LIBERTY TAX SERVICE Franchise Complaints

5,730 thoughts on “LIBERTY TAX SERVICE Franchise Complaints”

• With all the troubles it’s still very nice to take six months off. Working again in October. Will expand as independant. Get control of income. Cut costs. Good luck and happier spring summer to all.

• @guest11 – Same here. Have been working on the independent side for 5 mos or so. I bring in the income, just can’t hold on the money too many expenses associated with Liberty.

• Liberty is way too expensive. They keep wanting the royalties and don’t shoe you how to make money in the business. Hopefully, people will realize what scam artists they really are.

• ^^Texastea:

  You’re being WAY too kind. They are the biggest rip off artists of the century. They took our money and offered NO help, NO support, NO training, NO advertising, NO help with site selection, NO help from AD, NO help with computer & software issues, but TOOK our $$$ extremely quickly and offered NOTHING in return except headaches. Guerilla marketing…..stupid, stupid concepts. Free returns…..stupid, stupid concepts.

  They are BULLIES to the utmost degree. They suck. Scam artists-yes. Greedy bastards they all are. We have employed way too many lawyers and lost thousands upon thousands.

  I will not waver until I see that company & their “leader” PAY for all the crap we franchisees had to ENDURE. I hope they take every last red cent from that schmuck and throw him in jail where he belongs. The worst excuse for a CEO EVER.

• San FranDan: I’m glad that you recognize the way Liberty does business as deceitful. Being way too kind is true, since I cannot describe what a bunch of crooks these people really are. As for jail, Hewitt belongs there with all the other felons that commit heinous crimes. He might mellow out.

• The irony of Liberty is the Zee’s make the company not the other way around. Without Zee’s there is no Liberty. If we are unhappy, then someday the company will faulter. I suspect most Zee’s stay in because of the money they owe, not because it is a great, lovely company.

  What is appalling, there is basically nothing about processing taxes, just about promoting Liberty and Guerilla Marketing. Their advertising, when looking to purchase a territory is false because they are stating they are a tax office, when there is hardly any training to even start the program. They have a stupid concept, that everyone needs to be a CEO, when push comes to shove, the owner of the EFIN is the one that goes down with the IRS and that person typically does not even process a tax return nor do anything for the day to day business. Stupid people especially John Hewitt who encourages this reckless behavior.

• @Franchizee,

  Just a matter of opinion here, but I do believe John Hewitt, the CEO of Liberty Tax Service has spoken degrading words to everyone via conference call or meeting..”Nobody ever follows my system 100% in all these years”.
  Nothing sells better than a seemingly powerful man saying that you may be the one to crack the code and he will finance you because you were selected.
  To run a scheme like this: Take smart, poor people with a desire to do whatever it takes and gain a return on equity with these smart franchisees who BELIEVE they own something the entire time. Use them to cut costs and increase revenues and shove any and all liability you can upon them.

  -Trisha

• @Trisha – Spot on. There is definitely a pattern of people he single’s out as his favorites. He seems to like the single mom’s and ambitious single people which he gives them the illusion they are doing everything and they own the business. He will parade them around as long as they are not caught doing illegal acts or unethical practices.

  It is pretty much sums up his M.O. of the “closing the sale” where you use fear, greed and manipulation to get money out of customers. It is very unethical and lacks morality of using people for ones own gain. He seems to do that on a regular basis. Once a person does not fit that model, he will kick them to the curb. Or get’s rid of people who do not adhere to crazy scheme.

• Trish: you are right in that Hewitt likes to run a dog and pony show, whether for prospective franchisees or existing franchisees. The key here is to remember that you are following the animal show and hence have to carefully step to avoid the residue. When you sell snake oil, you have to eventually deal with the snake.

• Hi everyone,
  I actually have a question not really a comment. Maybe someone can help.
  My husband and I are customers of a Liberty Tax Service in Canada.
  For almost three years we have tax issues that are not being resolved. By now the owner does not even answer registered letters. The office is around six hours away from us so we are not able to just stop by to talk to the owner.
  Is there any way to actually complain to Liberty Tax about one of their franchise owners?
  Hope someone can help.

