Department of the Treasury December 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The OCC is finalizing a rule to prohibit national banks and federal savings associations from dealing or investing in industrial or commercial metals.

This document provides proposed changes to the regulations under section 468A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (Code) relating to deductions for contributions to trusts maintained for decommissioning nuclear power plants and the use of the amounts in those trusts to decommission nuclear plants. The proposed regulations revise certain provisions to: Address issues that have arisen as more nuclear plants have begun the decommissioning process; and clarify provisions in the current regulations regarding self-dealing and the definition of substantial completion of decommissioning.

This document contains corrections to the final regulations (TD 9792) that were published in the Federal Register on Thursday, November 3, 2016 (81 FR 76497). The final regulations provide rules regarding the treatment as United States property of property held by a controlled foreign corporation (CFC) in connection with certain transactions involving partnerships.

This document contains corrections to a notice of proposed rulemaking (REG-114734-16) that was published in the Federal Register on Thursday, November 3, 2016 (81 FR 76542). The proposed regulations provide rules regarding the determination of the amount of the United States property treated as held by a controlled foreign corporation (CFC) through a partnership.

This document contains final regulations that provide guidance on determining ownership of a passive foreign investment company (PFIC) and on certain annual reporting requirements for shareholders of PFICs to file Form 8621, ``Information Return by a Shareholder of a Passive Foreign Investment Company or Qualified Electing Fund.'' In addition, the final regulations provide guidance on an exception to the requirement for certain shareholders of foreign corporations to file Form 5471, ``Information Return of U.S. Persons with Respect to Certain Foreign Corporations.'' The regulations finalize proposed regulations and withdraw temporary regulations published on December 31, 2013. The final regulations affect United States persons that own interests in PFICs, and certain United States shareholders of foreign corporations.

The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA) created the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program (Program) to address disruptions in the market for terrorism risk insurance, to help ensure the continued availability and affordability of commercial property and casualty insurance for terrorism risk, and to allow for the private markets to stabilize and build insurance capacity to absorb any future losses for terrorism events. The Program has been reauthorized on a number of occasions, most recently in the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015. TRIA requires the Secretary of the Treasury (Secretary) to perform periodic analyses of certain matters concerning the Program. In order to assist the Secretary with this process, TRIA requires insurers to submit on an annual basis certain insurance data and information regarding participation in the Program. Treasury requests stakeholder feedback on the data collection forms proposed for use in the 2017 data collection process, pursuant to 31 CFR 50.51(c). Copies of these forms and associated explanatory materials are available for electronic review at https:// www.treasury.gov/resource-center/fin-mkts/Pages/program.aspx. Treasury also seeks comments from interested parties on issues that Treasury will be analyzing in connection with its next report concerning the Program, which will address the participation of small insurers in the Program, including any competitive challenges such insurers face in the terrorism risk insurance marketplace.

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. Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning Notice 2013-39, Temporary Shelter for Individuals Displaced by Severe Storms and Tornadoes in Oklahoma; Notice 2013-40, Low-Income Housing Credit Disaster Relief for Oklahoma Severe Storms and Tornadoes.

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). 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 renewal of its information collection titled, ``Financial Management PoliciesInterest Rate Risk.''

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is publishing the names of 15 persons whose property and interests in property are blocked, and two vessels identified as property in which a specially designated national has an interest and are therefore blocked, pursuant to one or more of the following authorities: Executive Order (E.O.) 13661 and E.O. 13685; and other entities who are subject to the prohibitions of a directive under E.O. 13662.

This document amends the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations relating to the importation into the United States of certain vehicles and engines under the Clean Air Act (CAA) in order to harmonize the documentation requirements applicable to different classes of vehicles and engines that are subject to the CAA's emission standards. This document further amends the regulations to permit importers to file the required U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Declaration Forms with CBP electronically, and amends non- substantive provisions to update regulatory citations and delete obsolete provisions.

