INCOME TAX

Rev. Rul. 2003–120, page 1154. Life insurance companies; computation of required interest. This ruling provides that a life insurance company calculates „required interest‰ under section 812(b)(2)(A) of the Code using the mean of the amount of the reserve at the beginning of the taxable year and the amount of the reserve at the end of such year.

Rev. Rul. 2003–121, page 1153. LIFO; price indexes; department stores. The September 2003 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, September 30, 2003.

REG–146692–03, page 1164. Section 103(a) of the Code provides that, generally, interest on bonds issued by state and local governments is excluded from gross income. „Qualified mortgage revenue bonds‰ may also be qualified bonds. A bond may only be a qualified mortgage revenue bond if the effective rate of mortgage interest on the mortgages provided with the bond proceeds does not exceed the yield on the bonds by more that 1.125 percentage points. The proposed regulations provide rules for calculating the effective rate of mortgage interest. Specifically, the proposed regulations provide that amounts paid for pool mortgage insurance are to be excluded from the calculation (which results in a lower effective rate of mortgage interest). A public hearing is scheduled for January 28, 2004.

Announcements of Disbarments and Suspensions begin on page 1168. Finding Lists begin on page ii.