LIBERTY TAX SERVICE Franchise Complaints

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

• ^^welcome to “sicktomystomach”

  Your post was spot on and excellent. This has to be the worst franchise in the history of franchises. Incredibly disorganized & unprofessional. That’s just the beginning. It is really just a ‘front’ for them to rip us off and take all our $$. If it was a real company, I can’t imagine having that many incompetent people. Well, I guess they can’t be THAT incompetent, since they learned how to take and steal and rip off and cheat and throw people under the bus.

  Be careful Franchizee: they will hunt you down and find you and absolutely throw you under the bus if they even suspect you are doing taxes to compete with them within the 25 mile limit. They will tear you to shreds. Legally or illegally, they will make your life a living hell and make you pay thousands in lawyers fees. Believe me when I say this. That is why they are being investigated and should be found GUILTY and sentenced to jail for life. And the company closed down permanently.

• Sicktomystomach,

  Just be glad you are out and don’t owe those thieves anything. Its frightening how a franchise can sell you territory, take a “minimum” in royalties which sometimes amounts to far more than the 14% (which should be illegal, when you think about, and that’s not even including the marketing royalties), give you little support, basically tell you to spend your own money to do your own marketing and get away with it. I know you are still *sick*, I felt the same way – now I am so relieved to not have to deal with this den of thieves. I honestly don’t know how I got involved with this fraud in the first place.
  No franchise should get away with this, unfortunetly, too many are.
  This whole franchise racket is slanted in the franchisor’s favor. I wish I knew then what I know now. I know so many people, way too many people, who have lost thier hard earned money, and some thier health and families, due to this scam.

  Disgusting!

• Hello, Anon, Franchisee & SickToMyStomach…

  Your well-detailed and graphic retelling of your problems with the LTS and the ‘corporate stiffs’ is nothing new to me.

  My firm, Bridge Management Consulting, helps small business owners them who are struggling with overwhelming debt resulting from a failing or closed business.

  We’ve helped with unearned franchise fees, terminating franchise agreements, and non-compete clauses. We specialize in SBA loans and the Offer in Compromise procedure, and we help settle vendor debt, landlord/lease problems and other financial obligations resulting from a failed business.

  We’ve handled several franchisees who need to get out of their particular franchise hell, and we’ve successfully fought back on behalf of our clients. Don’t give into them!
  Feel free to contact:

  Ryan Lineham, Director of Client Services
  401-390-3800
  ryan@bridgemgt.com

• ^^^Um, Nancy:

  Let me tell you from experience, that Liberty Tax will let NO ONE win against them. When you say you successfully fought back, you haven’t tried this company. Believe me, they will go to the ends of the earth to make sure the franchisee is squashed like a little ant and will NOT win.

  Someone should investigate the judges in the rocket docket Eastern District Court in Virginia to begin with. Hmmmmmm Interesting how Liberty wins oh maybe 100% of the cases there, hmmmmmmm. And that’s JUST THE BEGINNING.

• Liberty has a long history of deceit. From ripping off the franchisees to stacking court cases in their favor to actively employing spin doctors for adverse postings such as here. Yes, this is only the tip of the iceberg. How many millions as Hewitt and cronies pocketed off shore? Why do they have a marketing budget that has no marketing? Why do they teach franchisees how to defraud the government through false tax reporting? It seems there are a lot of questions that should be litigated against this company, but nothing has gained any traction. The only way to defeat these crooks is to let the world know what crooks they really are.

• Waver and marketing “tryouts” to get people to work for you without paying them. Or my favorite – advertising in the “want ads” for tax school and these poor people think they will actually get a job. Its awful, (and embarrasing) having to tell these people there simply is no job for them. What really blew my mind was how some Zees bragged about how well them implemented this practive.
  Just awful – I am so happy to be out.

• I think this year corp was teaching people how to motivate thier employees without giving them a raise. It just keeps getting worse.

• Hi, SanFanDan,

  I understand that LTS won’t LET anyone win against them…nobody let’s us do anything in life.

  And, you’re right, we haven’t tried taking on this company, but, we’ve love to, especially after reading about them both on this thread and elsewhere.

