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

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 the renewal of an information collection as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). 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 renewal of an information collection titled, ``Guidance on Sound Incentive Compensation Practices.''

As part of a continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (``FinCEN'') invites comment on a renewal, without change, to information collection requirements finalized on March 19, 2007 (72 FR 12730, RIN 1506-AA83) imposing a special measure against Banco Delta Asia, including its subsidiaries Delta Asia Credit Limited and Delta Asia Insurance Limited, as a financial institution of primary money laundering concern. This request for comments is being made pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A).

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 (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, ``Interagency Guidance on Asset Securitization Activities.'' The OCC also is giving notice that it has sent the collection to OMB for review.

The Comptroller of the Currency has determined that the renewal of the charter of the OCC Minority Depository Institutions Advisory Committee (MDIAC) is necessary and in the public interest to provide advice and information about the current circumstances and future development of minority depository institutions, in accordance with the goals established by section 308 of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA), Pub. L. 101-73, Title III, 103 Stat. 353, 12 U.S.C. 1463 note.

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 Continuity of Interest.

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 Determination of Interest Expense Deduction of Foreign Corporation.

This document is a request for information on whether there are alternative ways (other than those offered in current regulations) for eligible organizations that object to providing coverage for contraceptive services on religious grounds to obtain an accommodation, while still ensuring that women enrolled in the organizations' health plans have access to seamless coverage of the full range of Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives without cost sharing. This information is being solicited in light of the Supreme Court's opinion in Zubik v. Burwell, 136 S. Ct. 1557 (2016). The Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury (collectively, the Departments) invite public comments via this request for information.

This document withdraws the notice of proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register on December 20, 1985, and the notice of proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register on September 21, 1987. In the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register, the Treasury Department and the IRS are issuing temporary regulations relating to the income inclusion rules under section 50(d)(5) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) that are applicable to a lessee of investment credit property when a lessor of such property elects to treat the lessee as having acquired the property. The text of those regulations also serves as the text of these proposed regulations.

This document contains proposed changes to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report forms, including the Form 5500, Annual Return/ Report of Employee Benefit Plan (Form 5500 Annual Return/Report), and the Form 5500-SF, Short Form Annual Return/Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan (Form 5500-SF). The annual returns/reports are filed for employee pension and welfare benefit plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (Code). The proposed revisions in this Notice reflect efforts of the Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (collectively Agencies) to improve employee benefit plan reporting for filers, the public, and the Agencies by modernizing financial information filed regarding plans; updating fee and expense information on plan service providers with a focus on harmonizing annual reporting requirements with the Department of Labor's final disclosure requirements enhancing mineability of data filed on annual return/reports; requiring reporting by all group health plans covered by Title I of ERISA, including adding a new Schedule J (Group Health Plan Information); and improving compliance under ERISA and the Code through selected new questions regarding plan operations, service provider relationships, and financial management of the plan. These revisions, which are being proposed in conjunction with a recompete of the ERISA Filing and Acceptance System (EFAST2) contract, if adopted, generally would apply for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2019. EFAST2 is expected to begin processing the Plan Year 2019 Form 5500 Annual Return/Report beginning January 1, 2020. The proposed revisions would affect employee pension and welfare benefit plans, plan sponsors, administrators, and service providers to plans subject to annual reporting requirements under ERISA and the Code.

This document contains corrections to a correction document for final and temporary regulations (TD 9761) that was published in the Federal Register on June 23, 2016 (81 FR 40810).

This document contains final regulations on the arbitrage restrictions under section 148 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) applicable to tax-exempt bonds and other tax-advantaged bonds issued by State and local governments. These final regulations amend existing regulations to address certain market developments, simplify certain provisions, address certain technical issues, and make existing regulations more administrable. These final regulations affect State and local governments that issue tax-exempt and other tax-advantaged bonds.

This document contains final regulations modifying regulations under section 7602(a) of the Internal Revenue Code relating to administrative summonses. Specifically, these final regulations clarify that persons with whom the IRS or the Office of Chief Counsel (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, in the presence and under the guidance of an IRS officer or employee, participate fully in the interview of a witness summoned by the IRS to provide testimony under oath. These regulations may affect taxpayers, a taxpayer's officers or employees, and any third party who is served with a summons, as well as any other person entitled to notice of a summons.

