LIBERTY TAX SERVICE Franchise Complaints
UnhappyFranchisee.com asked: Are LIBERTY TAX SERVICE Franchise Owners Happy? If you’re familiar
with the Liberty Tax franchise, please share a comment below.
Entrepreneur magazine has ranked the Liberty Tax Service franchise #3 behind McDonald’s & Subway. However, some commenters who claimed to be former Liberty Tax franchisees left stern warnings on the Franchise-chat forum.
This post was originally published
BostonTax wrote:
I’m a former Liberty Tax Franchisee
I hope you are ready for a little enlightenment! I held a successful Liberty Tax Franchise for 5 years until I decided to let the franchise agreement lapse. I did this for a few reasons:
1. The royalty fees were outrageous! 14% went to normal royalty while and ADDITIONAL 5% went for so called advertising royalties. The ad royalties were supposed to be put back into your local market to build the brand name. This was never done! All advertising in addition to the ad royalty I had to pay for because it did not fit into Liberty’s concept of advertising. I don’t know exactly what the concept was because our AD could not give an answer and the approved methods changed by the week.
2. Corporate was totally unresponsive to the needs of the franchisees. The AD system is designed to recruit anyone who can write a check for 100K. No other skills or ability required.
3. The minute you are behind in a royalty payment, they send you a notice to cure. After that, if you don’tpay, they try to terminate your franchise agreement.
4. Upon termination, Liberty enforces through legal proceeding a 2 year, 25 mile radis non compete clause that is in the franchise agreement. This is enforceable in the Eastern Division of the Federal District court, where, at least 2 Liberty friendly judges preside.
5. Liberty does not recognize chargebacks for bad debts as an adjustment for your royalty fees. All royalties are based on your gross, not your net collectable. This was an ongoing issue with them and the accounting department did not have the ability or the inclination to resolve!
My best advice is do not go with these guys, they are bad news. If you like to have people collect royalties and provide no support, then this is the franchise for you! It is very expensive to get into, the initial fee is around $32K just to buy the territory plus those pesky royalties. You can’t make money on this concept.Most of the surviving franchisees I’ve talked to in the last 2 years have experienced great difficulty not only in making a profit, but in the corporate support or lack thereof.Remember, 19% of your gross is getting kicked back to Liberty, which is excessive by any standards. Please do yourself a favor and call former franchisees ,those that are currently getting sued (they are very likely to talk, as I found out), and current ones to try to get the straight poop.
Barbara Green wrote:
I too was a Liberty Tax Franchisee and I agree with everything you said.
The only reason for purchasing any franchise is because the business model is a proven marketing success as evidenced by the profitable franchisees. That is why you pay a license fee of $25,000. Being profitable is not in the cards for a Liberty Tax franchisee. Liberty Tax’s market/ business model is aimed at individuals who have very simple tax returns, i.e one W-2 and standard deduction which is why they were very successful in Norfolk, Va. That market is full of military people with one w-2.
Liberty will sell anyone a franchise at any location, in any georgraphic area, even if there is not a chance in hell of the franchisee being successful.
At one time, I too owned a Liberty Tax Franchise for one tax season. It was only one season because of the behavior of the Regional Manager who called me on January 15th demanding and screaming “Why had I not generated 200 tax returns and that maybe this business was not for me. I was stunned and confused since employers are given until January 31st. to give w-2’s to employees. Apparently, he thought that I was in Norfolk, Va. where that is possible.
It only goes downhill from there. The bottom line is I lost all of my investment in this businees (approx. $80,000) because I closed it rather than becoming a victim of this unethical company. NOthing would make me happier than to be a part of a class action lawsuit.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? DO YOU OR HAVE YOU OWNED A LIBERTY TAX SERVICE FRANCHISE? ARE LIBERTY TAX SERVICE FRANCHISEES HAPPY? WHY OR WHY NOT?
.
^^Out:
Your posts are quite on point and I agree with almost everything you post. But I must disagree with regard to Corey Hughes. During my tenure as a LTS franchisee, he saw what was happening to me & with me & saw the crap I endured with JTH. He never called me, approached me, nothing to talk about what has taken place. If he reached out, he would have heard from me, my story. Instead he listened to and followed the guy who hands him his paycheck & ended up being a real a-hole to me, when it was so easy to see what JTH was doing to me. Corey turned a blind eye and I would never forgive them for what transpired. At the time, it was a very BIG deal.
