Department of Treasury March 2011 – 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 an existing final regulation, TD 8096, Product Liability Losses and Accumulations for Product Liability Losses (Section 1.172-13).

In 1998 the Internal Revenue Service established the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAAC).The primary purpose of ETAAC is for industry partners to provide an organized public forum for discussion of electronic tax administration issues in support of the overriding goal that paperless filing should be the preferred and most convenient method of filing tax and information returns. ETAAC offers constructive observations about current or proposed policies, programs, and procedures, and suggests improvements. Listed is a summary of the agenda along with the planned discussion topics.

Notice of Open Season for Recruitment of IRS Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP) Members.

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 8834, Qualified Electric Vehicle Credit.

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 8939, Allocation of Increase in Basis for Property Acquired From a Decedent.

Congress recently enacted the Coin Modernization, Oversight, and Continuity Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111-302) to provide the Secretary of the Treasury research and development authority for alternative metallic coinage materials. Specifically, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to(1) conduct any appropriate testing of appropriate metallic coinage materials within or outside of the Department of the Treasury; and (2) solicit input from or otherwise work in conjunction with Federal and nonfederal entities, including independent research facilities or current or potential suppliers of the metallic material used in volume production of circulating coins. In accordance with Public Law 111-302, Section 2(b), in conducting research or soliciting input, the Secretary of the Treasury shall consider the following: (A) Factors relevant to the potential impact of any revisions to the composition of the material used in coin production on the current coinage material suppliers; (B) factors relevant to the ease of use and ability to co-circulate of new coinage materials, including the effect on vending machines and commercial coin processing equipment and making certain, to the greatest extent practicable, that any new coins work without interruption in existing coin acceptance equipment without modification; and (C) such other factors that the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with merchants who would be affected by any change in the composition of circulating coins, vending machine and other coin acceptor manufacturers, vending machine owners and operators, transit officials, municipal parking officials, depository institutions, coin and currency handlers, armored-car operators, car wash operators, and American-owned manufacturers of commercial coin processing equipment, considers to be appropriate and in the public interest. Additionally, the Secretary of the Treasury is required to report biennially to the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on the production costs for each circulating coin, cost trends for such production, and possible new metallic materials or technologies for the production of circulating coins. The Secretary of the Treasury has delegated to the Director of the United States Mint the authority to conduct research and development for alternative metallic coinage materials, to consider the factors specified in Public Law 111-302, Section 2(b), and to prepare a biennial report to the Congress on the current status of coin production costs and analysis of alternative metallic coinage materials. Accordingly, the United States Mint requests public comment on the factors specified in Public Law 111-302, Section 2(b).

This document contains final regulations concerning the treatment of certain intercompany gain with respect to stock owned by members of a consolidated group. These regulations provide for the redetermination of intercompany gain as excluded from gross income in certain transactions involving stock transfers between members of a consolidated group. The temporary regulations contained in this document are solely for the purpose of retaining the portion of the existing temporary regulations that were in the same temporary regulation section but that are not being promulgated as final regulations at this time. These regulations affect corporations filing consolidated returns.

This final rule amends Treasury's marketable securities auction rules to establish a minimum interest rate of \1/8\ of one percent for all new Treasury note and bond issues.

Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. app. I section 10(d), of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, and 5 U.S.C. section 552b, the Government in the Sunshine Act, a report summarizing the closed meeting activities of the Art Advisory Panel during 2010 has been prepared. A copy of this report has been filed with the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Management.