Department of Treasury September 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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 Form 1120-REIT, U.S. Income Tax Return for Real Estate Investment Trusts.

Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 4314(c)(4), this notice announces the appointment of members of the Departmental PRB. The purpose of this PRB is to review and make recommendations concerning proposed performance appraisals, ratings, bonuses and other appropriate personnel actions for incumbents of SES positions for which the Secretary or Deputy Secretary is the appointing authority. These positions include SES bureau heads, deputy bureau heads and certain other positions. The Board will perform PRB functions for other key bureau positions if requested. Composition of Departmental PRB: The Board shall consist of at least three members. In the case of an appraisal of a career appointee, more than half the members shall consist of career appointees. The names and titles of the PRB members are as follows:

Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 4314(c)(4), this notice announces the appointment of members of the Departmental Offices Performance Review Board (PRB). The purpose of this Board is to review and make recommendations concerning proposed performance appraisals, ratings, bonuses and other appropriate personnel actions for incumbents of SES positions in the Departmental Offices, excluding the Legal Division. The Board will perform PRB functions for other bureau positions if requested. Composition of Departmental Offices PRB: The Board shall consist of at least three members. In the case of an appraisal of a career appointee, more than half the members shall consist of career appointees. The names and titles of the Board members are as follows:

This document contains final regulations under sections 358, 362(e)(2), and 1502 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). The regulations apply to corporations filing consolidated returns, and corporations that enter into certain tax-free reorganizations. The regulations provide rules for determining the tax consequences of a member's transfer (including by deconsolidation and worthlessness) of loss shares of subsidiary stock. In addition, the regulations provide that section 362(e)(2) generally does not apply to transactions between members of a consolidated group. Finally, the regulations conform or clarify various provisions of the consolidated return regulations, including those relating to adjustments to subsidiary stock basis.

An open meeting of the Area 3 Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted via telephone conference call. The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is soliciting public comments, ideas, and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service.

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 Form 8308, Report of a Sale or Exchange of Certain Partnership Interests.

This document contains temporary regulations regarding the imposition of penalties under section 6707A of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) for the failure to include on any return or statement any information required to be disclosed under section 6011 with respect to a reportable transaction. The text of the 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 of this issue of the Federal Register.

An open meeting of the Area 7 committee of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted via telephone conference call. The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP) is soliciting public comments, ideas, and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service.

An open meeting of the Area 5 Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted via a telephone conference call. The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is soliciting public comment, ideas, and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service.

An open meeting of the Area 2 Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted via telephone conference call. 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 VITA Issue Committee will be conducted. The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is soliciting public comment, ideas, and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service.

An open meeting of the Ad Hoc IRS Forms and Publications/ Language Services Issue Committee of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted (via teleconference). 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 Joint Committee of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be held. The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is soliciting public comment, ideas, and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service.

An open meeting of the Taxpayer Assistance Center Committee of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel will be conducted (via teleconference). The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP) is soliciting public comments, ideas, and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service.

We are amending our regulation governing the use of the Automated Clearing House (ACH) system by Federal agencies. The rule adopts, with some exceptions, the ACH Rules developed by NACHAThe Electronic Payments Association (NACHA) as the rules governing the use of the ACH Network by Federal agencies. We are issuing this rule to address changes to the ACH Rules set forth in NACHA's 2006 ACH Rules book and 2007 ACH Rules book. We are adopting all of the changes that NACHA published in the 2006 ACH Rules book and 2007 ACH Rules book, except certain changes to the self- audit provisions of the ACH Rules, which we have previously determined are not appropriate for the Federal government. This rule follows publication of a January 9, 2008 proposed rule and adopts the provisions of the proposed rule without change. In addition, the rule provides two exceptions to existing deposit account requirements. Generally, an ACH credit entry representing a Federal payment other than a vendor payment must be deposited into a deposit account at a financial institution in the name of the recipient. On April 25, 2005, Treasury waived this requirement in order to allow some or all of the amount to be reimbursed to a Federal employee for official travel credit card charges to be disbursed directly to the credit card issuing bank. The rule codifies this waiver. The rule also provides an exception from existing deposit account requirements in cases where a Federal payment is to be disbursed through a debit card, stored value card, prepaid card or similar payment card program established by the Financial Management Service (Service).

This document contains final and temporary regulations necessary to implement the redesigned Form 990, ``Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax.'' The final regulations contained in this document make only nonsubstantive revisions to comply with Federal Register requirements. The temporary regulations make revisions to the regulations under section 6033 and section 6043 to allow for new threshold amounts for reporting compensation, to require that compensation be reported on a calendar year basis, and to modify the scope of organizations subject to information reporting requirements upon a substantial contraction. The temporary regulations also eliminate the advance ruling process for new organizations, change the public support computation period for organizations described in sections 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) and 509(a)(1) and in section 509(a)(2) to five years, consistent with the revised Form 990, and clarify that support must be reported using the organization's overall method of accounting. All tax-exempt organizations required under section 6033 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) to file annual information returns are affected by these temporary regulations. The text of these temporary regulations also serves as the text of the proposed regulations (REG- 142333-07) published in the Proposed Rules section in this issue of the Federal Register.

Closed meeting of the Art Advisory Panel will be held in Washington, DC.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury is issuing this interim final rule, ``Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines,'' as enforcement guidance for persons subject to the requirements of U.S. sanctions statutes, Executive orders and regulations. This interim final rule supersedes the Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines set forth in OFAC's proposed rule of January 29, 2003 \1\ (with the exception of the proposed Appendix to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 31 CFR Part 515, set forth therein) and the Economic Sanctions Enforcement Procedures for Banking Institutions set forth in OFAC's interim final rule of January 12, 2006.\2\ These Enforcement Guidelines are published as an appendix to the Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations, 31 CFR Part 501.

This document provides an additional 30 days for interested parties to submit comments on the proposed rule to amend the Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') regulations to establish uniform rules governing CBP determinations of the country of origin of imported merchandise. The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on July 25, 2008 (73 FR 43385), and the comment period was scheduled to expire on September 23, 2008.

The proposed information collection request (ICR) described below has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. OTS is soliciting public comments on the proposal.

This document corrects final and temporary regulations (TD 9417) that were published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 (73 FR 42522) relating to the averaging of farm and fishing income in computing income tax liability.

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. Currently, the OCC is soliciting comment concerning a proposed new collection titled ``Customer Complaint Form''.

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 Form 13997, Validating Your TIN and Reasonable Cause.

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 Forms 9779, 9779(SP), 9783, 9783(SP), 9787, 9787(SP), 9789 and 9789(SP), Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS).

The Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, 5 U.S.C. 552a, requires all Federal agencies to publish their inventory of Privacy Act systems of records. In accordance with this requirement, and following a review of its records, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is publishing its Privacy Act system of records.