Corey may or may not have been involved in scams or tax fraud, but he certainly was a little puppet for JTH during the time I knew him. And probably still is. Smart? Not sure how smart you can be when you see what’s going on all around you in Corporate & with franchisees & the thousands of lawsuits and still stay the course just to keep your own reputation and job intact.
Only time will tell. And hopefully their time will all be up soon.
The key is to charge a low enough fee or just mark a return free when a discount on an RT will leave you in Red so that way you minimize the RTs, lower your payments to JTH, and only paying the 19/20% royalty. That means no SAF and no CIF and no other idiotic scam promotion.
The real key is to exit Liberty when you can and stop paying 19% of your earnings to them. For anyone thinking about joining this outfit, don’t do it.
Don’t worry SanFranDan, John will get what’s coming to him. He is probably most miserable right now. He has destroyed too many lives. When John looks in a mirror at himself, he knows what he is and what he has done for $$. So sad, but true.
John Hewitt is back at it again! Loyalty Brands
We will be offering three business opportunities this spring. All are in final negotiations with experienced partners.
The first is an accounting and tax franchise specializing in small businesses with revenues of $500,000 – $2,500,000. We’ll be preparing financial statements and tax returns. Additional services will be payroll and business consulting.
There are over 200,000 mom and pops competing at this level with NO nationwide brand name. We plan to expand internationally and to be the largest international accountant (office count) within ten years.
The second initiative will be a national business broker. This business is well developed and we will have customers in virtually all small business areas. Our focus will be the same level of businesses as in our accounting franchisor. Services will include advice on mergers and acquisitions, buying and selling businesses and business evaluations.
With the aging baby boomers retiring at record levels and the new tax law incentives this is an ideal time to enter this industry. Also we expect 5-10% of our accounting franchise customers will be sold each year. Our goal is to be the largest business broker in the US within 5 years.
The third exciting and synergistic business is bartering. I believe that bartering to be one of the oldest professions. Bartering can be an excellent vehicle for inexpensive customer retention as well as reducing overall business expenses. We are partnering with the best bartering business I have ever seen. Our goal is to be the largest barter organization ever within three years.
We will have employment opportunities as well as franchise and area developer territories available for all three businesses.
Having founded national companies twice, once in 1982 and again in 1997, I am excited to set a goal to make this the fastest growing of all!
Next Steps: May/June Launch- 2 day event in Virginia Beach. Dates to be announced March 31st!
-JTH
^^He’s like a cat with nine lives :( He just keeps going and going and going……..
He keeps reinventing himself and doesn’t care one iota about anything except money & a name for himself. And buying awards. After all these years the IRS ‘should’ be able to hang him and they’re not. Why? Hmmm
Whatever happened to Siempre Tax? Is there any national presence there? Haven’t done any research….not really interested………just want to nail HIM once & for all. He’s defied so many people, why? H& R cannot stand him, soooo many others cannot either. Anyone have a crystal ball what’s gonna happen next? :(
In my very humble opinion, all three new ventures will be duds. Any business making one-half to $2.5m is not going to be attracted to a place best known for costumed clowns trying to draw business curbside. HRB has been on and off buying small accounting practices for years and has a somewhat respectable name to buy into. Liberty just does not have the reputation to attract small accounting firms and to attract clients to them. (Many mom and pops have more business than they can handle, thank you.) Payroll is a real headache. Lots of small firms don’t want that business, so the big payroll companies are the competition. Good luck beating them.
Financial services and business consulting are services many businesses need, but they seek these services from trusted advisors, i.e., people who come highly recommended. Our CPA firm is inundated with offers to become financial service advisors, and we don’t want it. Let the pros have it. Too many licenses to obtain, too much risk, and if the market tanks too many angry clients.
As for bartering, in all the years I’ve been in the business I’ve had two clients who bartered and actually reported it. Not much opportunity there in my experience.
I agree with SarahEA, so you have to ask what is Liberty trying to accomplish with this? It may be another way to scam unsuspecting investors to line little John’s pockets.
John, if you have not noticed, is delusional. Both personally and professionally.
The Liberty train will come off the tracks and crash and burn. He knows it and we know it.
Loyalty Brands Discovery Day is Thursday April 26th at 12:00pm at Sweetwater Cuisine in Virginia Beach.
Wonder how many fools will be there? Will Screwitt tell everyone that he has been fired twice by the same companies he founded? I guess third time is a charm…hahahahhahahaahah!
