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

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.

The Department of the Treasury (Treasury) is announcing a new fee schedule applicable to transfers of U.S. Treasury book-entry securities maintained on the Fedwire Securities Service (Fedwire) that occur on or after January 2, 2020.

The Internal Revenue Service, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the 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 IRS is soliciting comments concerning the collection of information related to the requirements to ensure collection of section 2056A estate tax.

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 obligations of states and political subdivisions.

The OCC is issuing a final rule to clarify and streamline its regulation on other real estate owned (OREO) for national banks and update the regulatory framework for OREO activities at Federal savings associations. The OCC is also removing outdated capital rules for national banks and Federal savings associations, which include provisions related to OREO, and making conforming edits to other rules that reference those capital rules.

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.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively, the banking agencies), and the National Credit Union Administration (collectively, the agencies) are inviting public comment on a proposed interagency policy statement on allowances for credit losses (ACLs). The agencies are issuing this proposed interagency policy statement in response to changes to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) as promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-13, Financial InstrumentsCredit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments and subsequent amendments issued since June 2016. These updates are codified in Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 326, Financial InstrumentsCredit Losses (FASB ASC Topic 326). This proposed interagency policy statement describes the measurement of expected credit losses under the current expected credit losses (CECL) methodology and the accounting for impairment on available-for-sale (AFS) debt securities in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 326; supervisory expectations for designing, documenting, and validating expected credit loss estimation processes, including the internal controls over these processes; maintaining appropriate ACLs; the responsibilities of boards of directors and management; and examiner reviews of ACLs.

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 gas guzzler tax.

The OCC, the Board, and the FDIC (collectively, the agencies) are requesting comment on ways to modify the current requirements for reporting data on loans to small businesses and small farms in the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report) so that the reported data better reflect lending to these sectors of the U.S. economy.

This document contains a final regulation relating to the election to accelerate the timing of a loss sustained by a taxpayer attributable to a federally declared disaster. Additionally, this document removes the temporary regulation.

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 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 and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995. Currently, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), U.S. Department of the Treasury, is soliciting comments concerning the Bank Enterprise Award Program (BEA Program) Application, for the fiscal year (FY) 2020- FY 2022 funding rounds (hereafter, the Application or Applications).

This document provides a notice of public hearing on proposed regulations relating to the tax qualification of plans maintained by more than one employer. These plans, maintained pursuant to section 413(c) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code), are often referred to as multiple employer plans or MEPs.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) proposes to establish the approximately 5,774-acre ``Alisos Canyon'' viticultural area in Santa Barbara County, California. The proposed viticultural area lies entirely within the established Central Coast 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 OCC, the Board, and the FDIC (collectively, the agencies) are issuing a final rule that increases the thresholds in the major assets prohibition for management interlocks for purposes of the Depository Institution Management Interlocks Act (DIMIA). The DIMIA major assets prohibition prohibits a management official of a depository organization with total assets exceeding $2.5 billion (or any affiliate of such an organization) from serving at the same time as a management official of an unaffiliated depository organization with total assets exceeding $1.5 billion (or any affiliate of such an organization). DIMIA provides that the agencies may adjust, by regulation, the major assets prohibition thresholds in order to allow for inflation or market changes. The final rule increases both major assets prohibition thresholds to $10 billion to account for changes in the United States banking market since the current thresholds were established in 1996.

An open meeting of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel Joint Committee will be conducted. 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's Taxpayer Assistance Center Project Committee will be conducted. 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's Tax Forms and Publications Project Committee will be conducted. 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's Taxpayer Communications Project Committee will be conducted. The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is soliciting public comments, ideas, and suggestions on improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service.

This document contains final regulations addressing when certain obligations to restore a deficit balance in a partner's capital account are disregarded under section 704 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code), when partnership liabilities are treated as recourse liabilities under section 752, and how bottom dollar payment obligations are treated under section 752. These final regulations provide guidance necessary for a partnership to allocate its liabilities among its partners. These regulations affect partnerships and their partners.

This document contains a correction to a notice of proposed rulemaking (REG-104870-18) that was published in the Federal Register on September 9, 2019. The proposed regulations are regarding the timing of income inclusion under section 451 of the Internal Revenue Code. The proposed regulations reflect changes made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

The United States Mint is announcing pricing for a new United States Mint numismatic product in accordance with the table below: