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LAKE JACKSON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Texas Congressman and Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul issued the following statement regarding today being Tax Freedom Day, the day when average Americans finally stop working to pay federal, state, and local taxes.

Below please find comments from Congressman Paul:

Knowing that every penny the average American has earned from January 1st until today has gone to pay federal, state, or local taxes is a frightening reminder of how much liberty modern Americans have lost. Unfortunately, even after Tax Freedom Day, Americans will still suffer from the Federal Reserve's regressive and hidden inflation tax, which erodes their purchasing power for the benefit of big banks and big-spending politicians.

As a Congressman, I have never voted to raise taxes or increase spending, which is why I have consistently been named one of the top 'Taxpayers Best Friends' in Congress by the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union. As President, I will work to reduce the burden of taxes and spending on the American people by passing my Plan to Restore America.

This Plan not only cuts $1 trillion in the first year of my administration and balances the budget by the third year, but it provides much-needed tax relief to the American people. It does this by permanently extending the Bush-era tax rates, lowering the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, allowing American companies to repatriate capital without paying additional taxes, abolishing the death tax, and ending all taxes on personal savings.

My Plan to Restore America also begins to free the American people from the inflation tax by conducting a full audit of the Federal Reserve and legalizing competing currencies. These simple steps will allow the American people to at last learn the truth about how the Fed is working to prop up big banks at the expense of average Americans standard of living and then to take the appropriate actions to protect themselves and their families.

My ultimate goal remains to repeal the 16th Amendment and end the tyranny of the IRS once and for all. Of the four men seeking the presidential nomination of one of the major parties - President Obama, Governor Romney, Speaker Gingrich, and myself - I am the only one who has consistently opposed increases in taxes and spending. I am also the only one who has consistently fought the Federal Reserve's assault on the middle class' standard of living. My campaign to Restore America Now is the clear choice for any American concerned about rolling back taxes, cutting spending, and curbing inflation.

Authorized and paid for by Ron Paul 2012 PCC Inc. http://www.RonPaul2012.com

Original post:
Ron Paul Statement on Tax Freedom Day

The Government has warned of a crackdown on expats who are illegally fleecing the UK for benefits, as it struggles to lessen the country's debt burden.

During a visit to a Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) team in Madrid yesterday, the work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith said that the Government was determined to clamp down on the huge number of benefit cheats who live aboad.

Figures show that expat benefit fraud cost around 43 million last year, with the popular destination of Spain being the main hotspot for such activity.

This money should be going to the people who need it most and not lining the pockets of criminals sunning themselves overseas, said Mr Duncan Smith.

The vast majority of British people overseas are law-abiding, but fraudulently claiming benefits while living abroad is a crime and we are committed to putting a stop to it.

Some benefits, such as child benefit and the state pension, can be legitimately claimed abroad, but many more, including income support, are not considered exportable.

Common benefit scams perpetrated by expats include not declaring that they have moved abroad so that they can continue to pick up certain benefits, hiding assets abroad such as property or savings, or claiming unemployment or sickness benefits while working overseas.

Mr Duncan Smith encouraged law-abiding Britons in Spain, where income support and pension credit claims are most commonly investigated for fraud, to contact the DWP using a special hotline if they suspected someone they knew was committing benefit fraud.

The Spanish hotline is believed to have received over 750 tip-offs since it was set up in 2008, and has led to a similar scheme being established in neighbouring Portugal.

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£43 million given to expat benefit fraudsters

BEIRUT: President Sleiman Wednesday encouraged Lebanese Australians to submit their names to the civil registry in anticipation of the approval of a draft law that would allow Lebanese expatriates to apply for dual citizenship.

In Australia on an official visit, Sleiman said that the draft law, which Cabinet approved late last year, has been submitted to Parliament and will be approved soon.

He spoke at a meeting of the Lebanese community in Sydney.

The law would allow Lebanese expatriates who were born abroad and only hold the citizenship of the countries where they were born to apply for Lebanese citizenship. Calling Lebanese expatriates the oxygen of Lebanon, he said they should have preferential opportunities to invest in Lebanon, and urged the diaspora to not give up Lebanese land, for it is precious. Build your home on it.

