Internal Revenue Service November 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document contains proposed regulations that provide guidance regarding the information reporting requirements contained in section 6045(e) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) on sales or exchanges of standing timber for lump-sum (outright) payments. The proposed regulations amend Sec. 1.6045-4 of the Income Tax Regulations to require real estate reporting persons, as defined in section 6045(e)(2) of the Code, to report lump-sum payments received by sellers (landowners) for sales or exchanges of standing timber. This action is being taken to make the reporting requirements for lump-sum sales of standing timber consistent with the reporting requirements applicable to pay-as- cut timber sales. The proposed regulations do not change the information reporting requirements that currently apply to sales or exchanges of standing timber for pay-as-cut (contingent) payments under section 6050N of the Code.

This document contains a correction to temporary regulations (TD 9366) that was published in the Federal Register on Thursday, November 15, 2007 (72 FR 64147) describing the time and manner in which certain tax-exempt organizations not currently required to file an annual information return under section 6033(a)(1) are required to submit an annual electronic notice including certain information required by section 6033(i)(1)(A) through (F).

This document promulgates a final regulation that defines the term salary reduction agreement for purposes of section 3121(a)(5)(D) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). The final regulation provides guidance to employers (public educational institutions and section 501(c)(3) organizations) purchasing annuity contracts described in section 403(b) on behalf of their employees.

This document contains proposed regulations that provide guidance under sections 381(c)(4) and (c)(5) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) relating to the accounting method or combination of methods, including the inventory method, to use after certain corporate reorganizations and tax-free liquidations. These proposed regulations clarify and simplify the existing regulations under sections 381(c)(4) and (c)(5). The regulations affect corporations that acquire the assets of other corporations in transactions described in section 381(a).

This document contains revisions to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report forms, including the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan and a new Form 5500-SF, Short Form Annual Return/ Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan (Short Form 5500 or Form 5500- SF), filed for employee pension and welfare benefit plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA), and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (Code). The Form 5500 Annual Return/Report forms, including the schedules and attachments, are an important source of financial, funding, and other information about employee benefit plans for the Department of Labor, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and the Internal Revenue Service (the Agencies), as well as for plan sponsors, participants and beneficiaries, and the general public. The revisions to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report forms contained in this document, including the new Short Form 5500, are intended to streamline the annual reporting process, reduce annual reporting burdens, especially for small businesses, update the annual reporting forms to reflect current issues and agency priorities, incorporate new reporting requirements contained in the Pension Protection Act of 2006, and facilitate electronic filing. Some of the forms revisions will apply on a transitional basis for the 2008 reporting year before all of the forms revisions are fully implemented for the 2009 reporting year as part of the switch under the ERISA Filing Acceptance System (EFAST) to a wholly electronic filing system (EFAST2). The forms revisions affect employee pension and welfare benefit plans, plan sponsors, administrators, and service providers to plans subject to annual reporting requirements under ERISA and the Code.

In the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is issuing temporary regulations describing the time and manner in which certain tax-exempt organizations not currently required to file an annual information return under section 6033(a)(1) are required to submit an annual electronic notice including certain information required by section 6033(i)(1)(A) through (F). The text of those regulations also serves as the text of these proposed regulations.

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 8849, Claim for Refund of Excise Taxes.

This document contains final regulations that provide rules for claiming the railroad track maintenance credit under section 45G of the Internal Revenue Code for qualified railroad track maintenance expenditures paid or incurred by a Class II railroad or Class III railroad and other eligible taxpayers during the taxable year. These final regulations reflect changes to the law made by the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, and the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006.

This document contains temporary regulations concerning information reporting on employer-owned life insurance contracts under section 6039I of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). This temporary regulation is necessary to provide taxpayers with immediate guidance as to how the requirements of section 6039I should be applied. The temporary regulations generally apply to taxpayers that are engaged in a trade or business and that are directly or indirectly a beneficiary of a life insurance contract covering the life of an insured who is an employee of the trade or business on the date the contract is issued. The text of these temporary regulations also serves as the text of proposed regulations set forth in the notice of proposed rulemaking on this subject elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.

This document contains proposed regulations that would expand the list of permitted loan modifications to include certain modifications of commercial mortgages. Changes to the regulations are necessary to better accommodate evolving commercial mortgage industry practices. These changes will affect lenders, borrowers, servicers, and sponsors of securitizations of mortgages in REMICs.

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 instructions on how to apply for a Central Withholding Agreement.

This document contains corrections to proposed regulations (REG-140206-06) that were published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 (72 FR 58781) regarding a withholding agent's obligation to withhold and report tax under Chapter 3 of the Internal Revenue Code when there is a distribution in redemption of stock of a corporation that is actively traded on an established financial market.

This document contains temporary Income Tax Regulations relating to a United States taxpayer's obligation under section 905(c) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) to notify the IRS of a foreign tax redetermination, which is a change in the taxpayer's foreign tax liability that may affect the taxpayer's foreign tax credit. This document also contains temporary Procedure and Administration Regulations under section 6689 relating to the civil penalty for failure to notify the IRS of a foreign tax redetermination as required under section 905(c). These temporary regulations affect taxpayers that have paid foreign taxes which have been redetermined and provide guidance needed to comply with statutory changes made to the applicable law by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 and the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. The text of the temporary regulations also serves as the text of the proposed regulations (REG-209020-86) set forth in the notice of proposed rulemaking on this subject published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.

This document contains corrections to the notice of proposed regulations (REG-143397-05) that was published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 (72 FR 46932) concerning the application of sections 704(c)(1)(B) and 737 to distributions of property after two partnerships engage in an assets-over merger. The proposed regulations affect partnerships and their partners.

The Charter for the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council (IRSAC) will renew for a two-year period beginning November 2, 2007.