Department of the Treasury December 5, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On January 23, 2017, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) published a temporary rule, T.D. TTB-147, Implementation of Statutory Amendments Requiring the Modification of the Definition of Hard Cider, that amended its regulations to implement changes made to the definition of ``hard cider'' in the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 by the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act (PATH Act) of 2015. The amended regulations included a requirement that the statement ``Tax class 5041(b)(6)'' appear on the container of any wine for which the hard cider tax rate is claimed if the wine is removed from wine premises or customs custody on or after January 1, 2018. Concurrent with the temporary rule, TTB published Notice of Proposed Rulemaking No. 168 requesting comments on the regulatory amendments made by T.D. TTB-147. In response to a comment received from a cider industry trade association, TTB, in a temporary rule published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register, is now delaying the compliance date for the hard cider tax class labeling requirement by one year, until January 1, 2019. In this document, TTB is requesting comments on that delayed compliance date, and we are also re-opening the comment period for Notice No. 168 for an additional 60 days to request comments on the regulatory amendments described in T.D. TTB-147.

This document amends the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations to reflect the imposition of emergency import restrictions on certain archaeological and ethnological materials from Libya. The Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, United States Department of State, has determined that conditions warrant the imposition of emergency import restrictions on categories of archaeological and ethnological materials from Libya, which represent the cultural heritage of Libya. This document contains the Designated List of Archaeological and Ethnological Material of Libya that describes the types of objects or categories of archaeological or ethnological material to which the import restrictions apply. The emergency import restrictions imposed on certain archaeological and ethnological materials from Libya will be in effect for a five-year period. These restrictions are being imposed pursuant to determinations of the United States Department of State made under the terms of the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act, which implements the 1970 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.

The Internal Revenue Service, 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. The IRS is soliciting comments concerning collection requirements related to disclosure of relative values of optional forms of benefit.

The Internal Revenue Service, 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. The IRS is soliciting comments concerning information collection requirements related to certain asset transfers to a tax exempt entity.

The Internal Revenue Service, 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 continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The IRS is soliciting comments concerning the 2016, 2017 and 2018 IRS Taxpayer Burden Surveys.