• Hi birdlady:

  I’m so sorry you are a customer of Liberty Tax Service. My advice would be to switch over to a more respectable Tax office as soon as you are able to. (NOT a franchise) As far as getting your tax issues resolved, either have a lawyer help you or call the main corporate Liberty tax office in Virginia Beach, VA on Corporate Landing Drive and demand that someone help you until your issues are resolved. If you look on their website, hopefully they have an 800 number you can call them directly so you don’t have to incur any phone charges. Be persistent and don’t give up! Good luck-

• Hi SanFranDan,
  thank you so much for your reply! This is much appreciated!
  Sometimes you really learn the hard way… as so many of you have too. It is not only the money (many of you have lost soooo much more!), but the constant state of nerve-wracking communication. We will follow you advise and get a serious accountant. We will also get in touch with the head office – but after all I have read, I doubt that it will be of much use. Thanks anyway!
  Dear, SanFranDan, I wish you a very pleasant day!

• Thanks so much, birdlady, hope you have a pleasant day too and weekend coming up. Please try to have the main office help you……….don’t give up and please check back here and let us know if your issues have been resolved. Shame on them for ignoring your registered letters. Please let the corporate office in Virginia Beach, VA know the name of the Liberty Tax franchisee in Canada and the address of the office so they can be in touch with them and demand better customer service. That behavior is unfortunately quite prevalent but should not be tolerated. Hope it gets resolved.

• Hi SanFranDan,
  I will let the community know how the odyssey ends (if it ever ends).
  It is a calming to know that there are people who actually do care about others.
  Thank you!
  Your birdlady

• I AM NOT A FRANCHISE OWNER BUT I AM HAVING A TERRIBLE TIME GETTING MY TAXES STRAIGHTENED OUT AFTER A MISHAP ON MY FILING STATUS. I EXPLAINED MY SITUATION TO MY TAX PREPARER I WAMTED TO FILE MARRIED BUT SEPERATED, AND MY TAXES WERE FILED UNDER SINGLE. WELL I ENROLLED IN SCHOOL AND COME TO FIND OUT I COULDNT GET MY LOANS DUE TO MY TAXES BEING FILED UNDER SINGLE. I CONTACTED THE I.R.S. AND WAS INFORMED THAT I HAD TO FILE A 1040X FOR AND WOULD BE PENALIZED FROM JAN.27 2012 UNTIL NOW FOR AMMENDING MY TAXES. I CONTACTED MY LOCAL LIBERTY TAX OFFICE AND WAS AMAZED AT HOW RUDE THEY WERE TO ME AND HOW UNWILLING THEY ARE TO HELP. I HAVE HAD TO TAKE A LEAVE OF ABCENSE FROM SCHOOL UNTIL I CAN GET THIS SITUATION TAKEN CARE OF. I PAID ALMOST 300.00 DOLLARS TO GET MY TAXES FILED CORRECTLY AND THIS IS WHAT I GOT !!! I READ A CLAUSE THAT I WOULD BE REEMBURSED MY FILING FEE IF I WAS UNSATISFIED FOR ANY REASON???? YEA RIGHT I THINK THAT I HAVE A VERY GOOD REASON TO B UNSATISFIED BUT I WAS INFORMED THAT IT WAS MY FAULT I NEVER SHOULD HAVE SIGNED THE TAX RETURN WITHOUY READING IT !!!! THATS WHY I PAID SO IT WOULD BE DONE RIGHT HECK I COULD HAVE MESSED IT UP MYSELF FOR FREE !!! SO I WOULD NOT RECCOMEND LIBERTY TAX TO ANYONE FOR THIS REASON THEY DO NOT UPHOLD THIER WORD THAT IS CLEARLY PEINTED IN BLACK AND WHITE !!!!!

• Unfortunately this is what happens when you go to a very unprofessional tax prep office whose tax preparers are “trained” in a matter of hours.

