The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) announces recent disciplinary sanctions involving attorneys, certified public accountants, enrolled agents, enrolled actuaries, enrolled retirement plan agents, and appraisers. These individuals are subject to the regulations governing practice before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which are set out in Title 31, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 10, and which are published in pamphlet form as Treasury Department Circular No. 230. The regulations prescribe the duties and restrictions relating to such practice and prescribe the disciplinary sanctions for violating the regulations.

This notice provides a waiver of the addition to tax under section 6654 for underpayment of estimated income tax by qualifying farmers and fishermen for the 2018 tax year. This addition to tax is waived for any qualifying farmer or fisherman who files his or her 2018 federal income tax return with the proper waiver form and pays in full any tax due by April 15, 2019, or by April 17, 2019, for those taxpayers who live in Maine or Massachusetts.

This notice provides a waiver of the addition to tax under section 6654 for underpayment of estimated income tax by qualifying farmers and fishermen for the 2018 tax year. This addition to tax is waived for any qualifying farmer or fisherman who files his or her 2018 federal income tax return with the proper waiver form and pays in full any tax due by April 15, 2019, or by April 17, 2019, for those taxpayers who live in Maine or Massachusetts.

Resident populations of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the insular areas for purposes of determining the 2019 calendar year (1) state housing credit ceiling under section 42(h) of the Code, (2) private activity bond volume cap under section 146, and (3) private activity bond volume limit under section 142(k) are reproduced.

These final regulations amend the utility allowance regulations concerning the low-income housing credit under section 42. These final regulations extend the principles of the current submetering rules to situations where the building owner independently generates and sells to tenants certain types of energy without the intervention of a local utility company.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Treasury.

Final regulations and removal of temporary regulations.

This document contains final regulations that amend the utility allowance regulations concerning the low-income housing credit under section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). These final regulations extend the principles of the current submetering rules. The current rules address situations in which a building owner purchases a utility from a utility company and then separately charges the tenants for the utility. In those situations, if the utility costs paid by a tenant are based on actual consumption in the tenant’s submetered, rent-restricted unit and if certain other requirements are satisfied, then the charges for the utility are treated as paid by the tenant directly to the utility company, even though the payment passes through the building owner. The final regulations extend these principles and apply to situations in which a building owner sells to tenants energy that is produced from a renewable source and that the owner did not purchase from or through a local utility company. The final regulations affect owners of low-income housing projects that claim the credit, the tenants in those low-income housing projects, and the State and local housing credit agencies that administer the credit.

Effective Date: These final regulations are effective on March 4, 2019.

Applicability Date: For dates of applicability, see § 1.42–12(a)(5).

Dillon Taylor, (202) 317-4137 (not a toll-free number).

The principal author of this regulation is James W. Rider, formerly of the Office of the Associate Chief Counsel (Passthroughs and Special Industries). However, other personnel from the Treasury Department and the IRS participated in its development.

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This notice provides a waiver of the addition to tax under section 6654 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) for underpayment of estimated income tax by qualifying individual farmers and fishermen.

Generally, the Code requires taxpayers to pay federal income taxes as they earn income. To the extent these taxes are not withheld from wages, a taxpayer must pay estimated income tax on a quarterly basis.

Section 6654 provides that, in the case of an individual, estimated income tax is required to be paid in four installments each 25 percent of the required annual payment. Individual taxpayers who fail to make a sufficient and timely payment of estimated income tax are liable for an addition to tax under section 6654(a).

Qualifying farmers and fishermen are subject to special rules requiring them to make only one installment payment due on January 15 of the year following the taxable year. I.R.C. § 6654(i)(1)(A) & (B). A taxpayer qualifies as a farmer or fisherman for the 2018 tax year if at least two-thirds of the taxpayer’s total gross income was from farming or fishing in either 2017 or 2018. See I.R.C. § 6654(i)(2). Qualifying farmers and fishermen who did not make the required estimated tax installment payment by January 15, 2019, are not subject to an addition to tax for failing to pay estimated income tax if they file their returns and pay the full amount of tax reported on the return as payable by March 1, 2019. See I.R.C. § 6654(i)(1)(D).