SanfranDan in no way was I trying to portray that Corey was not anything but 100 percent Liberty. Corey would never go against John. John has taken care of him and I believe Corey has lied to himself as far as John’s Character and credibility. There are several people at Liberty that are like Corey. Corey is a poster child though that never was destroyed though and that is amazing and shows he figured something out that so many others never were able too. I just never saw or heard of Corey encouraging tax fraud or anything that would be considered illegal. Corey I knew was always 100 percent Liberty but when he spoke about the business and marketing side. He was cautious to never cross that criminal line. Also what I know about when he did run his stores he never crossed that line during that time either.
As far as The new offerings they are trying to do a few things here. They are trying to divert attention away from them being a company that targets the poor and least educated in our society. By making these offerings, t enables them to at least have an argument against those who say Liberty won’t change. It also enables them to get some desperate franchisees and there’s many out there, some false hope that there may be a way to be successful at Liberty. I’m interested to see what the extra charge to the franchisee is for these extra services or opportunities.
To me its revealing that they now want to get into business returns and preparing financial statements. If not for there stock price being in the toilet and the word getting out about the type of Franchise they operate I doubt they would do any of this. Needing to stop the bleeding and also the need to once again show some growth is vital to them surviving.
I do see why they are stringing these services together though. This will give Liberty Corp a fresh new audience to market Liberty Franchises too. The number one thing that is scaring Liberty Corp is there inability to sell new territories or sell the many stores and areas they have been forced to take back. Without the ability to sell to fresh franchisees they are in serious trouble and now I would say the majority of there prospects have spent some time on this site and they are sick of fielding questions raised from reading the many many posts.
The fact still remains. There is no logical reason for anyone wanting to start a Tax Preperation Business to purchase a Liberty Franchise! Paying a franchise 40k to completely handcuff you and hold your professional, Business, and Financial life hostage is insane. Plus then pay them royalties, advertising fees, and let’s not forget about double digit interest rates makes the decision to purchase a tax franchise suicide. But if someone reads these posts and decides to purchase anyway then I doubt they had much hope anyway.
I am sure this new venture will not be related to Liberty.
^^Out:
No problem. We’re all in this together. Anytime I have persuaded someone to NOT invest in this dumb ass franchise I get the biggest satisfaction of one more person HE cannot manipulate or take money from.
Your last paragraph is 100% true, not to mention that when you leave you have to hand over YOUR client data base so THEY can take it over. It is a win-win-win-win for THEM. The poor franchisee gets nothing. It’s a sham, a shame, a scam and worse. Those fee intercepts used to drive me crazy. And if they didn’t like something you did that month, they used to come & audit me as punishment! Even though I brought them in thousands through multiple offices.
The bartering thing is ridiculous. No right minded individual would ever go down that path.
Sad but true: Thank you. We all can’t wait for him to get what he deserves. What’s the latest with his son, Danny? Not sure I really want to know. And ex-girlfriend lawsuit? Yeecch………
Maybe the female reporter of the Virginian Pilot can come back on here as she did recently and post more garbage on him. The more the merrier! LOVE to read about his WOES! They need to keep piling up! ;)
Sanfrandan the bartering thing I’ve always expected. Danny was and may still be in with that company. After doing some investigation it appears to me as though Liberty is going to make a huge push at getting mom and pops to convert to Liberty. Which of course follows the pattern they have always followed. Sell to people who do not have quite enough capitol and are forced to borrow from Liberty Corp at high interest rates so Liberty can have complete control over them. Then by going after mom and pops once the owner walks away or they are terminated from Liberty, Corporate is hoping to have a market to sell the conversion operations that fail under Liberty to other franchisees. Plus by adding services they can collect royalties on accounting services along with other services. They are desperate to show growth and the many struggling mom and pops is low hanging fruit.
Guess we will watch and see. I don’t think the future of the tax preparation business and the accounting business is not traditional retail storefront locations. Barring some unforseen circumstances, Storefront locations are going away in large numbers.
But I also don’t believe that the tax preparation business is dead either. It will be the ones who can understand what the market is wanting and being able to deliver it the most effective manner who will thrive
Before anyone enters the industry they best know the route that the IRS has chosen to take, if you plan on entering the business you better understand what the IRS is doing and design a business that does not put you directly in their crosshairs. Marketing to low income bank clients and marketing to the micro small business or even the smaller self employed is a dangerous venture. The IRS now puts the responsibility on the tax preparer and/or the Owner of the tax prep business and you could easily be facing prison time if you fall into the desperate tax customer trap because your financially desperate. This trap is all the people in this country who will do anything possible to either get a larger refund or get out of paying the IRS via inflated deductions or made up deductions. Many of these tax clients search out tax preparers or offices that they can convince to do there returns. If the client is ever caught or audited by IRS they will turn on you instantly and swear that they had zero knowledge of what was going on. The tax preparation business is a dangerous one at present. Preparers are facing many years in jail. You need to be smart and see the many pitfalls and traps!
