Department of the Treasury January 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on a currently approved information collection that is due for extension approval by the Office of Management and Budget. The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Office within the Department of the Treasury is soliciting comments concerning the Record Keeping Requirements set forth in 31 CFR part 50.8.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is notifying insured Federal depository institutions \1\ that are or may become swap dealers that the OCC is prepared to consider favorably requests for a transition period pursuant to section 716(f) of the Dodd-Frank Act, provided that such requests conform to the procedures and conditions established in this notice.

This notice is given pursuant to the requirements of the Regulatory Flexibility Act and Executive Order (E.O.) 12866 (``Regulatory Planning and Review''), which require the publication by the Department of a semiannual agenda of regulations. E.O. 12866 also requires the publication by the Department of a regulatory plan for the upcoming fiscal year.

The OCC, 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 information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). The OCC is soliciting comments concerning the currently approved Minimum Security Devices and Procedures, Reports of Suspicious Activities, and Bank Secrecy Act Compliance Program information collection. The Minimum Security Devices and Procedures and Bank Secrecy Act Compliance Program portion of the information collection is being extended without change. The OCC is proposing to extend, with revision, the interagency suspicious activity report (SAR-DI) portion of the collection and is inviting comments on this revision. As the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) administrator, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in the U.S. Department of Treasury is changing from a system originally designed for collecting industry- specific paper forms to a modernized information technology environment centered on electronic reporting. Based on financial institution type, depository institutions, broker-dealers in securities, futures commission merchants and introducing brokers in commodities, insurance companies, mutual funds, money services businesses, and casinos file reports on four separate forms. FinCEN's new approach is to have one electronically filed interactive BSA SAR that will be used by all filing institutions to report suspicious activity as of April 1, 2013. There are no proposed changes to the suspicious activity report regulation. National banks and federal savings associations supervised by the OCC will continue to follow the regulation, interagency guidance, and filing instructions to determine when a report should be filed and what information should be included in the report. The interactive BSA SAR has several new data fields and introduces data fields from the SARs of other industries. On March 29, 2012, FinCEN released guidance titled, ``Filing FinCEN's New Currency Transaction Report and Suspicious Activity Report'' (FIN-2012-G002). The guidance notes that FinCEN is making available additional and more specific data elements (that is, characterizations of suspicious activity and types of financial services) as a more efficient way to bring information about suspicious activity to the attention of FinCEN and law enforcement. The guidance clarified the addition of new and expanded data elements does not create an expectation that financial institutions will revise internal programs, or develop new programs, to capture information that reflects the expanded data elements. Data elements designated as ``critical fields (questions for which an answer must be provided) in the BSA SAR are identified by the asterisk preceding the data element number.

This document contains proposed regulations that create a new taxpayer identifying number known as an IRS truncated taxpayer identification number, a TTIN. As an alternative to using a social security number (SSN), IRS individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN), or IRS adoption taxpayer identification number (ATIN), the filer of certain information returns may use a TTIN on the corresponding payee statements to identify the individual being furnished a statement. The TTIN displays only the last four digits of an individual's identifying number and is shown in the format XXX-XX- 1234 or ***-**-1234. These proposed regulations affect filers of certain information returns who will be permitted to identify an individual payee by use of a TTIN on the payee statement furnished to the individual, and those individuals who receive payee statements containing a TTIN.

In the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is issuing temporary regulations that provide guidance on the tax treatment of a debt instrument with a bond premium carryforward in the holder's final accrual period, including a Treasury bill acquired at a premium. The text of those regulations also serves as the text of these 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 Bureau of the Public Debt within the Department of the Treasury is soliciting comments concerning the Release.

This document contains proposed regulations providing guidance under section 4980H of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) with respect to the shared responsibility for employers regarding employee health coverage. These proposed regulations would affect only employers that meet the definition of ``applicable large employer'' as described in these proposed regulations. As discussed in section X of this preamble, employers may rely on these proposed regulations for guidance pending the issuance of final regulations or other applicable guidance. This document also provides notice of a public hearing on these proposed regulations.