INCOME TAX

Rev. Rul. 2005-45(HTML)
LIFO; price indexes; department stores. The May 2005 Bureau of Labor Statistics price indexes are accepted for use by department stores employing the retail inventory and last-in, first-out inventory methods for valuing inventories for tax years ended on, or with reference to, May 31, 2005.

Rev. Rul. 2005-46(HTML)
Disaster relief grants for businesses. This ruling holds that a grant received by a business under a state program to reimburse businesses for losses incurred for damage or destruction of real and personal property on account of a disaster is not excludable from gross income under the general welfare exclusion, as a gift under section 102 of the Code, as a qualified disaster relief payment under section 139, or as a contribution to the capital of a corporation under section 118. The business may elect under section 1033 to defer including in income gain realized from receipt of the grant to the extent the grant proceeds are used to timely purchase property similar or related in service or use to the destroyed or damaged property.

Rev. Proc. 2005-46(HTML)
This procedure prescribes the procedure to be followed with respect to the claiming of any setoffs to adjustments proposed by the Commissioner pursuant to section 482 of the Code. Rev. Proc. 70-8 modified.

Announcement 2005-50(HTML)
This document contains a correction to Table 2 of Rev. Rul. 2005-41, 2005-28 I.R.B. 69, relating to Farm Rates 2005. Rev. Rul. 2005-41 corrected.

Notice 2005-54(HTML)
Weighted average interest rate update; corporate bond indices; 30-year Treasury securities. The weighted average interest rate for July 2005 and the resulting permissible range of interest rates used to calculate current liability and to determine the required contribution are set forth.

EXCISE TAX

Rev. Proc. 2005-45(HTML)
This procedure provides that a list of rural airports published by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Secretary of Transportation, may be relied upon to determine whether an airport is a “rural airport” as defined in section 4261(e)(1)(B) of the Code, for purposes of the exception from tax on the amount paid for a domestic segment of taxable transportation by air. Rev. Proc. 98-18 obsoleted.

Rev. Rul. 2005-49(HTML)
Judicial remedy for wrongful levies. This ruling clarifies that a wrongful levy action under section 7426 of the Code is the only remedy available to a third person whose property was levied to satisfy the tax debt of another.

Rev. Rul. 2005-50(HTML)
Discharge of property; refund action. This ruling clarifies that, in light of amendments to sections 6325 and 7426 of the Code made by the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, a person not liable for the underlying tax may not file a refund action under the holding of United States v. Williams, 514 U.S. 527 (1995).

Rev. Proc. 2005-42(HTML)
Publication 1245 is revised for tax year 2005. Follow the specifications in this revenue procedure when submitting Form W-4 electronically or magnetically. Rev. Proc. 2001-16 superseded.