I forgot to comment on the plan to become a national business broker. “Services will include advice on mergers and acquisitions, buying and selling businesses and business evaluations.” This is a highly specialized area of accounting and not many firms do it. Those that do command BIG bucks. I can’t imagine a single one of them wanting to share all that income with a franchisor.
Out, tax prep is not that dangerous if you follow the rules. I just had a client hand me a list of expenses that include a fairly large amount for travel (not mileage, but airfare and hotels). He works on land parcels locally. You bet I’ll ask questions before that goes on his return. We regularly have IRS agents conduct audits in our office. They admit that they are auditing the preparer as well as the client. We keep copies of client records, questions asked, etc., and they usually leave satisfied with our work. The preparers who are going to jail are those who do funny stuff.
January 22nd, 2016
Bartercard USA is delighted to announce the appointment of Chad Corman and Danny Hewitt as new franchisees of Bartercard Hampton Roads. Hampton Roads takes in the cities of Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Newport News, Hampton, Williamsburg and the Outer Banks area of North Carolina.
“We are very excited that, after nearly 25 years of operation in other countries, the Bartercard franchise concept has finally been released in the United States and that we were able to join the Bartercard USA team on the ground floor. We believe that Bartercard offers a unique value proposition that all business owners who want to increase their cash profits and take their businesses to the next level will find extremely attractive! ” said Chad Corman.
Chad Corman is an entrepreneur, franchise consultant and strategist, who owns several franchise concepts, has built franchisors, and spearheaded dozens of successful multi-million dollar projects. Chad is an expert at creating joint ventures, building strong teams and driving solutions from concept to market in a way that maximizes value for all stakeholders.
Danny Hewitt is a best selling author who is highly motivated, dedicated and an energetic professional with a strong background in guerrilla marketing and franchising. Danny played a pivotal role in the explosive growth of one the largest Tax franchises in the US and Canada, he inspires companies to reach their full brand potential and communicates their value to key audiences through public speaking, corporate training, partnership development, social media and guerrilla marketing.
It never ends…scammers that is. They are “excited” and “believe” they can dupe businesses to take their businesses to the next level…whatever that means? When you read that Danny played a pivotal role in the explosive growth of Liberty, they don’t mention the deep, deep trouble Liberty is in now. Must be because Danny left them and long ago and now he gets to work with Chad the wonder boy. Can’t wait to see how that works out.
These people live out their days trying to figure out ways to get other people’s money. Sad, but true.
Did anyone see the article yesterday written by the Progressive Accountant about Steve Dolesky (sp) of Fanatical University. That was a scam from the beginning. Our AD wanted us to attend, but told him, there is no way in Hell we were going to be associated with people who promote FRAUD in preparing tax returns and definitely did not want to be listed anywhere as an attendee of such event. I did advise my person with IRS about them and someone in the DOJ back in 2013. Took awhile, but finally that scambo is going down. Awesome work from all the LTS people who helped point in the direction!
http://www.theprogressiveaccountant.com/Tax/feds-sue-florida-three-liberty-operators
^^Here’s the first article franchizee mentioned
http://www.theprogressiveaccountant.com/Tax/suits-against-liberty-pile-up
And here’s another one. In the Steve Doletsky article, they spelled his name wrong at least twice………..but to say that JTH touted Steve’s classes: OF COURSE HE DID THAT!! Knowing full well what was taught. A thousand reasons HE needs to be behind bars :(:(
It’s about time for one of NC Hillbilly’s articles! ;)
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/09/warning-signs-your-tax-preparer-could-be-a-fraud.html
^^Ha! Glad they put a picture of a Liberty Tax clown with the article, otherwise we would have NEVER known! ;)
I know Steve was an Area Developer but never heard how he left. I’m wondering how long he owned his DMAs or DMA and I wonder if he ever paid it off to where he actually owned it not just having the title with short term financing and all the money going back to Liberty. I’m willing to bet not even he was able to complete Liberty’s ultra short term financing and inflated sales price.. From what I have seen most in his situation get hooked on being the company’s Golden Child and get hooked on the salary they are paid. But eventually they realize that they must be able to back up all there claims and that’s what kills them in the end. Liberty sells DMAs with the intent of taking them back in several years, or they extend that by a few years with finding a partner for a AD and doing another short term financing deal. Either way Liberty never intends the financing to be completed. Cheaper for them since they don’t have to hire an employee to do Ads Job and Liberty gets much better growth numbers when a owner of DMA is the AD.
