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A Wake County judge has issued a temporary restraining order to shut down a Charlotte tax preparation company, which the N.C. Attorney Generals office claims charged exorbitant fees and misled customers about refund anticipation loans.

The order targets three Instant Tax Service locations, at 2712 Freedom Drive and 1520 West Boulevard Suite J, Charlotte, and 316 E. Franklin Boulevard in Gastonia. N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a statement that the company charged fees of $700 to $800 for simple tax returns without disclosing the fees. Such returns cost around $200 at other national tax preparers, Cooper said.

Cooper also said the company filed returns for customers without their permission, after the customers brought in a recent paystub to see if they could receive loans against their anticipated refunds. Filing someones taxes without their permission is not only wrong but its against the law, said Cooper.

Instant Tax Service owner Eden Kidane could not immediately be reached for comment by phone or email.

The company advertised in Charlotte on the radio and on television. Thats where Charlotte resident Artessia Freeman said she saw that she could be eligible for a loan of up to $1,000 against an anticipated refund. According to a sworn affidavit, she brought a paystub to the Instant Tax Service on Freedom Drive to see if she could get a loan.

A man identified only as Antez convinced her to sign some forms, Freeman said in the affidavit, and then told her he could give her a loan for $100. She took the check, although no time frame for repayment was given. He never mentioned anything about filing my taxes, Freeman said.

After hearing that other customers had their taxes filed without their permission by Instant Tax Service, Freeman said she grew concerned and contacted the Internal Revenue Service. She learned that state and local tax returns had been filed for her, Freeman said, and she was owed a $4,129 federal refund.

When she contacted Instant Tax Service, Freeman said they wouldnt give her copies of her tax returns. They gave her $3,230.05, or $895.95 less than the federal refund. Minus the $100 loan she owed, Freeman said she believes the company charged her nearly $800 for a simple tax return.

I never gave them permission to file my tax returns, Freeman said in the affidavit. If they had told me they were charging me $798.95 to do my taxes, I would have declined.

In total, the Attorney Generals office received 136 complaints about the business, and the Charlotte Better Business Bureau said the business has received over 500 complaints this tax season.

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Judge shuts down Charlotte tax preparation company

MADRID (AP) -- Freedom of information in Spain came one step nearer Friday after the recently-elected government agreed to introduce a bill in response to widespread disgust over corruption and mismanagement by elected officials of both main political parties.

The country's Cabinet agreed to put forward legislation that will allow Spaniards to find out more about how their money is spent by government. Spain, which is struggling to get its public finances under control, is one of Europe's few countries without wide-ranging freedom of information legislation.

"It is a law whose main goal is improve the credibility of and trust in our institutions, especially government ones," Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said.

The legislation will take months to come into effect, after an unprecedented 15-day period in which the general public can make suggestions on what should be accessible to them and how the law should work. After that, the bill has to be go through normal Parliamentary procedures.

Though the salaries of the prime minister and government ministers are already public information, as are the national budget and much other money-related data, not all of it is easy to access.

But under the new bill, information on subjects including senior public servants' salaries and detailed data on government contracts and subsidies will be published online. Spaniards will also be able to file requests for other kinds of information providing it does not breach national security or personal privacy.

The goal of the new law is to make public officials at all levels much more accountable for how they spend taxpayer money. People will be able to get information just by the click of a mouse.

"It is a law that tries to give rigor to compliance with budget and financial obligations that were unknown until now, but will serve to restore credibility to all levels of government," Saenz de Santa Maria said.

News of the Cabinet's support for a package that should make for more open government comes as the country struggles to avoid the same fate as other indebted European countries. The newly-elected conservative government is trying to convince investors that it has a strategy to deal with its debts so it won't follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in needing a bailout.

Concerns have swelled recently after figures showed the country's borrowing last year was way more than expected, due in large part to overspending by regional governments but also because the economy is shrinking and laying siege to tax revenues.

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Spain moves toward freedom of information law

JAZIAL CROSSLEY

New Zealand stocks were down today, taking a lead from weak markets offshore.

Asian sharemarkets suffered after news that manufacturing in China had pulled back and comments from a high profile economist that the Chinese economy was struggling more than expected.

The NZX50 index was down 0.7 per cent or 25.34 points to 3449.30.

Craigs Investment Partners investment advisor Chris Timms said while there were pockets of strength on the bourse, most of the major trading companies were down.

"There have been a couple of indications the Chinese economy has slowed down - the last couple of days the data out of China hasn't been quite as good. That has taken a bit of a gloss off, but it has still been a pretty strong week in terms of the sharemarkets. People are having a breather - we've had such a good run on the markets [with the NZX at nine month highs] so there is just some profit taking on some stocks," Timms said.

