Department of the Treasury June 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Consistent with the Obama Administration's commitment to openness and transparency and the President's Open Government Initiative, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) is seeking public input on the private sector development of a well-functioning, responsible private label securities (PLS) market.

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. Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning Form 8621, Return by a Shareholder of a Passive Foreign Investment Company or Qualified Electing Fund.

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. 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 burdens, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on revisions in 2014 of a currently approved information collection that is proposed for approval by the Office of Management and Budget. The Office of International Affairs within the Department of the Treasury is soliciting comments concerning the revision of the Treasury International Capital (TIC) Form SHC/SHCA.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announces a meeting of the Mutual Savings Association Advisory Committee (MSAAC).

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 8896, Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel Production 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 Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (the ``CDFI Fund''), the Department of the Treasury, is soliciting comments concerning data collection to support the Capacity Building Initiative. The CDFI Fund intends to collect data on the CDFI industry's needs for different training and technical assistance topics. The CDFI Fund (and its contractors) will assess the demand for capacity-building on specific topics, the type of content to be provided, and the target audience for specific training courses. Additionally, the CDFI Fund (and its contractors) will conduct capacity assessments of program participants to further refine course content. Data collection will be used to evaluate the services being provided through the Capacity Building Initiative as well. Data collection is expected to take place via online surveys, survey forms submitted electronically to the CDFI Fund, in-person and remote focus groups, phone questionnaires, or similar methods. In general, the CDFI Fund does not anticipate publishing the results of these data collections; however, should this information be useful to the public, the CDFI Fund will ensure that no information of a sensitive or proprietary nature is released.

These final regulations clarify the maximum allowed length of any reasonable and bona fide employment-based orientation period, consistent with the 90-day waiting period limitation set forth in section 2708 of the Public Health Service Act, as added by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act), as amended, and incorporated into the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and the Internal Revenue Code.

The United States Mint is announcing a price of $99.95 for the 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Silver Coin Collection and a price of $9.95 for the 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Uncirculated Coin Set.

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 a continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). Under the PRA, Federal agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including each proposed extension of an existing collection of information, and to allow 60 days for public comment in response to the notice. In accordance with the requirements of the PRA, the OCC 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 OCC is soliciting comment concerning its information collection titled, ``Loans in Areas Having Special Flood Hazards.''

The Agencies are issuing jointly an Addendum (Addendum) to the ``Interagency Policy Statement on Income Tax Allocation in a Holding Company Structure'' to ensure that insured depository institutions (IDIs) in a consolidated group maintain an appropriate relationship regarding the payment of taxes and treatment of tax refunds. The Addendum instructs IDIs and their holding companies to review and revise their tax allocation agreements to ensure that the agreements expressly acknowledge that the holding company receives a tax refund from a taxing authority as agent for the IDI and are consistent with certain of the requirements of sections 23A and 23B of the Federal Reserve Act. The Addendum includes a sample paragraph that IDIs could include in their tax allocation agreements to facilitate the Agencies' instructions.

In the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is issuing temporary regulations to modify existing regulations (TD 8091, amended by TD 9195) promulgated under section 7602(a) of the Internal Revenue Code to clarify that persons with whom the Internal Revenue Service or the Office of Chief Counsel contracts for services described in section 6103(n) and its implementing regulations may be included as persons designated to receive summoned books, papers, records, or other data and to take summoned testimony under oath. The text of the temporary regulations also serves as the text of these proposed regulations.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) proposes to expand the approximately 33-square mile ``Fair Play'' viticultural area in El Dorado County, California, by approximately 1,200 acres (approximately 2 square miles). The established Fair Play viticultural area and the proposed expansion area are located entirely within the larger El Dorado and Sierra Foothills viticultural areas. TTB designates viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase. TTB invites comments on this proposed addition to its regulations.

This document contains final regulations revising the regulations governing practice before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). These final regulations affect individuals who practice before the IRS. These final regulations modify the standards governing written advice and update other related provisions of the regulations.