The Secretary is authorized to waive the section 6654 addition to tax for an underpayment of estimated tax in unusual circumstances to the extent its imposition would be against equity and good conscience. I.R.C. § 6654(e)(3)(A).

Due to certain changes in the rules that affect farmers and fishermen, the Treasury Department and IRS anticipate that farmers and fishermen may have difficulty accurately determining and paying their tax liability for the 2018 taxable year by March 1, 2019. Accordingly, the IRS is providing relief to individual taxpayers who are farmers or fishermen by waiving certain penalties if the requirements set forth in section 3 of this notice are satisfied.

Under the authority granted by section 6654(e)(3)(A), the addition to tax under section 6654 for failure to make an estimated tax payment for the 2018 tax year is waived for any qualifying farmer or fisherman who files his or her 2018 income tax return and pays in full any tax due by April 15, 2019, or by April 17, 2019, for those taxpayers who live in Maine or Massachusetts. Farmers and fishermen requesting this waiver of the addition to tax must attach Form 2210-F, Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Farmers and Fishermen, to their 2018 tax return. The form can be submitted electronically or on paper. The taxpayer’s name and identifying number should be entered at the top of the form, and the waiver box (Part I, Box A) should be checked. The rest of the form should be left blank. Forms, instructions, and other tax assistance are available on IRS.gov. The IRS toll-free number for general tax questions is 1-800-829-1040.

The principal author of this notice is Alexander Wu of the Office of the Associate Chief Counsel (Procedure and Administration). For further information, please contact Mr. Wu at (202) 317-6845 (not a toll-free number).

This notice advises State and local housing credit agencies that allocate low-income housing tax credits under § 42 of the Internal Revenue Code, and States and other issuers of tax-exempt private activity bonds under § 141, of the population figures to use in calculating: (1) the 2019 calendar year population-based component of the State housing credit ceiling (Credit Ceiling) under § 42(h)(3)(C)(ii); (2) the 2019 calendar year volume cap (Volume Cap) under § 146; and (3) the 2019 volume limit (Volume Limit) under § 142(k)(5).

Generally, § 146(j) requires determining the population figures for the population-based component of both the Credit Ceiling and the Volume Cap for any calendar year on the basis of the most recent census estimate of the resident population of a State (or issuing authority) released by the U.S. Census Bureau before the beginning of the calendar year. Similarly, § 142(k)(5) bases the Volume Limit on the State population.

Sections 42(h)(3)(H) and 146(d)(2) require adjusting for inflation the population-based component of the Credit Ceiling and the Volume Cap. The Credit Ceiling adjustment for the 2019 calendar year is in Rev. Proc. 2018–57, 2018–49 I.R.B. 827. Section 3.10 of Rev. Proc. 2018–57 provides that, for calendar year 2019, the amount for calculating the Credit Ceiling under § 42(h)(3)(C)(ii) is the greater of $2.75625 multiplied by the State population, or $3,166,875. Further, section 3.21 of Rev. Proc. 2018–57 provides that the amount for calculating the Volume Cap under § 146(d)(1) for calendar year 2019 is the greater of $105 multiplied by the State population, or $316,745,000.

For the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, the population figures for calculating the Credit Ceiling, the Volume Cap, and the Volume Limit for the 2019 calendar year are the resident population estimates released electronically by the U.S. Census Bureau on December 19, 2018, and described in Press Release CB18–193. For American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the population figures for the 2019 calendar year are the 2018 midyear population figures in the U.S. Census Bureau’s International Data Base (IDB). The U.S. Census Bureau electronically announced an update of the IDB on September 18, 2018, in Press Release CB18-TPS.45.

For convenience, these figures are reprinted below.