Department of the Treasury January 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

An open meeting of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel Tax Forms and Publications Project Committee will be conducted. 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 Notice 2010-83, Funding Relief for Multiemployer Defined Benefit Plans under PRA 2010 and Notice 2011-3, Special Rules Relating to Funding Relief for Single-Employer Pension Plans under PRA 2010.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are requesting comment on a proposal to revise their market risk capital rules to modify their scope to better capture positions for which the market risk capital rules are appropriate; reduce procyclicality in market risk capital requirements; enhance the rules' sensitivity to risks that are not adequately captured under the current regulatory measurement methodologies; and increase transparency through enhanced disclosures. The proposal does not include the methodologies adopted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision for calculating the specific risk capital requirements for debt and securitization positions due to their reliance on credit ratings, which is impermissible under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The proposal, therefore, retains the current specific risk treatment for these positions until the agencies develop alternative standards of creditworthiness as required by the Act. The proposed rules are substantively the same across the agencies.

This document contains final regulations relating to the modification of debt instruments. The regulations clarify the extent to which the deterioration in the financial condition of the issuer is taken into account to determine whether a modified debt instrument will be recharacterized as an instrument or property right that is not debt. The regulations provide needed guidance to issuers and holders of debt instruments.

This document contains proposed regulations that provide guidance on the reporting requirements for interest on deposits maintained at U.S. offices of certain financial institutions and paid to nonresident alien individuals. These proposed regulations affect persons making payments of interest with respect to such deposits. This document also provides a notice of public hearing on these proposed regulations and withdraws the notice of proposed rulemaking published on August 2, 2002 (67 FR 50386).

This document contains corrections to final and temporary regulations (TD 9507) that were published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, December 7, 2010 (75 FR 75897) providing guidance relating to Federal tax deposits (FTDs) by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). The temporary and final regulations provide rules under which depositors must use EFT for all FTDs and eliminate the rules regarding FTD coupons.

This document amends the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') regulations on an interim basis to implement the preferential tariff treatment and other customs-related provisions of the United StatesOman Free Trade Agreement entered into by the United States and the Sultanate of Oman.

Effective December 31, 2010, The Department of the Treasury, Financial Management Service, is increasing the fees it imposes on and collects from surety companies and reinsuring companies.