This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains notices to the public of the proposed

issuance of rules and regulations. The

purpose of these notices is to give interested

persons an opportunity to participate in the

rule making prior to the adoption of the final

rules.

Proposed Rules Federal Register

48779 

Vol. 82, No. 202 

Friday, October 20, 2017 

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 

Internal Revenue Service 

26 CFR Part 1 

[REG–129067–15] 

RIN 1545–BM99 

Definition of Political Subdivision 

AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 

Treasury. 

ACTION: Withdrawal of notice of 

proposed rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: This document withdraws a 

notice of proposed rulemaking regarding 

the definition of a political subdivision 

for purposes of tax-exempt bonds. 

DATES: As of October 20, 2017, the 

notice of proposed rulemaking (REG– 

129067–15) that was published in the 

Federal Register on February 23, 2016, 

(81 FR 8870) is withdrawn. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Spence Hanemann at (202) 317–6980 

(not a toll-free number). 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

On February 23, 2016, the Department 

of the Treasury (the Treasury 

Department) and the IRS published in 

the Federal Register a notice of 

proposed rulemaking (81 FR 8870) that 

defines political subdivision for 

purposes of tax-exempt bonds under 

section 103 of the Internal Revenue 

Code (the Proposed Regulations). The 

Treasury Department and the IRS 

received public comments and, on June 

6, 2016, held a public hearing on the 

Proposed Regulations. In response to the 

Proposed Regulations, commenters 

stated that long-settled law establishes 

the meaning of political subdivision and 

that no further guidance is necessary. 

Commenters also stated that the 

Proposed Regulations would call into 

doubt the status of numerous existing 

issuers and users of tax-exempt bonds 

and that reorganizing these entities to 

qualify as political subdivisions under 

the Proposed Regulations would be 

burdensome. 

Executive Order 13789, issued on 

April 21, 2017, instructs the Secretary of 

the Treasury (the Secretary) to review 

all significant tax regulations issued on 

or after January 1, 2016, and to take 

concrete action to alleviate the burdens 

of regulations that (i) impose an undue 

financial burden on U.S. taxpayers; (ii) 

add undue complexity to the Federal tax 

laws; or (iii) exceed the statutory 

authority of the IRS. E.O. 13789 further 

instructs the Secretary to submit to the 

President within 60 days an interim 

report that identifies regulations that 

meet these criteria. Notice 2017–38 

(2017–30 I.R.B. 147 (July 24, 2017)) 

included the Proposed Regulations in a 

list of eight regulations identified by the 

Secretary in the interim report as 

meeting at least one of the first two 

criteria specified in E.O. 13789. 

E.O. 13789 further instructs the 

Secretary to submit to the President by 

September 18, 2017, a final report that 

recommends specific actions to mitigate 

the burden imposed by regulations 

identified in the interim report. On 

October 16, 2017, the Secretary 

published this final report in the 

Federal Register (82 FR 48013), 

recommending a complete withdrawal 

of the Proposed Regulations to mitigate 

their potential burden. To implement 

the Secretary’s recommendation, the 

Treasury Department and the IRS are 

withdrawing the Proposed Regulations. 

Drafting Information 

The principal authors of this 

withdrawal notice are Spence 

Hanemann and Timothy Jones, Office of 

the Associate Chief Counsel (Financial 

Institutions and Products), IRS. 

List of Subjects in 26 CFR Part 1 

Income taxes, Reporting and 

recordkeeping requirements. 

Withdrawal of Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking 

Accordingly, under the authority of 

26 U.S.C. 7805, the notice of proposed 

rulemaking (REG–129067–15) that was 

published in the Federal Register on 

February 23, 2016, (81 FR 8870) is 

withdrawn. 

Kirsten Wielobob, 

Deputy Commissioner for Services and 

Enforcement. 

