Annual accounting periods; approval. This announcement discusses some of the changes that the Service and Treasury Department have made in finalizing procedures for certain individuals to obtain the automatic approval of the Commissioner to change their annual accounting period to a calendar year.

Regulated investment company (RIC). This ruling provides that, for purposes of qualifying as a regulated investment company (RIC) under the tax law, a RIC shall treat its investment in refunded bonds as an investment in government securities, to the extent that the acquisition of the refunded bonds would be treated under Rule 5b-3 under the Investment Company Act of 1940 as an acquisition of the Government securities placed in escrow to fund payment of principal and interest on the refunded bonds.

Noncustomary services provided to REIT tenants by a joint venture between a taxable REIT subsidiary and an independent contractor. This ruling provides that a joint venture between a taxable REIT subsidiary and an independent contractor to provide noncustomary services to REIT tenants will not cause rents paid by tenants to fail to qualify as “rents from real property” under section 856 of the Code.

REG-116914-03

Temporary and proposed regulations under section 83 of the Code clarify and amend existing regulations to address the transfers of compensatory stock options to related persons. The regulations provide that the transfer of a compensatory stock option to a related person will not be treated as an arm's length transaction for purposes of section 1.83-7 of the regulations.

This notice announces that regulations issued under section 269B of the Code will provide that a foreign corporation that is stapled to a domestic corporation will be treated as a domestic corporation for purposes of the definition of an includible corporation under section 1504(b) when applying sections 1.904(i)-1 and 1.861-11T(d)(6). Notice 89-94 modified.

This notice clarifies the application of section 911 of the Code to U.S. citizens and residents earning income in Iraq attributable to services performed by such individuals. As long as individuals whose activities in Iraq are permitted by a specific or general license issued by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, those individuals are not subject to the limitations of section 911(d)(8)(A).

This procedure contains the final withholding foreign partnership (WP) and withholding foreign trust (WT) agreements. The WP and WT agreements are designed to simplify withholding and reporting obligations for payments of income made to foreign partnerships and foreign simple or grantor trusts. This procedure also contains rules regarding withholding and reporting on certain small or related foreign partnerships and foreign simple or grantor trusts that do not enter into WP or WT agreements. Section III.C. of Notice 2001-4 superseded for 2004 and subsequent calendar years. Rev. Proc. 2000-12 modified.

Excise tax; terminating defined benefit plan; reversion. This ruling describes the treatment of a transfer from a terminating defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan of an amount that is in excess of 25 percent of the potential amount otherwise available for reversion.

Section 4971; running of statute of limitations; and filing of form. This ruling states that the filing of a Form 5330, and not the filing of a Form 5500, starts the running of the statute of limitations with respect to the excise taxes described in section 4971 of the Code.

EGTRRA; employee plans' user fees. This notice describes when a plan's EGTRRA remedial amendment period under section 401(b) of the Code is considered to begin for purposes of determining if a determination letter application is exempt from user fees. Notice 2002-1 amplified.

Hispanic Association of Lucent Technologies Employees, Inc., of Naperville, IL, no longer qualifies as an organization to which contributions are deductible under section 170 of the Code.

This procedure provides guidance for taxpayers seeking equitable relief from income tax liability under section 66(c) or section 6015(f) of the Code. Rev. Proc. 2000-15 superseded.

Changes in accounting periods; automatic approval for individuals. Procedures are provided by which certain individuals may obtain automatic approval of the Commissioner to change their annual accounting period under section 442 of the Code to the calendar year. Rev. Proc. 66-50 modified, amplified, and superseded, and Rev. Proc. 81-40 modified and superseded.

Depreciation of cable television distribution systems. This procedure provides a safe harbor method under which the Service will treat a node and fiber optic cable used in a cable television distribution system providing one-way and two-way communication services as the unit of property for computing depreciation under sections 167 and 168 of the Code. Rev. Proc. 2002-9 modified and amplified.

REIT loans; real estate asset; interest. This procedure sets forth a safe harbor under which a loan made by a real estate investment trust (REIT) that is secured either by a partnership interest in a partnership or by the sole membership interest in a disregarded entity will be treated as a real estate asset for purposes of sections 856(c)(4)(A) and 856(c)(5)(B) of the Code and the interest on the loan will be treated as interest on an obligation secured by a mortgage on real property or on an interest in real property for purposes of section 856(c)(3).