Excerpt: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is holding up a trio of international tax treaties over concerns that the pacts give the federal government too much power to invade personal privacy. … Catherine Schultz of the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) said the tax treaties are critical to U.S. businesses and argued Paul is objecting to boilerplate treaty language. She noted that the information-sharing provisions in the tax agreements are similar to what the United States has included in many previous tax treaties, and added that the stalled deals in large part grew out of a global movement to increase the disclosure of tax information between countries. Switzerland and Luxembourg are known for having strict banking secrecy laws, though both moved to become more open several years ago to avoid being branded tax havens by the OECD. “Not only is this standard policy for the U.S., and has been for years and years, but this is stuff we’re forcing the rest of the world to do, too,” said Schultz, NFTC’s vice president for tax policy.
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/international-taxes/203951-rand-paul-blocking-tax-treaties-over-fears-of-government-snooping