• ^^Nancy:

  While I’m sure everyone appreciates your posting on this forum and I see many other forums on “unhappyfranchisee” too, from someone who has actively paid many, many lawyers and thousands of $$ for defense against this company to no avail, I sincerely wish you good luck in your solicitations. At the height of my ‘crisis’ I had 8 lawyers working for me, half who were ‘supposedly’ top ranked franchise attorneys.

  Not only did I get nowhere, but what Liberty did after that is unthinkable. Many of the posters on this thread have been through quite an ordeal. What would make your company justify charging a former franchisee a sum of money after they’ve already lost so much?

  Trust me on this: you will not have success against LTS. Sorry. Thanks for listening. That man needs to be put in jail for life. Nothing short of that will be acceptable.

• For all the losers that complained that there was no National TV advertising here you go. Playing on CNN and TBS. Pretty Good!

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKpFTTR_IiU

• What about the 5% Liberty collected for the past 10 years from their Zee’s? Finally, one lame commercial, big f’n deal. And, I haven’t seen that commercial on TV, but it’s a poor knock-off of the the Block ad, you know, the one that they have plastered all over multiple networks.

  Liberty sucks, that’s a fact. This ad is too little, too late.

  Quit cheer-leading for these con artists, it only makes you look foolish. But since you are likely a corporate plant, I guess you need to keep your job and do what your boss says and try to put out some of the fires on this board.

• I smell a lawsuit
  Block based their billion $ figure on research and study
  Since liberty is saying “if” 60 mil self prepared left 50$ each……wow
  That’s just grabbing a number and saying “suppose” then trying to attach that to blocks ad. Heck, if your just going to say “if” why not say each of those left a hundred bucks of credit off. Boy wouldn’t those blockheads look extra silly.
  Let’s say 200$
  That would really make block look bad.
  So they suppose that every single self filed return was off 50$
  Where did that figure come from?

  I think they are going to get sued for this one and they may have picked a fight with a company that has pretty much ignored liberty and never really considered them as legit completion based on numbers.
  May have not been the smartest move

• Wow
  The more I think about it I’m dumbfounded
  Let’s just grab a random number
  Multiply it by all self prepared returns then use that figure to imply “that other company” might be wrong?

  Wow
  Really? Just wow

• Hers one for someone
  “If” all 2 million liberty returns were off by 50$
  That would equal 100,000,000
  Maybe liberty isn’t where you should go for tax prep

• Another example of money talks and BS walks. This time the BS is from Liberty-what a surprise! That is the first commercial I’ve ever seen them produce. Where has it been airing? The 4 in the morning cable channel? As for the commercial itself, everybody is right, its lame and stupid. It makes up its own facts and is misleading. I guess that the image they want to project, since that image is accurate. Maybe the 600 pound HR gorilla in the house will notice what plagiarizers they are. Gimme a break, a white board? Next time, a kindergartner with crayons on newsprint? That’s about right for Liberty’s intelligence.

  It just goes to show that genius knows its limits but stupidity knows no bounds!

• Liberty misses the mark again. John Hewitt does not understand advertising. This time of the year customers are looking for professionals not clowns.

  First this add is targeting the wrong audience for this time of the year. It is not the younger generation that has not yet filed their returns it is the middle age, upper middle income Americans that have are still sitting on the fence post.

  Look how sloppy the individual looks in the add, this gives a very poor picture of Liberty Tax as a whole. It shows that the company is very sloppy and not very professional or accurate.

  The numbers are in question, but Liberty only shows that do it yourselfers are only leaving $50.00 on the table, so to visit a Liberty office and pay several hundred dollars to get an extra $50.00 back does not make any since. At least HR Block was very smart in how they are running their add.

  John Hewitt if you read these adds get somebody in marketing that understands how to market. So when you do create adds to run you are targeting the correct audience, sending the proper message at the right time. Then you will see real results.

• I often think these “one a year” ads are merely insurance against getting sued. “Hey look, we did an ad, so we’re spending the advertising royalty.” But Liberty won’t commit to any decent ad spending. Even Jackson-Hewitt at least tries to produce multiple ads and get a little rotation on them every year (at the right time in the tax season, too).

• Where was this ad running? Surely was not in my area and if it was on cable or some other paid tv, what about the many who never watch or have any paid tv?

  Also, timing is everything in advertising. Obviously this is a smoke screen just to show he did run an ad to show the royalty ad money was used and spent. I am sure some ad money is used on this “free” board to shore up his horrible image and the company’s image which is tanking every year along with the Titanic!