By this Notice, the Department of the Treasury is informing the public that it is conducting a mandatory survey of foreign ownership of U.S. securities as of June 30, 2014. This mandatory survey is conducted under the authority of the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act (22 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.) This Notice constitutes legal notification to all United States persons (defined below) who meet the reporting requirements set forth in this Notice that they must respond to, and comply with, this survey. Additional copies of the reporting forms SHL (2014) and instructions may be printed from the Internet at: https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/ data-chart-center/tic/Pages/forms-sh.aspx. Definition: A U.S. person is any individual, branch, partnership, associated group, association, estate, trust, corporation, or other organization (whether or not organized under the laws of any State), and any government (including a foreign government, the United States Government, a State or local government, and any agency, corporation, financial institution, or other entity or instrumentality thereof, including a government-sponsored agency), who resides in the United States or is subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Who Must Report: The following U.S. persons must report on this survey: (1) U.S. persons who manage the safekeeping of U.S. securities (as specified below) for foreign persons. These U.S. persons, who include the affiliates in the United States of foreign entities, and are henceforth referred to as U.S. custodians, must report on this survey if the total market value of the U.S. securities whose safekeeping they manage on behalf of foreign personsaggregated over all accounts and for all U.S. branches and affiliates of their firmis $100 million or more as of June 30, 2014. (2) U.S. persons who issue securities, if the total market value of their securities owned directly by foreign personsaggregated over all securities issued by all U.S. subsidiaries and affiliates of the firm, including investment companies, trusts, and other legal entities created by the firmis $100 million or more as of June 30, 2014. U.S. issuers should report only foreign holdings of their securities which are directly held for foreign residents, i.e., where no U.S.-resident custodian or central securities depository is used. Securities held by U.S. nominees, such as bank or broker custody departments, should be considered to be U.S.-held securities as far as the issuer is concerned. (3) U.S. persons who receive a letter from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that requires the recipient of the letter to file Schedule 1, even if the recipient is under the exemption level of $100 million and need only report ``exempt'' on Schedule 1. What To Report: This report will collect information on foreign resident holdings of U.S. securities, including equities, short-term debt securities (including selected money market instruments), and long-term debt securities. How To Report: Copies of the survey forms and instructions, which contain complete information on reporting procedures and definitions, may be obtained at the Web site address given above in the Summary, or by contacting the survey staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at (212) 720-6300 or (646) 720-6300, email: SHLA.help@ny.frb.org. The mailing address is: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Statistics Function, 4th Floor, 33 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10045-0001. Inquiries can also be made to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, at (202) 452-3476, or to Dwight Wolkow, at (202) 622-1276, or by email: comments2TIC@do.treas.gov. When To Report: Data should be submitted to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, acting as fiscal agent for the Department of the Treasury, by August 29, 2014. Paperwork Reduction Act Notice: This data collection has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act and assigned control number 1505-0123. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid control number assigned by OMB. The estimated average annual burden associated with this collection of information is 486 hours per report for the largest custodians of securities, 110 hours per report for the largest issuers of securities that have data to report and are not custodians, and 16 hours per report for those who file as exempt in a benchmark survey. Comments concerning the accuracy of this burden estimate and suggestions for reducing this burden should be directed to the Department of the Treasury, Office of International Affairs, Attention Administrator, International Portfolio Investment Data Reporting Systems, Room 5422, Washington, DC 20220, and to OMB, Attention Desk Officer for the Department of the Treasury, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Washington, DC 20503.

The Department of the Treasury (Treasury) is issuing this notice of proposed rulemaking to solicit public comment on proposed amendments to Treasury's rules for reporting large positions in certain Treasury securities. The large position reporting rules are issued under the Government Securities Act (GSA) for the purposes of monitoring the impact in the Treasury securities market of concentrations of positions in Treasury securities and otherwise assisting the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in enforcing the GSA. In addition, the large position reports provide Treasury with information to better understand supply and demand dynamics in certain Treasury securities. The proposed amendments are designed to improve the information available to Treasury and simplify the reporting process for many entities subject to the large position reporting rules.

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 8957, Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Registration, and Form 8966, FATCA Report.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (``OFAC'') is publishing additional identifying information associated with the names of three individuals identified by the President of the United States on May 30, 2014, whose property and interests in property have been blocked pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (``Kingpin Act'') (21 U.S.C. Sec. Sec. 1901-1908, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1182).

This document contains proposed regulations concerning the manner of filing Form 5472, ``Information Return of a 25% Foreign-Owned U.S. Corporation or a Foreign Corporation Engaged in a U.S. Trade or Business.'' The proposed regulations would remove a current provision for timely filing of Form 5472 separately from an income tax return that is untimely filed. As a result, Form 5472 would be required to be filed in all cases only with the filer's income tax return for the taxable year by the due date (including extensions) of that return. The proposed regulations affect certain 25-percent foreign-owned domestic corporations and certain foreign corporations that are engaged in a trade or business in the United States that are required to file Form 5472. Regulations finalizing the temporary provisions of TD 9529 (76 FR 33997, 2011-30 IRB 57), also about requirements for taxpayers filing Form 5472, will be published in the same issue of the Federal Register as these proposed regulations.

An open meeting of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel Toll-Free Phone Line 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.