  My advice to you, Donna, as well as anyone else reading this that has similar problems, is to go to the Liberty Tax website, get the 1-800# for the Liberty Tax number at their headquarters in Virginia Beach, VA and inundate them with phone calls and do not stop until the issue has been resolved.

  Explain to them your situation and that you’ve had NO help from the offending office…..make sure they know which office it is………and be PERSISTANT!!!

  My own personal hope & goal is to see this whole damn company shut down and their leader in jail.

  There is a reason why they have a 1-800# and their business is a SERVICE business, which means that if the customer is not satisfied, they will “supposedly” do whatever they can to resolve the situation. So, CALL their main office in Virginia Beach, VA and demand a resolution. Good luck.

• Good luck on getting any response from the corporate office. They usually refer you to the franchisee since they take no responsibility for what a “rogue franchisee” does. You will be bounced back and forth until they wear you down. Keep persevering, somebody will make amends.

• Admin can you have Trisha Grabert contact me personally?

  thanks, NC HillBilly

• I went to Canon City, Colorado, being from Pueblo, Colorado, to get my taxes done. I was charged $533. When I got home to Pueblo, I called all three of the other services here. I told them what forms she filed and asked what they would charge. I was told prices from $268. to the highest being $289. I asked for the difference to be refunded. I was first told that it was because of the forms that were filed. I told her that the others knew what forms when they quoted me the prices. Then the story went to the fact that “it was late in the season, being April 13. She said that she could charge more then. I called the 1-800 # and they assured me that I would receive a call back by the executive office. A man called, after I had called the line back three more times, and he said that I “had to understand that she had a higher rent to pay in Canon City, so she had to charge me double” . It is not my responsibility to pay her rent. I reminded him that I have a letter that was given to me with the Liberty Tax letterhead on it, that stated I had a guarantee of satisfaction or 100% refund available. At first I only asked for the difference. He told me that they would give me a free service next year. I stated that that would not be acceptable, and he assured me that he would get with her and call me back. This was a month ago, and still no call. I have called the 1-800# almost every night with no response back. I called the 1-800-866-871-1040 line also, and get the same person, with no call back either I am now taking it to the BBB and will hire an attorney. If anyone knows another # to call please let me know. I will also be going to the media with this, so she may be out of business when people find out how non-reputable she is, as they will come to Pueblo from Canon City to get it done cheaper. Please help if you can!

• Liberty Tax up only 0.9% (or +15K returns) in their offices for this tax season, despite growing locations by 9%. Brutal year for nearly everyone in the tax prep industry. Liberty’s average returns per office now at 408 versus 439 the year before.

  http://ir.libertytax.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=233197&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1817989&highlight

• Dr Z. I think dropping off because the 1040ez crowd is becoming more ‘do-it-yourself’. They are not responding to ‘free’ in the brick and mortor stores. What’s left are filers who can ask more questions and shop around. Next question is how many have not filed? Also, when they file late, they pay lower fees. New day coming for next year.

• You guys also need to account for the fact that guest444 had all of those additional returns so that leaves the other franchisee’s flat on an office increase of 9%
  Of those returns how many were free?
  Will there be another increase in offices this year?
  Will there be fewer offices next year?
  Will the office that did 250-300 returns be able to financially weather the storm and open next year?

• After thinking about it……
  Lets do some figuring……
  I think there were about 500 new offices or something in that neighborhood
  15k/500 = 30 returns per new office
  200$ each 6000$
  Expenses for an office? Payroll? Rent? Royalties? Advertising? Utilities? Now factor in your personal living expenses til next tax season……wow
  I understand that’s just accounting for the new offices
  I’m sure some did better than others but spread it out as a company
  Lets say you were the CEO and you owned all of the offices
  Lets at an absolute bear bones minimum office expense of 12k a year
  12000 x 500 = 6000000
  Now lets say 15000 new clients and lets say average charge of 200$
  That is 3000000
  You as a CEO lost 3000000$
  That is an absolute best case
  Throw in 2-5k for furniture for your new offices
  A more realistic office expense of 18-20k
  Computers for your new offices
  Bank charges
  Credit card processing charges
  Looking more like 10-12 mil expenses vs 3 mil in revenue (that’s if none of the returns were free and all were paid for without the refunds being offset for child support etc)
  But John doesn’t have to worry about that
  All those expenses were passed on to the franchisee