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 financial asset securitization investment trust; real estate mortgage investment conduits; real estate mortgage investment conduits.

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 regulations governing practice before the Internal Revenue.

The Federal Insurance Office (FIO) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) issues this notice pursuant to its authority to monitor the extent to which traditionally underserved communities and consumers, minorities, and low- and moderate-income (LMI) persons have access to affordable personal automobile insurance. In July 2015, FIO sought comments from stakeholders, including state insurance regulators, consumer organizations, representatives of the insurance industry, policyholders, academics, and others regarding: FIO's proposed working definition of ``affordability'' in relation to personal automobile insurance; the key factors FIO should use to calculate an affordability index for Affected Persons (e.g., premium, income, and other metrics); and how best to obtain appropriate data to monitor effectively the affordability of personal automobile insurance for Affected Persons. After carefully considering all the comments received in response to this and a previous solicitation, in conjunction with additional research and consultation, FIO has adopted a method to measure the affordability of automobile insurance for Affected Persons: FIO will calculate its Affordability Index by dividing the average (or mean) annual written personal automobile liability premium in the voluntary market by the median household income for U.S. Postal Service ZIP Codes (ZIP Codes) identified as being majority-minority or majority-LMI. FIO will presume that personal automobile liability insurance is affordable for Affected Persons if the Affordability Index is less than or equal to 2 percent. To undertake the study of the affordability of automobile insurance for Affected Persons, FIO will collect and analyze premium data received and aggregated by statistical agents. In addition, FIO will use data publicly available through the U.S. Census Bureau. In combination, these data sources should facilitate analysis necessary for FIO to monitor the affordability of personal auto insurance for Affected Persons. FIO will report its findings annually, and note, among other things, the trend of the Affordability Index relative to each of the ZIP Codes analyzed.

The OCC, Board, FDIC, CFPB, SEC, and NCUA (each, an Agency and collectively, the Agencies) announce that OMB has approved the collection of information contained in the Final Interagency Policy Statement Establishing Joint Standards for Assessing the Diversity Policies and Practices of Entities Regulated by the Agencies (Policy Statement). Regulated entities may now begin to submit self-assessments of their diversity policies and practices to the OMWI Director of their primary federal financial regulator.

The U.S. 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 (PRA) of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A). Currently, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), U.S. Department of the Treasury, is soliciting comments concerning the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and the Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program) Financial Assistance and Technical Assistance Applications for the FY 2017-FY 2019 funding rounds (hereafter, the Application or Applications). The CDFI Fund is required by law to make the Applications publically available for comment prior to submission for a new PRA number.

This document contains corrections to final and temporary regulations (TD 9768) that were published in the Federal Register on May 6, 2016 (81 FR 27315). The final and temporary regulations are relating to certified professional employer organizations (CPEOs). The Stephen Beck, Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014 requires the IRS to establish a voluntary certification program for professional employer organizations. These final and temporary regulations contain the requirements a person must satisfy in order to become and remain a CPEO.

This document contains final and temporary regulations relating to the requirement, added by the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, that organizations must notify the IRS of their intent to operate under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). The regulations affect organizations described in section 501(c)(4) (section 501(c)(4) organizations) that are organized after December 18, 2015, and certain section 501(c)(4) organizations existing on that date. The text of the temporary regulations serves as the text of the proposed regulations set forth in the related notice of proposed rulemaking (REG-101689-16) published in the Proposed Rules section in this issue of the Federal Register.

The Financial Research Advisory Committee for the Treasury's Office of Financial Research (OFR) is convening for its eighth meeting on Thursday, July 28, 2016, in the Ben Strong Room, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 33 Liberty Street, New York, New York, 10045, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The meeting will be open to the public via live webcast at https://www.financialresearch.gov and limited seating will also be available.

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, 5 U.S.C. 552a the Department of the Treasury (``Treasury'' or the ``Department'') proposes to establish a new Treasury system of records titled, ``Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service Treasury/IRS 10.008, Certified Professional Employer Organizations System of Records.''

An open meeting of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel Notices and Correspondence 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.

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.

An open meeting of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel Joint 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 United States, Canada and Mexico have agreed to liberalize provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) preference rules of origin that relate to certain goods, including certain spices. However, such liberalization cannot take effect unless U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) amends its regulations to allow the NAFTA preference override to apply to certain spice products and other food products. This document proposes such an amendment.