IRS procedures describe how issuers can reclaim arbitrage overpayments.

WASHINGTON -- The Internal Revenue Service yesterday public procedures telling state and local issuers how to recover overpayments of arbitrage.

The IRS, in Revenue Procedure 92-83, said issuers should be submit forms to the Internal Revenue Service Center's accounting control section RACs unit in Philadelphia containing information about the bond issue, the reason arbitrage was overpaid, and the amount of refund being sought.

The four-page form, which was outlined in the procedures, should be entitled "Request for Recovery of Amounts Paid Under Rebate Provisions." It should include such information as the issuer's name and address, the CUSIP number of the bond with the latest maturity, and whether the overpayment resulted from a mathematical mistake.

The issuer must declare in the form "under penalties of perjury" that "to the best of my knowledge and belief, the facts represented in support of the request are true, correct, and complete."

The IRS published the procedures after issuing a proposed and temporary regulation last May that authorized issuers to seek refunds of overpayments of arbitrage. The regulation was issued after an issuer in a celebrated court case said the IRS had no provisions for such refunds.

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