  There are indeed some very succesful liberty franchisee’s but is that more to do with who, where, why than having liberty on the front of the store? Would these individuals have been as or nearly successful if it said Jimmy’s tax service on the front?

• Greg; That is the problem with franchises in general and this franchise imperticular. The loss you calculated is not born by the franchisor but the franchisee. With this company they are responsible for only the success none of
  the failure.

  Liberty/John Hewitt and Mark Baumgartner made a miscalculation. Their goal, especialy Mark’s, was to build the company up to a certain level and cash out by taken it public. Unfortunately the economy and the evolution of the tax industry changed their plans. If anyone has been following the stock you will see that Baumgartner has been actively getting rid of his stock. Of course this dosen’t help the franchisees and should be a sign to investors about the stocks future value.

  Because of Liberty’s rapid expansion and needs to provide operating loans to its franchisees or it will start to collapse in on itself. The company is profitable on paper but it’s cash poor. Look for the company to acquire more long term debt in 2013.

  Potential franchisees should heed the advice of people on this board and stay away from this company.

• @Scammed1,

  Not sure what you mean by following animal poo that Liberty Tax leaves behind, but I was raised competing in western rodeo events. I’ve stepped in horseshit all my life. I’ve always cleaned my boots and kept them ready to kick a stubborn horse the next day.

  -Trisha

• My apologies, I was meaning to answer the post from “screwed1”.

• You could buy in with a bargain as long as the payback is 3 years or less. Accounting world says 1 to 1.25 times revenue – 20 % down – 5 year payback. Discount the price and the terms to get to 3 years.

• That’s OK, Trish. Good insight!! Money talks and horseshit walks…

• The scuttlebutt in my area is if some of the zee’s could find a buyer for their stores, they would sell in a heart beat. It would be funny if all the store’s were up for sales in my area just to upset the AD! Some are only staying until their leases are up and handing them back if it does not make anymore money. Only person making money is John John and his minions!

• @ Franchisee,

  And John Hewitt can STOP any sale for any reason just like he stopped his own son from selling over a million dollar dma. He then turned around and sold it to who he wanted to buy and shafted Danny Hewitt. Happens all the time. The CEO (his own father) TOOK his dma from him because he could not pay his notes, and sold the dma out from under him, I believe it was to the same prospect and for around the same price that Danny originally negotiated and had to return the large down payment as his father demanded. Danny told me the story as well as other nightmares he has witnessed through these years. I do remember clearly that Danny said his father was a reason he has had to file bankrupcy more than once. That is sad. One of his own daughters has similar horror stories that she told me as well. If he would hurt his own family for financial gain, imagine what regard he has for the rest of franchisees and area developers.
  (Just saying…if your found a buyer, you STILL cannot celebrate. For one, the CEO has full control and for two, we know how the next victim will struggle and be trapped in the same unjust contract and terms which are not clear from the beginning.) Most I have spoken to do not understand the contract and most believe the contract is fraud, once they have an analyst or lawyer look at it when things are not as originally promised.

  @scammed1

  I do believe I sense a threat from the comment posted by “screwed1” who may have been sent by the snake? Pffft not the first time I have been harrassed before a testimony or deposition in court as a class action is in progress.

  -Trisha

• @Trisha – I believe you. It seems when you purchase a territory from an AD, it will be worth a Million Bucks, but when you try to sell it, all of a sudden, John comes out of no where and states, your territory and items are worth $______, which does not even pay back anything you have put into. Also, if you are a “pet” of the AD and John, you can steal any territory for just the transfer fee and all is good. The territories in my area are up for sale for the asking. No one is making a good living but creating a good size of debt.

