IRS plans to further delay foreign currency tax rules

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department have issued a notice saying they intend to amend the Section 987 regulations on foreign currency gains and losses, delaying the applicability date by one more year.

Last October, the IRS and the Treasury issued Notice 2017-57, which previously delayed the applicability date by one year, and in Notice 2018-57, which came out Wednesday they said they were delaying the regulations by another year.

The final regulations were originally issued in December 2016, in the waning days of the Obama administration, changing how a U.S. company can measure the taxable income of a foreign business unit where the currency differs from its U.S. owner. The regulations were supposed to take effect Dec. 7, 2016, but they were among eight tax regulations that were identified in a July 2017 notice as ones that would be re-evaluated in accordance with an executive order signed by President Trump in the early days of his administration aimed at reducing burdensome federal regulations.

As part of that review, the Treasury Department and the IRS said they are considering changes to the final regulations that would allow taxpayers to elect to apply alternative rules for transitioning to the final regulations and alternative rules for determining a section 987 gain or loss.

The Treasury Department and the IRS intend to amend the tax code so the final regulations and the related temporary regulations will apply to taxable years beginning on or after the date that is three years after the first day of the first taxable year following Dec. 7, 2016.

IRS headquarters in Washington, D.C.
IRS headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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