Normally at first franchisees that are being paid a corporate salary and still running stores, startnto pull stunts and do a ton of free returns so they can appear to be a success. But then the financing and over stretching there operations size and growth force them into the situation that so many fall into and that is at some level, doing returns that should never be done. But in Steve’s situation it would appear he went all out with committing fraud. I’m sure Steve feels different now about Liberty then he did when leading franchisees down a path of trouble.
Steve Doletsky was, and probably still is, in cahoots with Hewitt. They were what I call the masterminds behind the taxpayer EIC filing fraud as well as the promoters of the sham Liberty has now proven to be. What is keeping the stock prices up for Liberty is that there is a whole lot of stock manipulation going on which is easy to do for a low cap, tightly held entity. The dividend is high as well which causes a high return percentage on investment. This is to lure some unwitting outsiders to buy stock at an inflated level so that the major players (Hewitt) sell off something pretty worthless. What is underlying (no pun intended) about this company is that they produce their own set of lies and even start believing them. Make no mistake, this is an extremely toxic company that, in all rights, should be in its final down slide.
There is still widespread fraud being conducted in the Liberty stores that is encouraged by management through high royalty fees which lead to high consumer costs. We all know this, yet this company still bumbles on. The IRS could care less about the root cause and pattern of fraud perpetuated by Liberty Corporate and continues to target the individual franchisees since they can ill afford an attorney to defend them properly. Liberty knows this and still preys on many unsuspecting individuals. Always stay aware and steer real clear away from these clowns.
I am somewhat confused. So Liberty is going to get people to buy into another scam that will advise small to medium businesses. I have that skill and make a good amount of money doing it. My costs are almost nothing except a computer and phone, my marketing costs are almost nothing as my reputation has garnered me many clients. That is how this business runs with most of the people I know in it. What is Liberty bringing to the table?????
Frustrated and Disgusted: To answer your question, Liberty brings absolutely nothing to the table other than their ability to take your money and provide you the opportunity to commit fraud.
I concur with Texastee.. Nothing! Their marketing program is one big scam, their tech support no better than any other tax software you can buy outright. What irks me is that many Zees they have sold franchises to have tax offices that cannot work because the Lib Tax scheme is to grab the lower incomes $$. You don’t know that until you put your $40K down, at least that was 10 years ago or so. Now, instead of fixing that situation, or helping these people out, which they should do since they sold them a biz that cannot work, they will sell you ANOTHER business to hook into that market. How can anyone fall for this scam? A simple google search should show LibTax to be the fraud it is. Unfortunately there are other businesses, like Entrepreneur magazine, that make money promoting these frauds. Shame.. These franchises should be shut down. The only people making money are the franchisors, and a few scammers or people who made money in spite of Screwitt and his den of thieves.
^^I’m positive Entrepreneur magazine promotes franchises like LTS because they get PAID to promote them! :(
How can anyone fall for this scam? Unfortunately WE ALL DID. :( And just think about the thousands of people over all these years that have been scammed that don’t even post here…..
As we are beginning to see by the news headlines that lots of big name people have had their lives & careers come to a complete halt because of scandals. When will it be JTH’s time? Once & for all.
New article in the Pilot:) Check this out for anyone considering Liberty!!
When Liberty Tax’s CEO and founder John T. Hewitt was fired in 2017, it was in part because the company’s board charged there was an “inappropriate tone at the top.”
Some 9 months later, critics say the firm’s leadership still has problems.
Because of a quirk in his stock ownership, Hewitt is chairman of the board for Liberty Tax, and at least one board member who has tendered his resignation says Hewitt’s hand-picked executives are not qualified to run the company. The board member didn’t elaborate but in the case of Shaun York, the company’s new chief operating officer, there’s a short history in business, a personal bankruptcy, civil lawsuits and an entrenched debt to the company he now helps lead.