[FR Doc. 2017–22777 Filed 10–19–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4830–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 

Internal Revenue Service 

26 CFR Part 25 

[REG–163113–02] 

RIN 1545–BB71 

Estate, Gift, and Generation-Skipping 

Transfer Taxes; Restrictions on 

Liquidation of an Interest 

AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 

Treasury. 

ACTION: Withdrawal of notice of 

proposed rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: This document withdraws 

proposed regulations concerning the 

estate, gift and generation-skipping 

transfer (GST) tax treatment of lapses of 

liquidation rights in family-controlled 

entities, as well as the valuation of 

interests in family-controlled 

corporations and partnerships for estate, 

gift, and GST tax purposes. Specifically, 

the proposed regulations would have 

treated certain lapses of liquidation 

rights as transfers occurring at death. 

The proposed regulations also 

addressed the treatment of restrictions 

on liquidation and withdrawal in 

determining the value of transferred 

interests in family-controlled entities. 

This withdrawal affects certain 

transferors of interests in corporations 

and partnerships. 

DATES: The notice of proposed 

rulemaking published August 4, 2016 

(81 FR 51413) is withdrawn as of 

October 20, 2017. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John 

D. MacEachen, (202) 317–6859 (not a 

toll-free number). 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

Section 2704 of the Internal Revenue 

Code provides special rules for purposes 

of subtitle B (relating to estate, gift, and 

GST taxes). Under section 2704(a), a 

lapse of certain voting or liquidation 


nlaroche on DSK9F9SC42PROD with PROPOSALS
48780 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 202 / Friday, October 20, 2017 / Proposed Rules 

rights is treated as a transfer of an 

amount equal to the excess of the fair 

market value of all interests held by the 

transferor, determined as if the voting or 

liquidation rights were nonlapsing, over 

the fair market value of such interests 

after the lapse. In addition, under 

section 2704(b) certain restrictions on 

liquidation are disregarded in 

determining the fair market value of the 

transferred interest. Section 2704(b)(4) 

authorizes the Secretary to provide by 

regulation that other restrictions may be 

disregarded if the restriction has the 

effect of reducing the value of an 

interest transferred to a member of the 

transferor’s family for estate, gift, or GST 

tax purposes but does not ultimately 

reduce the value of such interest to the 

transferee. 

On August 4, 2016, the Treasury 

Department and the IRS published in 

the Federal Register (81 FR 51413) a 

notice of proposed rulemaking under 

section 2704 (REG–163113–02), relating 

to restrictions on the liquidation of an 

interest in a corporation or a 

partnership. The proposed regulations 

sought to amend the existing 

regulations: (1) To address what 

constitutes control of a limited liability 

company or other entity or arrangement 

that is not a corporation, partnership, or 

limited partnership; (2) to address the 

effect of deathbed transfers that result in 

the lapse of a liquidation right; (3) to 

clarify the treatment of a transfer that 

results in the creation of an assignee 

interest; (4) to address the effect of 

restrictions created by state law; (5) to 

address restrictions on withdrawal from 

an entity and the liquidation of an 

interest in an entity; and (6) to address 

the effect of insubstantial interests held 

by persons who are not members of the 

family. 

The Treasury Department and the IRS 

received numerous written comments 

on the proposed regulations from 

interested parties, and held a public 

hearing on December 1, 2016. 

Executive Order 13789, issued on 

April 21, 2017, instructs the Secretary of 

the Treasury (the Secretary) to review 

all significant tax regulations issued on 

or after January 1, 2016, and to take 

concrete action to alleviate the burdens 

of regulations that (i) impose an undue 

financial burden on U.S. taxpayers; (ii) 

add undue complexity to the Federal tax 

laws; or (iii) exceed the statutory 

authority of the IRS. E.O. 13789 further 

instructs the Secretary to submit to the 

President within 60 days an interim 

report that identifies regulations that 

meet these criteria. Notice 2017–38 

(2017–30 I.R.B. 147 (July 24, 2017)) 

included the proposed regulations in a 

list of eight regulations identified by the 

Secretary in the interim report as 

meeting at least one of the first two 

criteria specified in E.O. 13789. 

