The development comes as taxpayers are focusing on the requirement to report those specified assets under new tax code Section 6038D. That code section was put in place by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), with reporting requirements going into effect in 2012.

Barbara Rasch, an attorney-adviser in Branch 2 in the IRS Office of Associate Chief Counsel (International), said IRS is actively working to revise the Form 8621, which taxpayers use to report their passive foreign investment company assets under tax code Section 1298. She noted that as taxpayers fill out the Form 8938, taxpayers need only indicate that they have reported their PFIC assets separately on the Form 8621, instead of detailing them on both forms.

Speaking at an international tax conference sponsored by the Practising Law Institute, Rasch also said IRS is actively working on guidance on PFIC reporting requirements under tax code Section 1298(f).