York had been a franchisee for Liberty Tax since 2003 before buying the territory of a Florida “area developer” – a role that involves recruiting and maintaining franchises while sharing in their earnings – in January 2015. That area developer is now the target of a Justice Department lawsuit claiming he and franchisees under him had filed false and fraudulent tax returns.
York, who is not a defendant in that lawsuit, wouldn’t address the Justice Department’s claims, saying he had been advised not to comment on pending litigation. Other questions sent to him via text message were unanswered. The company has also stopped answering questions but instead issued a press release the day after a reporter inquired about York’s past, solely touting the new executive team, “made up of some of the most experienced small business owners in the industry.”
Despite having no experience running a publicly-traded company, York, 36, and two other longtime franchisees were tapped as Liberty Tax’s top leaders in February. An independent board member, Ross Longfield, in a February resignation letter, said the three new executives – CEO, chief operations officer and chief strategy officer – were beholden to Hewitt and not “qualified to hold these positions in a public company.”
But York’s business partner Joanna Parichkov, a Liberty Tax franchisee in Florida, defended York, saying “he’s always had the highest integrity and honesty.” She added that York stepped into the COO role because of his desire to help.
A COO typically oversees the day-to-day operations of a company – in this case, one that took in nearly $174 million in revenue last year and had more than 4,000 storefronts spread across the United States and Canada. But records show York has had challenges in the past managing his own franchises.
York filed for personal Chapter 7 bankruptcy less than seven years ago. At the time, he had $1 in his checking account and was receiving a monthly allowance from his parents and girlfriend to keep him afloat. He owed the IRS $19,000 in employment taxes and had racked up more than $115,000 worth of credit card charges, according to the bankruptcy records.
He listed his employment as contract audit work for Liberty Tax corporate based in Virginia Beach but didn’t mention he owned a franchise.
York graduated from Florida Southern College with a business administration and financial management degree. That same year he started as a Liberty Tax franchisee. After buying the franchises, he sued his insurance company in 2005 claiming they didn’t sell him worker’s compensation insurance as he expected. He admitted in a court deposition that he hadn’t read the insurance policy he secured for his new business.
Two years ago, York and his company, Yorkompany LLC, were sued in federal court in Florida by a former hourly employee. The employee claimed he hadn’t been paid overtime or proper minimum wage for the number of hours he worked.
York settled without responding to the lawsuit’s allegations or admitting liability, agreeing to pay the worker $10,500. According to the agreement, York produced evidence that the worker was terminated a few months earlier than noted in court filings and that the franchisee had claimed to be working at times when he was, instead, just “hanging out” in the office.
York, an area developer for Liberty Tax since 2008, bought much of his territory through a loan from Liberty Tax for a little over $4 million. As of February, he still owed nearly $2 million on the loan and was a guarantor for $4.8 million in debt secured by some of the franchisees in his territory, according to the company’s financial disclosure filings.
The debts have been reported to shareholders but York’s other history has not.
Brent Allred, a professor of management at William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business, said that whether a high-level executive’s past business dealings should be disclosed to investors can be a question of relevance and perception. Did those dealings relate to the job he or she is doing now? Is it information that would embarrass the person’s current employer?
In this case, York is now overseeing a financial services company offering tax preparation, and his past dealings are closely tied to his company, Liberty Tax. A personal bankruptcy could be relevant, said Allred.
“It should have come to light earlier so the debate could happen. Maybe there is an explanation,” Allred said, also noting that there can be circumstances when filing for bankruptcy is better than going insolvent, potentially saving jobs or a company.
But York and the company have been silent on the issue.
Allred said part of the onus is on the company to do its due diligence in tracking down past business dealings of a potential executive.
“At the end of the day, there are no secrets anymore,” said Jeff Rich, chief marketing officer for William & Mary’s business school.
Rich, who spent 30 years working for large publicly-traded companies, knows nothing about York or Liberty Tax’s situation, but generally speaking, he said, people’s business histories are all public record now. Other people and companies can dig into it and, in some cases, use it as leverage.
“Even if they’re beyond reproach right now, it puts you in a vulnerable position,” he said.