  I would state, if anyone was privy to John’s antics, no one in their right mind would purchase a territory from this company, but up until that last 3 years, things are spiraling out of control on info from this board.

• John Hewitt is spinning this seasons results as a success. Franchise owners if they did not read the complete press release, will read on ZeeNet “Liberty has released U.S. Tax Season 2013 results through April 17th showing an increase of 3% customers served in spite of a difficult year and a decrease in the overall returns filed with the IRS.”

  Liberty is now gambling the company’s future on the Affordable Health Care Act.

  Both Greg and Bill earlier summed it up pretty good, from senior officers selling off stock holdings, huge franchisee losses, and Liberty’s long term debt increasing to finance a huge number of struggling franchisees. Potential franchisees and investors should heed the advice of people on this board and stay away from this company.

• Franchizee,

  This board was there with the same 2-3 failed franchisees in 2009when i bought my first territory. 4 tax season later and 4 offices later I have a $600k entity profiting $180k for 6 hard weeks of work. Just because you guys failed, don’t blame the system. Also, it is obvious, you, Mike, Bill, Trisha, SanFran are the same person so you are not fooling anyone.

• @NCHillBilly – Yup, you are on target. One zee with multiple stores did well in our area, but has such a huge payroll, it ate up any money they had. They ran the store how John wanted it run and it is breaking them. They have to borrow just to stay afloat till next season.

  John Hewitt is not a business man, but a debt man. He can’t manage anything to save his soul. But he can manage to nose dive this company with huge debt and it will need to file for bankruptcy eventually with the massive debt he is accruing.

• IF YOU ARE ON THIS WEBSITE AND CONSIDERING BUYING A LIBERTY FRANCHISE, look at the results of the current and former franchisees and most importantly the COMPANY RESULTS, That should should make you think twice!!

• Everyone looking at Liberty, Don’t buy. It is a scam and it is truly hard to make a couple thousand to hold onto. It is primarily set up for the Franchisor and AD’s to make money and the franchisee to fund, carry all the liability, notes, pay for the employees and especially the over time is eating away at the Zee’s ability to keep any form of money. Liberty makes money, but there is no way to hold onto the funds after paying the royalties and overtime payroll, rent’s, and any upgrades.

• @guest1974 – you are an idiot. to think all those people are the same person is asinine. And if you’re so successful, why are you even looking at or posting on this board, Mr. Corporate employee?

• Guest90210:

  On internet threads, there is a terminology for someone like guest1974, 4444 and every other number combination he can think of:

  It’s called TROLL. “Do not feed the troll”, means ignore that creep. Don’t give him more reason to write stupid posts. He’s an idiot. We don’t need to answer him any longer. Period.

  Mike, Trisha, Franchizee, Scammed, me-SanFran, Bill, Greg, NCHillbilly and so many more can tell anyone that’s reading these posts why signing onto a Liberty Tax franchise is NOT A GOOD IDEA AT ALL.

  It’s a stupid model that makes the money for the Corporate Franchisor, not the franchisees at all. They, take & take & take. Then take some more. Then sue you to take some more.

  Liberty Tax is currently being investigated left and right for many, many crimes against everyday folks and I for one am SOOOOO happy they finally will be exposed for who they are-blood sucking leeches who are con artists and sharks. NO ONE should have to go through what I went through and people around the country are losing thousands & thousands to these scum bags each & every day.

  Whatever that moron (number whatever) says………..it’s simply NOT TRUE. One person’s viewpoint. Millions are unhappy, one is happy. Big deal. Thank goodness for this website so we can expose the real truth about this company and it’s CEO— they suck. The end of the line is almost here and I will celebrate like CRAZY when he is finally brought to justice. {Happy dance}

• Liberty Tax is a group of the biggest con artists ever assembled. Proof of this is that there are quite a few of us that are posting to this site (many thanks to Sean). I like how the corporate pukes of Liberty like to post here to tell us that it is our fault we didn’t make money. Abe Lincoln said “You can fool all of the people, some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”. A very appropriate phrase to keep in mind with all of these criminal minds at Liberty try to steal franchisee and prospective franchisee’s money. Why doesn’t Liberty offer a money back guarantee? The answer, of course, is they won’t because they know everyone would want a refund.

