Department of the Treasury November 2007 – 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 comment on proposed and continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3507. The Office of Thrift Supervision within the Department of the Treasury will submit the proposed information collection requirement described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. Today, OTS is soliciting public comments on its proposal to extend this information collection.

This document cancels a public hearing on proposed regulations providing rules concerning the application of sections 704(c)(1)(B) and 737 to distributions of property after two partnerships engage in an assets-over merger. The proposed regulations affect partnerships and their partners.

The Department of the Treasury (``Department'' or ``Treasury'') called for the submission of Large Position Reports by those entities whose reportable positions in the 3\7/8\% Treasury Notes of October 2012 equaled or exceeded $2 billion as of close of business November 26, 2007.

This document cancels a public hearing on proposed regulations relating to user fees for the initial and renewed enrollment to become an enrolled actuary.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (``OFAC'') is publishing the names of three newly designated individuals whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to Executive Order 13441 of August 1, 2007, ``Blocking Property of Persons Undermining the Sovereignty of Lebanon or Its Democratic Processes and Institutions.''

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (``OFAC'') is publishing the name of one newly-designated entity whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001, ``Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who Commit, Threaten To Commit, or Support Terrorism.''

This Treasury decision adopts as a final rule, without change, a temporary rule that allows manufacturers of tobacco products and cigarette papers and tubes to remove these articles without payment of tax for use by Federal agencies in law enforcement activities, and without inclusion of the otherwise required tax-exempt label.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau proposes to establish the 13.4 square mile ``Leona Valley'' viticultural area in the northeast part of Los Angeles County, California. 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.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) proposes to amend its regulations concerning the establishment of American viticultural areas (AVAs). The proposed changes address the effect that the approval of an AVA may have on established brand names. In addition, the proposed changes provide clearer regulatory standards for the establishment of AVAs within AVAs. The proposed amendments also clarify the rules for preparing, submitting, and processing viticultural area petitions. Finally, we propose to add to the regulations statements regarding the viticultural significance of established viticultural area names, or key portions of those names, for wine labeling purposes.

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 Notice 2005-04, Fuel Tax Guidance, and Request for comments.

This document promulgates a final regulation that defines the term salary reduction agreement for purposes of section 3121(a)(5)(D) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). The final regulation provides guidance to employers (public educational institutions and section 501(c)(3) organizations) purchasing annuity contracts described in section 403(b) on behalf of their employees.

Recent increases in the price of gold require that the United States Mint raise the sale prices on its upcoming offering of the Dolley Madison First Spouse Gold Coins. Pursuant to the authority that 31 U.S.C. 5112(o)(1) & (4) grants to the Secretary of the Treasury to mint and issue one-half ounce gold bullion First Spouse coins, and to set their sale prices, the United States Mint is changing the price of these coins to reflect the increase in value of the precious metal content of the coins. This change is attributable to recent increases in the market price of gold, which has increased substantially since the initial prices were set for the First Spouse Gold Coins. Accordingly, effective November 19, 2007, the United States Mint will commence selling the following Dolley Madison First Spouse Gold Coins at the prices indicated below:

This document contains revisions to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report forms, including the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan and a new Form 5500-SF, Short Form Annual Return/ Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan (Short Form 5500 or Form 5500- SF), filed for employee pension and welfare benefit plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA), and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (Code). The Form 5500 Annual Return/Report forms, including the schedules and attachments, are an important source of financial, funding, and other information about employee benefit plans for the Department of Labor, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and the Internal Revenue Service (the Agencies), as well as for plan sponsors, participants and beneficiaries, and the general public. The revisions to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report forms contained in this document, including the new Short Form 5500, are intended to streamline the annual reporting process, reduce annual reporting burdens, especially for small businesses, update the annual reporting forms to reflect current issues and agency priorities, incorporate new reporting requirements contained in the Pension Protection Act of 2006, and facilitate electronic filing. Some of the forms revisions will apply on a transitional basis for the 2008 reporting year before all of the forms revisions are fully implemented for the 2009 reporting year as part of the switch under the ERISA Filing Acceptance System (EFAST) to a wholly electronic filing system (EFAST2). The forms revisions affect employee pension and welfare benefit plans, plan sponsors, administrators, and service providers to plans subject to annual reporting requirements under ERISA and the Code.

In the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is issuing temporary regulations describing the time and manner in which certain tax-exempt organizations not currently required to file an annual information return under section 6033(a)(1) are required to submit an annual electronic notice including certain information required by section 6033(i)(1)(A) through (F). The text of those regulations also serves as the text of these proposed regulations.

As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, FinCEN invites comment on a proposed information collection contained in a revised form, Registration of Money Services Business, FinCEN Form 107. The form will be used by currency dealers or exchangers; check cashers; issuers of traveler's checks, money orders or stored value; sellers of traveler's checks, money orders or stored value; redeemers of traveler's checks, money orders or stored value; and money transmitters to register with the Department of the Treasury as required by statute. This request for comments is being made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A).

The Office of Thrift Supervision is considering requiring savings associations to file quarterly Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report) instead of the Thrift Financial Report (TFR) currently filed. This ANPR solicits comments identifying information that the thrift industry and the public would need to analyze a proposal to convert from the TFR to the Call Report used by other federal banking regulators and to amend any OTS rules that would be affected by such a change. At the end of the comment period, OTS will review the comments and conduct any research needed to compile the identified information. OTS plans to publish a second notice containing the requested information and solicit comments on whether to convert to the Call Report.

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 8849, Claim for Refund of Excise Taxes.

This is Supplement No. 4 to the Treasury Department Circular 570, 2007 Revision, published July 2, 2007, at 72 FR 36192.

This document contains final regulations that provide rules for claiming the railroad track maintenance credit under section 45G of the Internal Revenue Code for qualified railroad track maintenance expenditures paid or incurred by a Class II railroad or Class III railroad and other eligible taxpayers during the taxable year. These final regulations reflect changes to the law made by the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, and the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006.

This document contains temporary regulations concerning information reporting on employer-owned life insurance contracts under section 6039I of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). This temporary regulation is necessary to provide taxpayers with immediate guidance as to how the requirements of section 6039I should be applied. The temporary regulations generally apply to taxpayers that are engaged in a trade or business and that are directly or indirectly a beneficiary of a life insurance contract covering the life of an insured who is an employee of the trade or business on the date the contract is issued. The text of these temporary regulations also serves as the text of proposed regulations set forth in the notice of proposed rulemaking on this subject elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.

The Department of the Treasury is announcing a new fee schedule applicable to transfers of U.S. Treasury book-entry securities maintained on the National Book-Entry System (NBES) that occur on or after January 2, 2008. The basic fee for the transfer of a Treasury book-entry security will increase from $.26 to $.28. The Federal Reserve funds movement fee will remain at $.05, resulting in a combined fee of $.33 for each Treasury securities transfer. In addition to the basic fee, off-line transfers have a surcharge. The surcharge for an off-line Treasury book-entry transfer will remain $33.00.

This document contains corrections to a notice of proposed rulemaking (REG-113891-07) that was published in the Federal Register on Friday, August 31, 2007 (72 FR 50544) providing guidance regarding the use of certain funding balances maintained for defined benefit pension plans and regarding benefit restrictions for certain underfunded defined benefit pension plans. These regulations affect sponsors, administrators, participants, and beneficiaries of single employer defined benefit pension plans.