"Fletcher Building is down 2.2 per cent to $6.80, that's major drag on our market. Fletcher Building is the most liquid stock in our market so if we get a bit of a sell-off overseas it seems to get sold off, and it's been quite sold off quite heavily today."

Finzsoft shares rose 2c or 5.3 per cent to 40c after restructuring its leadership team with the departure of chief executive Mark Sewell.

Under the move Andrew Holliday and Ian Wills will join the executive team as joint managing directors with immediate effect, and the CEO role will fall away. Holliday and Wills have been majority shareholders and directors of Finzsoft since they acquired 64% of the company in June 2007.

The leading decliner was investment holding company Guinness Peat Group, down 2.9 per cent to 50c. Jewellery retailer Michael Hill International fell 2.9 per cent to $1.02.

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NZ stocks down on offshore weakness

By Andrs Cardenal - March 23, 2012 | Tickers: EXPE, GOOG, PCLN, TRIP | 0 Comments

Andrs is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

The world is changing very fast, and information is available in ways we couldnt even imagine a few years ago. The travel industry is being revolutionized by many of the new possibilities that internet and related technologies provide, and investors have many opportunities to benefit from these changes.

Lets assume you are considering taking a well-deserved vacation with your family and are looking for the right destination, you will also need a lot of information about how to travel, the most convenient hotels and other important aspects. There is a big chance you may choose to get into Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and start searching for online information. Google has more than 65% of the online search market in the US, and the company leads the online advertising industry.

Google gives consumers the possibility to access many valuable services for free and monetizes the business by selling advertising. If you are planning a trip, you will probably use the Google search engine more than once, and other services like Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Images may be very helpful too. In fact, last December the company launched Google Flight Search, which represents the online giants newest push into online travel.

Competitors have complained about Google using its dominant power over online search to place its own flight search service above those of other players like Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) and Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE). However, those two companies are still doing quite well when it comes to searching and booking flights, hotels and car rentals online.

These services are extremely useful for travelers; they provide an easy and convenient way to compare prices, check customers reviews and even execute online reservations in real time. Both corporate and vacation travelers are using these services every day more, and the online traveling trend is expected to get stronger in the future as more customers grow accustomed to its advantages and these businesses increase their range of services and value added.

Shares of Priceline were trading below $450 by mid-December and they recently made new all-time highs above $710. Investors may want to wait or a pullback considering the stock has been on such a strong run lately, but earnings and expectations look very strong. Priceline reported a 35.5% increase in sales for last quarter, although the company disappointed in earnings per share, guidance was much higher than expected and shares of Priceline rose by a 6.5% when it reported earnings on February 27.

Expedia has also had a big run lately; it recently hit new historical highs above $34, which is quite a rally from its price of around $28 in mid-December. The company reported some unexciting earnings per share figures in the last quarter blended with positive guidance from management. But although the recent trend in earnings looks similar for Expedia and Priceline, both companies are quite different from a long term growth perspective.

Priceline has increased earnings per share by a 65% annually over the last five years, and analysts are expecting a growth rate of more than 22.5% annually in the next five. On the other hand, Expedia shows an annual 14% growth rate for the last five years and analysts forecast a lower than 11% growth over the next five.

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3 Stocks Benefiting from the Online Travel Revolution

By John McCrank

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Discount brokerages, once the domain of do-it-yourself investors looking for cheap trades, are increasingly getting into the personal advice business, filling a void for middle-class investors left by big, traditional brokerages.

Fee-based assets at discount brokerages like Charles Schwab Corp, Fidelity Investments, TD Ameritrade, and E*Trade Financial, grew by a compound annual rate of 19 percent from 2008 to the end of 2010, versus 14 percent at so-called wirehouses such as Morgan Stanley, according to research firm Cerulli Associates.

"A large part of the growth that we've seen in these firms and also the future growth that we're projecting is going to be linked to their ability to deliver advice programs," said Katharine Wolf, associate director at Cerulli.

Even Charles "Chuck" Schwab, a pioneer in offering cut-rate commissions to people making their own investment decisions, said he uses advisers to manage his portfolio.

Much of Schwab's growth in the self-directed space came during the bull market from 1983 to 2000, when picking winning stocks was likened to throwing darts at a board. In the dozen years since then, the equity markets have been volatile, but have basically come out flat.

"Investors are increasingly saying: 'It's more complicated than simply going to a website, picking out some stocks, buying them and hoping they go up,'" Walter Bettinger, chief executive of Schwab, said in an interview.

Schwab has been offering advice to investors for the past decade, a point it has highlighted since 2005 with its "Talk to Chuck" advertising campaign.

Clients of the San Francisco company, which reported overall assets of $1.81 trillion at the end of February, have added an average of $1.5 billion a month for thelast 14 months to Schwab advisory programs, with most coming from self-directed accounts.

FILLING THE VOID

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Schwab, E*Trade et al outpacing traditional brokers