Department of the Treasury October 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is publishing the names of one or more persons that have been placed on OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List based on OFAC's determination that one or more applicable legal criteria were satisfied. All property and interests in property subject to U.S. jurisdiction of these persons are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

This document contains final regulations providing guidance on new information reporting obligations under section 6050Y related to reportable policy sales of life insurance contracts and payments of reportable death benefits. The final regulations also provide guidance on the amount of death benefits excluded from gross income under section 101 following a reportable policy sale. The final regulations affect parties involved in certain life insurance contract transactions, including reportable policy sales, transfers of life insurance contracts to foreign persons, and payments of reportable death benefits.

The OCC, the Board, and the Bureau are finalizing amendments to the official interpretations for their regulations that implement section 129H of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). Section 129H of TILA establishes special appraisal requirements for ``higher-risk mortgages,'' termed ``higher-priced mortgage loans'' or ``HPMLs'' in the agencies' regulations. The OCC, the Board, the Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) (collectively, the Agencies) issued joint final rules implementing these requirements, effective January 18, 2014. The Agencies' rules exempted, among other loan types, transactions of $25,000 or less, and required that this loan amount be adjusted annually based on any annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). If there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the OCC, the Board, and the Bureau will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. However, in years following a year in which the exemption threshold was not adjusted, the threshold is calculated by applying the annual percentage increase in the CPI-W to the dollar amount that would have resulted, after rounding, if the decreases and any subsequent increases in the CPI-W had been taken into account. Based on the CPI-W in effect as of June 1, 2019, the exemption threshold will increase from $26,700 to $27,200, effective January 1, 2020.

For the period beginning July 1, 2019, and ending on December 31, 2019, the prompt payment interest rate is 2\5/8\ per centum per annum.

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 comment on the proposed information collections listed below, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

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 comment on the proposed information collection listed below, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Board of Trustees of the Carpenters Pension Trust Fund Detroit and Vicinity Pension Plan (Fund), a multiemployer pension plan, has submitted an application to reduce benefits under the plan in accordance with the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA). The purpose of this notice is to announce that the application submitted by the Board of Trustees of the Fund has been published on the website of the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), and to request public comments on the application from interested parties, including participants and beneficiaries, employee organizations, and contributing employers of the Fund.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 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 Revenue Procedure 2018-31, Changes in Accounting periods and in Methods of Accounting.

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 tuition payments statement.

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is publishing the names of one or more persons that have been placed on OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List based on OFAC's determination that one or more applicable legal criteria were satisfied. All property and interests in property subject to U.S. jurisdiction of these persons are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, the Department of the Treasury (``Treasury'' or the ``Department''), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, proposes to modify a system of records titled, ``Department of the Treasury, Office of the Comptroller .220 Notices of Proposed Changes in Employees, Officers and Directors Tracking SystemTreasury/Comptroller.'' This electronic system, is used to maintain the applications, background materials, and tracking information related to applications submitted by OCC-regulated entities for approval of employees, proposed directors or senior executive officers of a national bank, federal savings association, or federal branches of foreign banks; and requests from foreign banking supervisors for information about a former or existing employee of an OCC-regulated institution. Records in this system may be contained in an electronic system used by the OCC's Large Bank Supervision examiners or in an electronic system used by the OCC's Midsize and Community Bank supervision examiners, depending on the bank to which the records pertain. Additional copies of information may be contained in paper working files.

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the OCC, the Board, and the FDIC (the agencies) 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. On June 25, 2019, the agencies, under the auspices of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), requested public comment for 60 days on a proposal to extend for three years without revision the Market Risk Regulatory Report for Institutions Subject to the Market Risk Capital Rule (FFIEC 102), which is currently an approved collection of information for each agency. The comment period for the June 2019 notice ended on August 26, 2019. As described in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section, no comments were received on the proposal; therefore, the FFIEC and the agencies will proceed with the extension of the FFIEC 102 as proposed. In addition, the agencies are giving notice that they are sending the collections to OMB for review.

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 information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Currently, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (the CDFI Fund), the Department of the Treasury, is soliciting comments concerning the Uses of Awards Report Form, which is completed by the Bank Enterprise Award Program (BEA Program) Recipients and the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program) Recipients.

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). An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and respondents are 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 the revision of the information collection titled ``Regulation CHome Mortgage Disclosure.''

This document proposes to amend the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations pertaining to importations of merchandise that violate or are suspected of violating the copyright laws, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), in accordance with Title III of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (TFTEA). The proposed amendments set forth in this document are intended to clarify the definition of ``piratical articles,'' simplify the detention process involving goods suspected of violating the copyright laws, and prescribe new regulations enforcing the DMCA.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 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 Export Exemption Certificate.

The Department of the Treasury will submit the following information collection requests to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. The public is invited to submit comments on these requests.

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 regulations governing practice before the Internal Revenue Service.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) proposes to establish the 156,389-acre ``Royal Slope'' viticultural area in Adams and Grant Counties, in Washington. The proposed viticultural area lies entirely within the existing Columbia Valley viticultural area. 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.

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 estate and gift taxes; qualified disclaimers of property (section 2518).

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 Form 13362, Consent to Disclosure of Return Information.

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 Bureau of the Fiscal Service within the Department of the Treasury is soliciting comments concerning the CMIA Annual Report and Direct Cost Claims.

The OCC is adopting a final rule to amend the OCC's company- run stress testing requirements for national banks and Federal savings associations, consistent with section 401 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. Specifically, the final rule revises the minimum threshold for national banks and Federal savings associations to conduct stress tests from $10 billion to $250 billion, revises the frequency by which certain national banks and Federal savings associations will be required to conduct stress tests, and reduces the number of required stress testing scenarios from three to two.