At a June 18, 2014 D.C. Bar conference titled "IRS Update: Recent REIT Regulations and Priority Guidance Plan," officials in the Financial Institutions and Products Branch of the IRS discussed recently proposed regulations that clarify which assets qualify as good real estate assets for a REIT and the potential application of those assets to various renewable energy properties. The regulations project resulted from a review of IRS's private rulings, which some commentators felt expanded the historical scope of real property for REITs. The IRS suspended issuing such private rulings and

On June 19, 2014, the IRS issued instructions for Form W-8IMY ("Certificate of Foreign Intermediary, Foreign Flow-Through Entity, or Certain U.S. Branches for United States Tax Withholding and Reporting"). The form is used by foreign intermediaries and flow-through entities to certify their status under FATCA. Form W-8IMY was revised in April 2014 to reflect additional information needed with respect to FATCA, but instructions for use of the form were not issued at that time. Instructions for Form W-BEN-E, the form used for non-U.S. entities to certify their FATCA status, have yet to be issued

The Division of Consumer and Community Affairs of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") updated its Consumer Compliance Handbook. The updates include the newly adopted Community Bank Risk-Focused Consumer Compliance Supervision Program and the removal of the Alternative Examinations Approach for Low-Risk Banks. See: Updated Consumer Compliance Handbook.

The Mercatus Center published an article by Mercatus Scholar and former Congressional and SEC staff attorney Hester Peirce titled "On Its 80th, How Can the SEC Renew Its Mission?" The article discusses how the 80-year-old SEC should change the way it fulfills its mission. According to Ms. Peirce, the SEC should move away from making decisions for investors and instead work to "foster investor skepticism" to ensure that the investors themselves are asking questions before investing their money. Additionally, Ms. Peirce argued that the SEC should take care not to harm investors inadvertently by

The SEC announced that it will hold an open meeting on June 25, 2014 to consider whether to adopt rules regarding the application of the definitions of "security-based swap dealer" and "major security-based swap participant" to Cross-Border Security-Based Swap Activities under the Securities Exchange Act and Dodd-Frank Title VII. The SEC proposed the rules concerning Cross-Border Security-Based Swap Activities in May 2013. See: SEC Announcement of Meeting; Proposed Rules. Related news: SEC Proposal on Cross-Border Security-Based Swaps (with Commissioners' Comments) (with Lofchie Comment) (May