughhouse. 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 these proposed additions to our regulations.

This document contains proposed regulations providing guidance on certain issues relating to the anti-cutback rules of section 411(d)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code, which generally protect accrued benefits, early retirement benefits, retirement-type subsidies, and optional forms of benefit under qualified retirement plans. The proposed regulations would address the interaction between the anti- cutback rules of section 411(d)(6) and the nonforfeitability requirements of section 411(a), and would also provide a utilization test under which certain plan amendments would be permitted to eliminate or reduce certain early retirement benefits, retirement-type subsidies, or optional forms of benefit. These proposed regulations would generally affect sponsors of, and participants in, qualified retirement plans.

This document contains final regulations providing guidance regarding the anti-cutback rules of section 411(d)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code, which generally protect accrued benefits, early retirement benefits, retirement-type subsidies, and optional forms of benefit under qualified retirement plans. The regulations address the limited circumstances under which a qualified retirement plan is permitted to be amended to eliminate or reduce early retirement benefits, retirement-type subsidies, or optional forms of benefit. The final regulations also provide related guidance concerning the notice requirements of section 4980F. These final regulations generally affect sponsors of, and participants in, qualified retirement plans.

The OCC, Board, FDIC, and OTS (``we'' or ``the Agencies'') are reviewing our regulations to identify outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome regulatory requirements pursuant to the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 (EGRPRA). Today, we request your comments and suggestions on ways to reduce burden in rules we have categorized as Banking Operations; Directors, Officers and Employees; and Rules of Procedure. All comments are welcome. We specifically invite comment on the following issues: whether statutory changes are needed; whether the regulations contain requirements that are not needed to serve the purposes of the statutes they implement; the extent to which the regulations may adversely affect competition; whether the cost of compliance associated with reporting, recordkeeping, and disclosure requirements, particularly on small institutions, is justified; whether any regulatory requirements are inconsistent or redundant; and whether any regulations are unclear. We will analyze the comments received and propose burden-reducing changes to our regulations where appropriate. Some of your suggestions for burden reduction might require legislative changes. Where legislative changes would be required, we will consider your suggestions in recommending appropriate changes to Congress.