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29-05-2012 13:58 Maria Sheffield, mariasheffield.com, is a Reagan conservative. Maria Sheffield supports small businesses and opposes job killing regulations from President Obama and Congressman John Barrow - Join Maria Sheffield's common sense conservative positive policy campaign at http Like the Maria Sheffield Facebook fanpage and follow her on Twitter: @mariasheffield.

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Stop Job Killng Regulations from DC. Conservative Common Sense from Maria Sheffield. - Video

The Adam Smith Institute said today marks Tax Freedom Day - the point in the calendar when Britons stop working for the Treasury and begin to earn for themselves.

The institute's director, Dr Eamonn Butler, said: "Tax Freedom Day, which the Adam Smith Institute has been calculating for 25 years, is the plainest way to show what the tax burden really is.

"That is why the Treasury hates it. They of course want to conceal how much tax we pay, which is why they are so keen on stealth taxes."

The think tank adds levies including Vat, income tax, national insurance, council tax, excise duties, air passenger taxes, fuel and vehicle taxes in its calculations.

Dr Butler blamed the double-dip recession and increased Vat for pushing back the date by 48 hours compared with last year.

He added: "The stark truth is that this burden costs us all 149 days of hard labour every year.

"That's not how long a rich person has to work - it is the time the average person must labour for the tax collectors."

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It’s Tax Freedom Day…unless you happen to be super rich (in which case it came and went some time ago)

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune Published: May 30, 2012 Updated: May 30, 2012 - 6:00 AM

A car dealer accused of nearly $9 million in tax refund fraud whose freedom vexed Tampa's police chief for months was arrested Monday on 32 federal criminal charges.

Authorities say Russell B. Simmons Jr., 42, owner of Simmons Auto Sales on North 34th Street, used the proceeds of tax fraud to buy a $60,000 Bentley coupe and a lot of diamond jewelry, including a $30,000, 18-karat gold Rolex perpetual date watch with a diamond dial; a 14-karat gold men's bracelet with 2,420 diamonds; a 14-karat chain and "RS" pendant with 703 diamonds; and a 14-karat ring with 110 diamonds.

He was also found with a lot of cash: Simmons and some friends were stopped in November at the airport in Orlando en route to a boxing match in Los Vegas. The group was carrying $75,000 among them. The others told investigators the money came from Simmons, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mandy Riedel said.

Simmons is "very big to us," said John Joyce, special agent in charge of the Tampa office of the U.S. Secret Service, which helped investigate the case. Joyce called him "one of the bigger players" targeted through Operation Rainmaker, a joint federal, state and local investigation into tax refund fraud.

Defense attorney Nicholas Matassini Jr. said Simmons plans to "vigorously defend the case." He added, "Clearly, both sides have a lot of work to do."

Simmons was among a number of business owners arrested in the joint investigation last summer, initially on state identity theft and credit card fraud charges, after Secret Service agents searched his business Aug. 31. However, the charges were dismissed because of the pending federal investigation, and Simmons was allowed to go free.

As the case wore on, Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor went public with her irritation at the slow pace of the investigation into a piece of the tax fraud scourge spreading among street criminals. Authorities say hundreds of millions of dollars in bogus income tax returns have been processed from the Tampa area alone.

"We have an individual that we know did in the ballpark of $9 million in tax fraud," Castor said in February. "He was arrested and charged in September. And there's no reason for us to believe that he's slowed down at all."

In March, Tampa Detective Sal Augeri testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee in Washington about tax refund fraud and described the Simmons case without naming him. "We have no reason to believe he has stopped committing this crime," Augeri said then.

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Car dealer arrested in $9 million tax fraud case

By Daily Mail Reporter and Becky Barrow

PUBLISHED: 04:57 EST, 29 May 2012 | UPDATED: 04:57 EST, 29 May 2012

Today is the first this year that we started to earn money for ourselves instead of the taxman.

Tax Freedom Day is calculated each year by think tank the Adam Smith Institute by subtracting the money taken in all forms of tax from net national income.

This year we all had to work 149 days to pay off that tax.

For the taxman's coffers: Workers had to work an average of 149 days to pay off all forms of tax

Dr Eamonn Butler, the institutes director, said the theoretical date is the plainest way to show what the tax burden really is.

TFD was on May 28 in 2011, making it two days later this year, including a leap year day.

The think tank adds levies including VAT, income tax, national insurance, council tax, excise duties, air passenger taxes, fuel and vehicle taxes in its calculations.

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Tax Freedom Day: Today is the first day this year we earn for ourselves instead of the taxman

Expats or second-home owners in Europe (Chicago Options: ^REURUSD - news) could see property values dramatically slashed if Greece was to exit the euro.

Greek properties would be the hardest hit with prices falling as much as 50 per cent, according to startling estimates made by foreign currency specialists HiFX . It has seen enquires from Britons looking to sell their European homes rise by almost 200 per cent since 2008.

Its (Euronext: ALITS.NX - news) research shows that 39 per cent of Britons are looking to sell up in Greece, 34 per cent in Spain and 23 per cent in Portugal.

Mark Bodega, marketing director at HiFX, said: "As many European governments tackle their deficits, second-home owners, especially those based overseas, have become easy targets for tax increases and as a result many are selling up and returning their assets to the UK."

James Price, head of international residential development at Knight Frank , said that many Britons had previously seen European properties as attractive short-term investments for their rental incomes. That has now changed.

"What people are looking at now is the security of their asset in the long term," he explained.

The Greeks go to the polls for the second time next month to decide who will take control of a government that needs to implement tough budget cuts if it is to remain a member of the eurozone.

While thousands of Britons are selling up and bringing money back into sterling, some brave investors are doing the opposite and buying euros, in the hope of picking up a European property on the cheap or renovating properties they already own.

Desirable locations are still the south of France, Tuscany and the Balearics for investors looking for a bargain.

Forex firm MoneyCorp says that while euro-to-sterling deals have doubled in the past month, it has also seen transactions the other way mushroom.

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Britons rush to sell European properties