Switzerland & Luxembourg among DTA approvals sent for US Senate vote
Eight tax treaties and protocols were passed forward for a ratification vote by the full US Senate at a business hearing of the Committee on Foreign Relations on November 10, reports Tax News.
The Committee approved the new US double taxation agreements (DTAs) with Chile and Hungary, and protocols to the existing DTAs with Switzerland, Luxembourg, Spain, Poland, and Japan, as well as the protocol amending the OECD’s Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.
Senate approval of tax treaties has been delayed in recent years. For example, the Swiss protocol, which was originally negotiated in September 2009, and which would amend the existing 1996 DTA, was sent to the Senate by President Barack Obama in 2011.
Until now, ratification by the Senate of all pending tax treaties has been blocked by Senator Rand Paul (R – Kentucky). He has said that current DTA provisions would flout the privacy rights of US individuals and US expatriates, as they require foreign financial institutions to “send the IRS the private records of overseas American bank account holders – no questions asked, and no reasonable suspicion, due process, or court order required.”
It is not known if Paul will attempt to delay a full Senate vote for their ratification, whenever that is scheduled.