E.O. 13789 further instructs the 

Secretary to submit to the President by 

September 18, 2017, a final report that 

recommends specific actions to mitigate 

the burden imposed by regulations 

identified in the interim report. The 

Secretary published this final report in 

the Federal Register (82 FR 48013), 

recommending a complete withdrawal 

of the proposed regulations to mitigate 

their potential burden. To implement 

the Secretary’s recommendation, the 

Treasury Department and the IRS, are 

withdrawing the proposed regulations. 

List of Subjects in 26 CFR Part 25 

Gift taxes, Reporting and 

recordkeeping requirements. 

Withdrawal of Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking 

Accordingly, under the authority of 

26 U.S.C. 7805, the notice of proposed 

rulemaking (REG–163113–02) that was 

published in the Federal Register on 

August 4, 2016 (81 FR 51413) is 

withdrawn. 

Kirsten Wielobob, 

Deputy Commissioner for Services and 

Enforcement. 

[FR Doc. 2017–22776 Filed 10–17–17; 4:15 pm] 

BILLING CODE 4830–01–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 52 

[EPA–R05–OAR–2017–0157; FRL–9969–86– 

Region 5] 

Air Plan Approval; Wisconsin; 

Regional Haze Progress Report 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve 

the regional haze progress report under 

the Clean Air Act as a revision to the 

Wisconsin State Implementation Plan 

(SIP). Wisconsin has satisfied the 

progress report requirements of the 

Regional Haze Rule. Wisconsin has also 

met the requirements for a 

determination of the adequacy of its 

regional haze plan with its negative 

declaration submitted with the progress 

report. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before November 20, 2017. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, 

identified by Docket ID No. EPA–R05– 

OAR–2017–0157 at http://

www.regulations.gov or via email to 

aburano.douglas@epa.gov. For 

comments submitted at Regulations.gov, 

follow the online instructions for 

submitting comments. Once submitted, 

comments cannot be edited or removed 

from Regulations.gov. For either manner 

of submission, EPA may publish any 

comment received to its public docket. 

Do not submit electronically any 

information you consider to be 

Confidential Business Information (CBI) 

or other information whose disclosure is 

restricted by statute. Multimedia 

submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be 

accompanied by a written comment. 

The written comment is considered the 

official comment and should include 

discussion of all points you wish to 

make. EPA will generally not consider 

comments or comment contents located 

outside of the primary submission (i.e. 

on the web, cloud, or other file sharing 

system). For additional submission 

methods, please contact the person 

identified in the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section. 

For the full EPA public comment 

policy, information about CBI or 

multimedia submissions, and general 

guidance on making effective 

comments, please visit http://

www2.epa.gov/dockets/commentingepa-dockets. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Gilberto Alvarez, Environmental 

Scientist, Attainment Planning and 

Maintenance Section, Air Programs 

Branch (AR–18J), Environmental 

Protection Agency, Region 5, 77 West 

Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 

60604, (312) 886–6143, 

alvarez.gilberto@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In the 

Final Rules section of this Federal 

Register, EPA is approving the State’s 

SIP submittal as a direct final rule 

without prior proposal because the 

Agency views this as a noncontroversial 

submittal and anticipates no adverse 

comments. A detailed rationale for the 

approval is set forth in the direct final 

rule. If no adverse comments are 

received in response to this rule, no 

further activity is contemplated. If EPA 

receives adverse comments, the direct 

final rule will be withdrawn and all 

public comments received will be 

addressed in a subsequent final rule 

based on this proposed rule. EPA will 

not institute a second comment period. 

Any parties interested in commenting 

on this action should do so at this time. 

Please note that if EPA receives adverse 

comment on an amendment, paragraph, 

or section of this rule and if that 

provision may be severed from the 


nlaroche on DSK9F9SC42PROD with PROPOSALS