Department of Treasury December 31, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document contains final and temporary regulations under section 468A of the Internal Revenue Code relating to deductions for contributions to trusts maintained for decommissioning nuclear power plants. The temporary regulations affect most taxpayers that own an interest in a nuclear power plant and reflect recent statutory changes. The text of these temporary regulations also serves as the text of the proposed regulations set forth in the notice of proposed rulemaking on this subject in the Proposed Rules section in this issue of the Federal Register.

This document contains proposed amendments to regulations relating to employment tax adjustments and employment tax refund claims. These proposed amendments modify the process for making interest-free adjustments for both underpayments and overpayments of Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) and Railroad Retirement Tax Act (RRTA) taxes and Federal income tax withholding (ITW) under sections 6205(a) and 6413(a), respectively, of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). These proposed amendments also modify the process for filing claims for refund of overpayments of employment taxes under sections 6402 and 6414. These amendments are proposed in connection with the IRS's development of new forms to report adjustments to employment taxes which will replace the existing process of reporting adjustments of employment taxes on regularly filed employment tax returns. These proposed amendments affect taxpayers that file Form 941, ``Employer's QUARTERLY Federal Tax Return,'' Form 943, ``Employer's Annual Tax Return for Agricultural Employees,'' Form 944, ``Employer's ANNUAL Federal Tax Return,'' Form 945, ``Annual Return of Withheld Federal Income Tax,'' and Form CT-1, ``Employer's Annual Railroad Retirement Tax Return,'' and any related Spanish-language returns or returns for U.S. possessions. This document contains proposed amendments to regulations relating to the return requirements under section 6011 to reflect the changes to the adjustment and refund processes, and to reflect additional statutory and process updates. This document also contains proposed amendments to the regulations under section 6302 to clarify deposit obligations with respect to interest-free adjustments of underpayments and the effect of adjustments and refunds on the deposit schedule of a Form 943 filer. This document also provides notice of a public hearing on these proposed amendments to the regulations.

In the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is issuing a regulation that would add an additional item of return information that may be disclosed to the Bureau of the Census (Bureau) for use in the Bureau's annual Survey of Industrial Research and Development. This proposed regulation provides guidance to IRS personnel responsible for disclosing the information. This regulation facilitates the assistance of the IRS to the Bureau in its statistics programs and requires no action by taxpayers and has no effect on their tax liabilities.

For the period beginning January 1, 2008, and ending on June 30, 2008, the prompt payment interest rate and the contract disputes interest rate is 4-\3/4\ per centum per annum.