Department of the Treasury 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document contains final regulations that provide guidance on the normalization requirements applicable to public utilities that benefit (or have benefited) from accelerated depreciation methods or from the investment tax credit permitted under pre-1991 law. These regulations permit a utility whose assets cease, whether by disposition, deregulation, or otherwise, to be public utility property with respect to the utility (deregulated public utility property) to return to its ratepayers the normalization reserve for excess deferred income taxes (EDFIT) with respect to those assets and, in certain circumstances, also permit the return of part or all of the reserve for accumulated deferred investment tax credits (ADITC) with respect to those assets.

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 13382 of June 28, 2005, ``Blocking Property of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators and Their Supporters.''

The Department of the Treasury is announcing a change in the fee schedule for the Legacy Treasury Direct investor account maintenance fee. Legacy Treasury Direct investor account maintenance fees are assessed annually for each investor account with security holdings in excess of $100,000 in par value, pursuant to the Regulations Governing Book-Entry Treasury Bonds, Notes and Bills Held in Legacy Treasury Direct.

This document contains corrections to a notice of proposed rulemaking (REG-127391-07) that was published in the Federal Register on Friday, March 7, 2008 (73 FR 12313) providing guidance under Internal Revenue Code section 664 on the tax effect of unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) on charitable remainder trusts.

This document contains a correction to final regulations (TD 9377) that were published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 (73 FR 3868), that apply to a section 197 intangible resulting from an assumption reinsurance transaction, and under section 338 that apply to reserve increases after a deemed asset sale.

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 1099-R, Distributions From Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, etc.

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 8858, Information Return of U.S. Persons With Respect To Foreign Disregarded Entities, and Schedule M, Transaction Between Foreign Disregarded Entity of a Foreign Tax Owner and the Filer on Other Related Entities.

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 8864, Biodiesel Fuels 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 Form 1041-A U.S. Information Return-Trust Accumulation of Charitable Amounts.

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 Revenue Procedure 2002-68, Optional election to make monthly 706(a) computations.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (``OFAC'') is publishing the names of four newly-designated individuals 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 document corrects final regulations and removal of temporary regulations (TD 9380) that was published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 (73 FR 9188), relating to substitutes for returns.

This document contains final regulations concerning the availability and character of a loss deduction under section 165 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) for losses sustained from abandoned stock or other securities. The final regulations clarify the tax treatment of losses from abandoned securities, and affect any taxpayer claiming a deduction for a loss from abandoned securities after the date these regulations are published in the Federal Register.

The Department of the Treasury's Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession will convene a telephone conference meeting on Tuesday, April 1, 2008, beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Members of the public may take part in the meeting by listening to the webcast accessible on the Department's Web site at https://www.treas.gov/ offices/domestic-finance/acap/index.shtml or by calling telephone number (866) 341-2255 and using access code number 655660. Persons needing special accommodations to take part because of a disability should notify the contact person listed below.

This Treasury decision establishes the 1,888-square mile Lehigh Valley viticultural area in southeastern Pennsylvania in portions of Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Schuylkill, Carbon, and Monroe Counties. 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.

The United States Mint is announcing the price of the 2008 American Eagle Silver Uncirculated Coin. Because of increases in the cost of silver, the United States Mint will begin accepting orders for the 2008 American Eagle Silver Uncirculated Coin at the price indicated below, effective March 17, 2008:

The OCC, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on a continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a 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 OCC is soliciting comment concerning its information collection titled, ``(MA)Management Official Interlocks12 CFR 26.''

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (``OFAC'') is publishing the name of an entity whose property and interests in property have been unblocked pursuant to Executive Order 13219 of June 26, 2001, Blocking Property of Persons Who Threaten International Stabilization Efforts in the Western Balkans, as amended by Executive Order 13304 of May 28, 2003, Termination of Emergencies With Respect to Yugoslavia and Modification of Executive Order 13219 of June 26, 2001.

This document contains proposed regulations that explain how section 263(a) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) applies to amounts paid to acquire, produce, or improve tangible property. The proposed regulations clarify and expand the standards in the current regulations under section 263(a), as well as provide some bright-line tests (for example, a de minimis rule for acquisitions). The proposed regulations will affect all taxpayers that acquire, produce, or improve tangible property. This document also provides a notice of public hearing on the proposed regulations and withdraws the proposed regulations published in the Federal Register on August 21, 2006 (71 FR 161).

The Federal Claims Collection Standards (FCCS), provide governmentwide debt collection procedures and policies for agencies collecting non-tax debts owed to the United States. This rule revises part 901, which specifies the order in which a federal agency is required to apply a partial or installment payment to the various components of a delinquent, non-tax debt owed to the United States. Under the current rule, payments are required to be applied first to penalties, then to administrative costs, then to interest, and last to principal. As revised, the rule would require agencies to apply payments first to administrative costs that are paid out of amounts collected from the debtor (referred to as ``contingency fees'') when such costs are added to the debt, second to penalties, third to administrative costs other than contingency fees, fourth to interest, and last to principal. Additionally, the term ``administrative charges'' is being replaced with ``administrative costs'' for consistency and clarity.

This document contains proposed regulations that provide guidance under Internal Revenue Code (Code) section 664 on the tax effect of unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) on charitable remainder trusts. The proposed regulations reflect the changes made to section 664(c) by section 424(a) and (b) of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006. The proposed regulations affect charitable remainder trusts that have UBTI in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2006. This document also provides notice of a public hearing on these proposed regulations.

This document contains final and temporary regulations concerning the treatment of certain intercompany gain with respect to consolidated group member stock. These amendments provide for the redetermination of an intercompany gain as excluded from gross income in certain member stock transactions. These regulations affect corporations filing consolidated returns. The text of these 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.

Closed meeting of the Art Advisory Panel will be held in Washington, D.C.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is amending its securities offering disclosure rules to eliminate the general requirement that a national bank in organization include audited financial statements as part of a public offering of its securities. The OCC has determined that, due to the very limited nature of the activities of a bank in the organizational phase, this requirement typically adds little information that is of benefit to potential investors or of significance in our review of an application for a national bank charter. However, the final rule enables the OCC to request audited financial statements in circumstances where doing so would be in the best interest of investors or would further the safe and sound operation of the national bank.