Internal Revenue Service November 29, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document contains proposed regulations under the Internal Revenue Code (Code) relating to voluntary withholding agreements. In the Rules and Regulations of this issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is also issuing temporary regulations to allow the Secretary to issue guidance in the Internal Revenue Bulletin to describe payments for which the Secretary finds that income tax withholding under a voluntary withholding agreement would be appropriate. The text of those temporary regulations also generally serves as the text of these proposed regulations. The regulations affect persons making and persons receiving payments for which the IRS issues subsequent guidance authorizing the parties to enter into voluntary withholding agreements.

This document contains proposed regulations that provide guidance to tax-exempt social welfare organizations on political activities related to candidates that will not be considered to promote social welfare. These regulations will affect tax-exempt social welfare organizations and organizations seeking such status. This document requests comments from the public regarding these proposed regulations. This document also requests comments from the public regarding the standard under current regulations that considers a tax-exempt social welfare organization to be operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare if it is ``primarily'' engaged in activities that promote the common good and general welfare of the people of the community, including how this standard should be measured and whether this standard should be changed.

This document contains final regulations relating to Additional Hospital Insurance Tax on income above threshold amounts (``Additional Medicare Tax''), as added by the Affordable Care Act. Specifically, these final regulations provide guidance for employers and individuals relating to the implementation of Additional Medicare Tax, including the requirement to withhold Additional Medicare Tax on certain wages and compensation, the requirement to file a return reporting Additional Medicare Tax, the employer process for adjusting underpayments and overpayments of Additional Medicare Tax, and the employer and individual processes for filing a claim for refund for an overpayment of Additional Medicare Tax.