Sleiman said diaspora citizenship was important to support Lebanon and reinforce its strength through the expatriates who are spread across the world.

In addition to discussing developments in Syria and the region, Sleiman said that the most important project for Lebanon is to develop a modern electoral law that will represent all Lebanese fully, and will ensure the right of expatriates to vote.

The president also met with Marie Bashir, the governor of New South Wales, who is of Lebanese descent.

Read the original here:
Sleiman urges Lebanese expats to prepare for dual citizenship

Even in Thursday's heavy rain showers, the small town of Villanueva del Trabuco high in the mountains above Malaga looks like a British expat's dream place in the sun: buried in olive groves, dozens of whitewashed houses with almond blossom creeping over stone latticework.

Think again: the five British residents gathered in Villanueva del Trabuco's biggest bar nursing drinks as they eye the teeming rain outside estimate there has been a massive fall in the town's numbers in the last four years, from 200 British households to just 30 in 2012. And it's still dropping.

"There is no end to the thinning-out process," Ronny Clarke, a British retiree living in Villanueva del Trabuco, tells The Independent. "As two of my friends said when they left here for the UK again: the party's over."

By many accounts, a cocktail of plummeting house prices, a remorselessly unfavourable exchange rate and a Spanish economy in ruins has dealt a knock-out blow to the economic welfare of tens of thousands of British pensioners living in Spain.

"Those who could move are already in the UK," Mr Clarke says. But what of those who remain?

"We are trapped," says E W, a British pensioner in her 60s with property on the Costa del Sol, who will not reveal her full name because she does not want her relatives worrying. "Your pension doesn't go as far as it did five years ago and people are already leaving. My plans were to stay here for 10 years, but I sold up everything in the UK, so I can't go back."

Professor Jose Luis Suarez, an expert in financial management from the IESE business school, says "foreigners who wish to sell their home face a problem. House prices are falling, so anybody wanting to sell has to make a large discount".

But after years of saving to move to Spain, what is prodding them to move back? The British retirees cite the exchange rate as one of the biggest issues, harking back to when 1 would get you 1.50 compared with 1.20 or 1.10 now.

That difference is crucial to the quality of life abroad for those reliant on British pensions. And with no property back in the UK, they have no choice but to stick it out. At the same time, the cost of living has soared in Spain. John French, a 78-year-old who proudly recalls that he was one of the first Britons to set up a home in Fuente de Piedra further inland, says that his wife came out of the bank "laughing her head off" recently because the exchange rate had improved to 1.22 for the first time in months. But, he adds gloomily, corned beef prices in his local Iceland have gone through the roof.

Estimating exactly how many British pensioners are in stuck in a cleft stick property-wise in Spain is difficult given that many UK expats do not notify authorities when heading south. The UK's Office for National Statistics notes that since 2008, when Spain's economic crisis began, British emigration figures have been dropping.

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'Any expats who could move back to the UK already have. The rest of us are trapped'

WILLIAM MACE

The Reserve Bank is warning the public that claims being made by an unlicensed New Zealand-based offshore investment company may be false.

First International Bancorp Limited's website says it is registered under the New Zealand Commonwealth Offshore Banking Act of 1993, but a Reserve Bank notice issued today says that legislation doesn't exist and the company is breaking other banking rules.

"This entity is not licensed or prudentially supervised by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand or any other New Zealand authority," says the RBNZ statement.

"It is not registered under the New Zealand Commonwealth Offshore Banking Act of 1993 as no such Act exists in New Zealand."

First International Bancorp Ltd is now registered with the Companies Office under the name 2188498 Limited, and is owned by Heritage Holding Group of the British Virgin Islands.

Its sole director is Victor Vilches of Florida and its New Zealand address is 69 Ridge Road, Albany an address that is notorious for hosting offshore investment companies. Over 2000 companies have been registered to that address.

Under the website heading "Six ways to earn with FIB", the company appears to offer US$100 incentives for sales agents who sign up new sales agents and clients.

The sales structure moves up in levels to Marketing Master Broker which is said to be "the highest independent level in the FIB Marketing organization" and "a unique income opportunity".

The use of the word "bancorp" in a company name is restricted by the Reserve Bank, and is to be used only by registered banks.

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Reserve Bank warns public