York like so many at Liberty is a yes man to John Hewitt . John has been very diligent in putting yes men or women in leadership positions especially now since things have gotten so toxic inside and outside of Liberty. John also puts people in these positions that would never be able to go anywhere else and be able to secure a position anywhere close to the one they are holding so they are easy to control and will want to do everything possible to please John. Because if or I should say when they are terminated the lifestyle they have become used too and have based their lives around will come crashing down over night. Just think about this, franchisees are being and have been prosecuted for fraud yet the leaders and the ones who trained these franchisees sits back and enjoys a nice 6 figure salary. With all the fraud that’s been exposed and the prison sentences that are being served now and the ones that will be heading to prison and the ring leaders all sit back like fat cats and enjoy happy hours laughing all the way to the bank. Remember In Business for Yourself BUT Not By Yourself! AS soon as the feds come knocking, trust me, and the evidence shows this, you will by by yourself and Liberty will assist the feds in reserving you a prison cell with Bubba. The only time you won’t be by yourself is when Liberty can force you to do things in their best interest no matter what is in your best interest.
To anyone still thinking about joining Liberty and still believes it to be a good business deal after reading through all that is out there now, should not complain when things go bad and bad real fast. There is so much more that needs to come out and no one knows how long it will take for all the bad publicity to finally come out, if ever. What you read in these posts are just the tip to the iceberg of info that should be exposed. Yes there are many that failed in Liberty that made bad business decisions while a franchisee, but even those would of more than likely failed eventually because the system no longer works and never did.
Does anybody know when the Liberty financials are going to be released? My guess is that they are pretty terrible since a lot of taxpayers have gotten more savvy about Liberty’s questionable business practices.
I was also reviewing some of the so called “leadership” that now manages the company and I still see the same clowns running it, especially Hewitt. Commentary about Liberty’s plan to go after the more upscale market seems ridiculous. Liberty has such a lousy reputation in the market that any foray into another demographic seems absurd. But, then again, Liberty has continuously proven how stupid they can be and has been able to sink to even greater lows.
They just brought on an independent auditor after their previous one quit. Normally, they’d announce 1-2 days after HR Block in early June. It seems like getting those books done in that time and closing out the fiscal year would be a bit challenging in a mid-June timeframe. If they go later than June, they’d probably need NASDAQ’s permission to file a late report.
To anyone interested in buying a Liberty Franchise territory, please think twice about it. You have no current financial reports to base a decision on. So, take the advice of many posters on this site, save your money and don’t buy into this operation. Unless you have money to lose, again, don’t do it!
This death spiral is getting long in the tooth ready for the finally. https://pilotonline.com/business/jobs/article_ef6872c4-5888-11e8-a6d8-27f8301df282.html
It is sad that the real history of Liberty Tax is one to enrich and glorify one person, John Hewitt. Sure, others have made money, but many more have lost so much.
What should be a straight forward business, doing taxes, has become a cesspool of deceit with Liberty Tax.
If you have any ethics, don’t compromise them by joining this company. If you are already in with them, stand tall and then run away as fast as you can from them.
Harvey Weinstein in handcuffs today, Hewitt tomorrow.
Please make it happen, people! :(
dan I wish, it will never happen. I was on the other end. When he and his cronies found out I wouldn’t cheat and lie i was out. No longer important. He ended up taking back all my offices and closed them all. Totally destroyed everything.
Liberty Tax is continuing to fall, as corporate is dumping over $6.4 million in company owned stores, offering them to existing franchisees for $1.00 each. There are 143 company stores on the list, one of the stores listed was Liberty’s flagship store in Virginia Beach. This is another indicator that Liberty Tax is experiencing financial problems.
Deb
How many offices?
Guest, i had 4 territories and three stores was moving the 4th. All very strong producing offices.
Saw this today on Facebook, the name of the individual that wrote this has been removed. Warning this may be graphic at times.
A Little long and rant like…unlike me but I feel I have to help others not make my mistakes.
This week I started a new chapter of my life, I started my new career!! ?
It has brought along with it many many emotions, excitement, fear, sadness, but mostly overwhelming happiness!! Because I learned from the below lesson and I am FREED of the controlling, demonic, unhealthy situation I found myself in almost a year ago….
My last career was not just a job to me it WAS my entire life! It WAS my identity. I WAS mrs (insert Co. Here). When I should of been myself who worked at (insert Co. Here) I let it all consume me. I thought I was doing the right thing and would be given loyalty if I gave loyalty! You see this is what I was brain washed for 12 years to believe…..well it was the farthest from the truth. You see I thought I was growing an empire for my kids a future so they would never have to worry in their life! I was sacrificing so they would never have too. I mortgaged my family for this company. I missed dinners, bedtime stories, concerts, sport games, holding them when they were sick, birthdays, holidays for 12 years, I missed the childhood of my 2 oldest children, all for nothing! To have my job, my life, ripped away from me. Not because I wasnt good at my job because I was actually very good! No I had my world ripped away because I believed in the WRONG man, I trusted the WRONG man, I supported the WRONG man, I stood up for, defended and protected, with everything I had, the WRONG man, most importantly I gave up my dream of devoting my life to my kids to help the WRONG man achieve HIS dreams. In the end it was him and only him that he looked out for!