  It is interesting to note that some of the insiders are dumping their stock or will be dumping it soon. They see that Liberty’s foundation is build upon smoke and mirrors. We all see it as well. Unfortunately, I saw it when it was too late to help myself. I am here as testimony and warning to any potential franchisee that this is a group of bandits that are allowed to prey on the consumers and continue to sell a product that is fraudulent and designed to inflate the pockets of its founder, John Hewitt. Shareholders who have bought this stock better be prepared for the nasty surprise that is coming down the road. Like with everyone else associated with John Hewitt, you will be poor and left holding the bag.

• @guest1974 – You must be an AD or someone who got very lucky. Most people don’t make money at any franchise. In my area there was a large franchisee for 20-30 years in a huge system. In order for this individual to retire, they had to bankrupt the company just to leave the system. They were not able to sell any of the locations. When this hit the papers everyone was shocked at this person was not able to retire, because it seemed they were big wig’s with money, but turned to find out it was all smoke and mirrors. They had debt but nothing else. That is the same for all franchise’s – all debt, all the time.

  I made a tad bit of money this year, but to Hewitt, I will be busted, busted, busted. But he doesn’t care as long as I pay they dues for using his crumb bum of a system.

• Has anyone gotten E Mails from Liberty to join them? Even Though I left them some time ago, they are still e-mailing me to join their crooked little franchise. I guess they don’t get it yet.

• @scammed1 – You must be special!

• Franchizee says:
  May 13, 2013 at 9:23 pm
  @guest1974 – You must be an AD or someone who got very lucky. Most people don’t make money at any franchise.

  What a joke your response is…. i must be an AD or someone who got lucky? Do you realize how pathetic you appear to be?

• No, I don’t because this is “unhappy franchisee” and we are and you aren’t. Your the pathetic one on this board. No one in their right frame of mind would come on a website and spout nonsense as you have done so far. You are the pathetic one for even looking at this site since you are such a happy camper!

• Franchizee, what are you like 5 year old kid?

• Franchizee:

  Look back at my post from last week, May 13 at 1:54pm. I specifically said that this person is a “troll” and you are feeding the troll by acknowledging and answering him.

  Out of thousands of people, he is the only happy one and that’s because he’s very out of touch with reality. For him to be happy and thousands of others to be miserable says a lot. It says that he has no idea what ride he’s in for when he decides to leave.

  Franchizee: Rise above it and move on. His posts DO NOT require any answers. He is posting here to get a rise out of the rest of us, but just ignore him. You & I and thousands of others know the real truth. That’s what we need to be focusing on.

  Again, my focus is solely on toppling this CEO and this company. I want him to rot in jail. I could care less if there is one clueless franchisee out there that is happy. My focus is on everyone else who is NOT happy. I am beyond thrilled that this website is here to let us vent and to provoke real changes.

  Thanks to this website, there is real hope that justice will prevail and that’s where my focus is and will continue to be.

• I worked for a Liberty Tax Service franchisee and signed a contract that stated that I would be paid a total amount of 7420 through the season. the franchisee broke down the biweekly pay and i did not add it up before signing the contract. It ended up being 2900 less and now he does not want to pay me. Supposed to be a good guy I talked to him and said I would compromise for half but he wanted me to wait till next year to be paid.

• If you signed an agreement why would you not be paid? It wouldn’t matter who you worked for.

• @ txfunfoodz — take your claim to your states employment agency. They will contact your former Liberty employer and get the facts.

• Just curious – we are running short on our funds this year and still have not paid my wife’s royalties for her store. What can a franchisee do? Our AD said she refuses to allow my wife to put it on a P-note. Can they do this?