This document contains final regulations that authorize the Commissioner to provide exceptions to the requirements of section 6031(a) of the Internal Revenue Code for certain partnerships by guidance published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin. The regulations adopt the rules of the temporary regulations without any changes.
On November 10, 2003, the IRS and Treasury published a notice of proposed rulemaking by cross reference to temporary regulations (REG-115472-03, 2003-2 C.B. 1215) in the Federal Register, and temporary regulations in T.D. 9094 (2003-2 C.B. 1201 [68 FR 63733]), under section 6031 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). Written comments and requests for a public hearing were solicited. No public hearing was requested, and no comments were received. Therefore, the proposed regulations under section 6031 are adopted as final regulations without any changes. The temporary regulations are removed.
The following is a general explanation of the provisions in the final regulations, which are the same as the provisions in the temporary regulations.
The Commissioner may, in published guidance, provide an exception to the reporting requirements of section 6031(a) for partnerships in situations in which all or substantially all of the partnership’s income is derived from the holding or disposition of tax-exempt obligations (as defined in section 1275(a)(3) and §1.1275-1(e)) or shares in a RIC that pays exempt-interest dividends (as defined in section 852(b)(5)). The exception may be conditioned on substitute reporting and eligibility and other requirements. In conjunction with issuance of the temporary regulations, the Commissioner published Rev. Proc. 2003-84, 2003-2 C.B. 1159, which provides for an exception to section 6031 for specified eligible partnerships.
It has been determined that this Treasury decision is not a significant regulatory action as defined in Executive Order 12866. Therefore, a regulatory assessment is not required. It has also been determined that section 553(b) of the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. chapter 5) does not apply to these regulations. These regulations impose no new collection of information on small entities; therefore a Regulatory Flexibility Analysis under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. chapter 6) is not required. Pursuant to section 7805(f) of the Code, the proposed regulations preceding these regulations were submitted to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration for comment on its impact on small business.
Accordingly, 26 CFR part 1 is amended as follows:
Paragraph 1. The authority citation for part 1 is amended by removing the entry for §1.6031(a)-1T, and revising the entry for §1.6031(a)-1 to read, in part, as follows:
Authority: 26 U.S.C. 7805. * * *
Section 1.6031(a)-1 also issued under section 404 of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982) Public Law 97-248; 96 Stat. 324, 669) (TEFRA). * * *
Par. 2. Section 1.6031(a)-1 is amended as follows:
1. In paragraph (a)(1), the first sentence is amended by removing the language “and §1.6031(a)-1T” immediately following the language “of this section”.
2. Paragraphs (a)(3)(ii) and (f) are revised.
The revisions read as follows:
(a) * * *
(3) * * *
(ii) The Commissioner may, in guidance published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin (see §601.601(d)(2)(ii)(b) of this chapter), provide for an exception to partnership reporting under section 6031 and for conditions for the exception, if all or substantially all of a partnership’s income is derived from the holding or disposition of tax-exempt obligations (as defined in section 1275(a)(3) and §1.1275-1(e)) or shares in a regulated investment company (as defined in section 851(a)) that pays exempt-interest dividends (as defined in section 852(b)(5)).
* * * * *
(f) Effective dates. This section applies to taxable years of a partnership beginning after December 31, 1999, except that —
(1) Paragraph (b)(3) of this section applies to taxable years of a foreign partnership beginning after December 31, 2000; and
(2) Paragraph (a)(3)(ii) of this section applies to taxable years of a partnership beginning on or after November 5, 2003.
Par. 3. Section 1.6031(a)-1T is removed.
Mark E. Matthews,Approved January 26, 2005.
Eric Solomon,The Internal Revenue Bulletin is produced and published by the Internal Revenue Service and contains IRS pronouncements affecting tax analysis under the Code and the Regulations, including but not limited to Revenue Procedures, Revenue Rulings, Notices and Announcements. Access the IRS site at https://www.irs.gov/help/irsgov-accessibility for information concerning accessibility of IRS materials. While every effort has been made to ensure that the IRB database files available through the TouchTax application are accurate, those using TouchTax for legal research should verify their results against the printed versions of the IRBs available from the IRS.