So the lesson I learned is ur job should NEVER define who you are it is ONLY what you do! ALWAYS stand up for who YOU are, live only for what and who matters always keep in check the order in which you should live your life and that my friends should be the following:
GOD
FAMILY
BUSINESS
That WRONG man convinced me to follow him trust him believe in him sacrifice for him because he convinced me to believe that was how HE molded his life in that order….well I promise you he is NOT a God fearing man! He does NOT love his family unconditionally and he is NOT a savy Grandaddy of business!
Please learn from my mistakes and
BE TRUE TO YOU
LOVE YOU ABOVE EVERYONE ELSE
AND ALWAYS HOLD THOSE THAT YOU LOVE TIGHT EVERY MINUTE YOU CAN
Your value should never decrease based on somebody’s inability to see your worth!
^^Deb:
Exactly the same here too. 4 territories, 3 stores carrying the 4th. My main three were all high producing offices, my 4th not so much. I never had a chance to build it up because I was hightailed out of there before that could happen.
^^NCHillbilly:
Wow. Thanks for sharing. It feels terrible that someone lost so much, as did I, but on the other hand it’s really helpful to hear about other people’s stories and to realize none of us are alone in this. Because this happened to me so long ago, I’ve been afraid to talk since I thought I was the only one it was happening to and experiencing his wrath. It has left me almost paralyzed all these years regarding my next move professionally. I know I can do this on my own easily, I’ve just been very reluctant to get involved with Taxes again since I was treated like dirt & then some. I’m also not on Facebook. Just don’t trust it. Don’t even know how to use it. Thanks for sharing. I really do hope this is the beginning of the end. Not for the innocent franchisees, but we have been warning them a very long time so hopefully these are not newer franchisees that should have never put money down in the first place. :(:(
So, where are the Liberty Tax Financials? They should be out by now. They must be real stinkers since Liberty has been awfully quiet about them. It gonna be a tough one to spin!!!
The financials should be filed by June 15th–at least for Q2 and Q3. Since their previous auditor quit due to John Hewitt’s behavior, they are behind in filing them. The current CFO who recently resigned will stay on until the 15th, so he could sign off on the financials. I suspect they are going to be awful as well.
Liberty needs to Update the Website to correctly reflect how many offices are out there now 3127 US offices. Lots of closures this season, more closures coming!
There will not be any financials anytime soon. The accounting firm, CRI resigned on June 5th and did not complete any of the financials.
Mutiny. Lots of folks will just quit.
This is an interesting article.
http://www.4-traders.com/LIBERTY-TAX-INC-16933083/news/LIBERTY-TAX-INC-Changes-in-Registrant-s-Certifying-Accountant-Change-in-Directors-or-Principal-26734259/
Checking the SEC warnings about having financial statements there is a June 11th Deadline SEC set for Liberty to get in compliance.
If they miss a 3rd Quarter in a row will it tank the stock? Just days after Ossenfort received over 1.5M and York nearly 1M in Stock they won’t be happy if it goes to $0. Nice that the John Hewitt Board gives the puppet C-Suite crowd nice bonuses stock bonus vacation moving expenses while nearly all Zees and Corp Employees in the trenches are eating beans. Wise decisions for the CFO and the Auditor to resign! There will be a reckoning soon. When that happens we will be free of these burdensome and unfair F.A.s and save ourselves from needless over head. We will be free to operate and form our own associations and alliances. The death spiral is speeding up.
Concerned Zee: Prediction that company reorganizes or gets sold. Kicked off stock exchange would mean franchisee can just quit.
Guest – check your facts thats not how it works. https://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/what-happens-to-delisted-shares.aspx Bankruptcy opens up more possibilities ask JH franchisees of the past or many others. It’s another major sign of trouble but a BK with no one willing take a chance and them being liquidated is what everyone is wanting.
In a nutshell if you are a current zee your still scrhewitted.
Liberty Tax missed a filing deadline and now could get kicked off Nasdaq listing
By Briana Adhikusuma
The Virginian-Pilot
https://pilotonline.com/business/article_12cc0b0e-6e4b-11e8-807d-377998780dfd.html