The Department of the Treasury (Treasury) is issuing this final rule as part of its implementation of changes to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program (TRIP or Program) required by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015 (2015 Reauthorization Act), as published in proposed form on April 1, 2016, for public comment. Treasury previously issued an interim final rule addressing the process for certification of an act of terrorism, as published in proposed form on April 1, 2016. This final rule addresses the balance of the other proposed rules published on April 1, 2016, and adopts the general renumbering of sections as proposed on April 1, 2016. Some clarifying changes have been made in this final rule in response to comments, and certain other wording changes have also been added which do not change the meaning of the rule as originally proposed.

This notice announces that the Department of the Treasury's Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance (``Committee'') will convene a meeting on Thursday, January 5, 2017, in the Cash Room, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20220, from 1:00-5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The meeting is open to the public, and the site is accessible to individuals with disabilities.

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is publishing the names of 1 individual and 2 entities 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.''

In the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is issuing temporary regulations that provide guidance regarding the distribution by a distributing corporation of stock or securities of a controlled corporation without the recognition of income, gain, or loss. The temporary regulations provide guidance in determining whether a corporation is a predecessor or successor of a distributing or controlled corporation for purposes of the exception under section 355(e) of the Internal Revenue Code to the nonrecognition treatment afforded qualifying distributions, and they provide certain limitations on the recognition of gain in certain cases involving a predecessor of a distributing corporation. The temporary regulations also provide rules regarding the extent to which section 355(f) causes a distributing corporation (and in certain cases its shareholders) to recognize income or gain on the distribution of stock or securities of a controlled corporation. Those temporary regulations affect corporations that distribute the stock or securities of controlled corporations and their shareholders or security holders of those distributing corporations. The text of those temporary regulations serves as the text of these proposed regulations.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is publishing the names of two individuals whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13413, as amended by E.O. 13671, and whose names have been added to OFAC's list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List).

This NOGA is published in connection with the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program, administered by the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury). Through this NOGA, the CDFI Fund announces the availability of up to $1 billion of Guarantee Authority in FY 2017, contingent upon Congressional authorization. This NOGA explains application submission and evaluation requirements and processes, and provides agency contacts and information on CDFI Bond Guarantee Program outreach. Parties interested in being approved for a Guarantee under the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program must submit Qualified Issuer Applications and Guarantee Applications for consideration in accordance with this NOGA. Capitalized terms used in this NOGA and not defined elsewhere are defined in the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program regulations (12 CFR 1808.102) and the CDFI Program regulations (12 CFR 1805.104).

This document contains final regulations that treat a domestic disregarded entity wholly owned by a foreign person as a domestic corporation separate from its owner for the limited purposes of the reporting, record maintenance and associated compliance requirements that apply to 25 percent foreign-owned domestic corporations under section 6038A of the Internal Revenue Code.

This document adopts as a final rule, with changes, proposed amendments to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations reflecting that official notice of liquidation, suspension of liquidation, and extension of liquidation will be posted electronically on the CBP Web site. The regulatory revisions reflect that official notice of liquidation will no longer be posted at the customhouses or stations and that official notices of suspension of liquidation and extension of liquidation will no longer be mailed. Additionally, this rule makes certain technical corrections to the CBP regulations to reflect statutory amendments.

This document proposes to amend the Health Insurance Providers Fee regulations to require certain covered entities engaged in the business of providing health insurance for United States health risks to electronically file Form 8963, ``Report of Health Insurance Provider Information.'' These proposed regulations affect those entities.

This document contains temporary regulations that authorize the disclosure of certain items of return information to the Bureau of the Census (Bureau) in conformance with section 6103(j)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). These temporary regulations are made pursuant to a request from the Secretary of Commerce. These temporary regulations also provide clarifying language for an item of return information and remove duplicative paragraphs contained in the existing regulations. These temporary regulations require no action by taxpayers and have no effect on their tax liabilities. Thus, no taxpayers are likely to be affected by the disclosures authorized by this guidance. The text of the temporary regulations also serves as the text of the proposed regulations set forth in the Proposed Rules section in this issue of the Federal Register.

This document contains final regulations on the definition of issue price for purposes of the arbitrage investment restrictions that apply to tax-exempt bonds and other tax-advantaged bonds. These final regulations affect State and local governments that issue tax-exempt bonds and other tax-advantaged bonds.