• Hi, I’m Back! I see Hewitt and co is still at it. They love to defraud the franchiees as well as their customers. I noticed that the Liberty dummy was selling hashish while waving to traffic. I guess thats the only way to make money in this franchise.

  Hey, Trish, where are you? I hope all is well.

  I still don’t understand why the stock in this company keeps going up. Do you think investors are being duped as well? Shame on them not knowing what a bunch of pirates these guys are. I think they should relocate their headquarters in Somali land so the can keep company with the rest of the pirates. Although, I might feel sorry for the pirates.

• Hi, SanFranDan,

  Ok, he needs to be put away for life….I can get on board with that.

  As for ‘success’ against LTS, please let me be clear. We’re business consultants here at Bridge, and our role would be in negotiating down the outrageous sums that LTS claims is owed to them by franchisees. And, our success depends on each individual’s situation, vis-a-vis LTS.

  I thank you for your good wishes, and i’d love to speak with you about your experiences with LTS, if you’d like.

• I looked at that ad. So tell me how that would motivate anyone to go in and over pay for some clown with no tax experience to do their taxes. I continue to watch the one down the street from me. They have been opening later and closing earlier as the season continues.

  Also, anyone who has been duped (or forced) to get a location in a strip mall beware. There are a multitude of Liberty locations no where near a main street or in a strip mall. In fact, some are just houses along a road in the middle of nowhere. Low rent for sure. When I think back on being forced to find a location in the only available strip mall where rents were $2200-2500 per month makes me sick. And then to find out they were intercepting my first 2.5 months leaving me with no money to advertise or market, no wonder I only lasted a couple of years. Oh well, $100K down the drain. I can only hope Hewitt gets what is coming to him. He has made way too many people suffer.

• No thanks, Nancy. After the unspeakable ordeal I went through ‘for years’ with LTS, I wish to remain anonymous. It has taken me this long to stop shaking, stop having nightmares and begin taking meds to ease my stress. His outstretched arm has affected millions of people over his ‘illustrious’ 40+ year ‘career’ and there are NO more words left to describe the anguish and unbelievably ridiculous experience being associated with that company. I wish for EVERYONE associated with that company an uncomplicated way out that will still keep them standing upright.

• Always knew SanFranDan was a “Nut”. I also see Frustrated is back. He thinks the reason he failed was because he didn’t operate out of a business and pay $500 rent as opposed to being in a strip center. Wow, some people really not cut out to own their own business. I do blame corporate for even letting you operate and selling you a franchise.

• ^^Thanks for the ‘compliment’, dumdums! :) Or maybe I should call you ‘John”.

• Liberty was great for me……If I wasn’t involved with them I would not be where I am today, writing lots of returns, making money and more importantly keeping a staff all year round not just for four months and hiring new people each year. As for Liberty I wish the best for their franchisees, there is not enough margin to pay yourself and pay John unless you are gouging clients and or writing 700 + returns with very little payroll, so get out of Liberty and start your own business. It is really very easy to open your own office. No bosses, no AD’s, no BS..and no stupid conference calls!!

• Amen Mike! Especially no manufactured “conference calls”. Thanks goodness DumDums is back. You are such a blessing to show how abusive this company is to people and you keep people from actually investing in this POS.

  If John and his minions did not want bad press, he should of not been so greedy in taking any Tom, Dick and Harry as franchisees. He will truly reap what he has sown as he loves to spout the bible verses. Remember John, no good deed will ever go unpunished. He might still have the misfortune of feeling the effects of his greed and all the problems of very dissatisfied franchisees that go along with his over selling of his territories. Too bad, your company did not buy back some of us on this board, maybe we would of not have had such a horrible, horrible experience and feel the sting of your greed.

• Hi, SanFranDan…

  I understand. Glad for you that your LTS nightmare has finally ended…

• ^^My nightmare with LTS won’t be over until HE’s in jail for life and the company closes and gives refunds to all current and ex franchisees. It was THAT bad.

• Knowing that Hewitt is a crook does not necessarily stop him. The only thing he understands and worships is what lines his pockets. This is where we need to hit him. Anybody have any ideas on how to do this? Maybe we should employ his same guerrilla marketing tactics that he likes, and use it against him. I will be happy to participate in anything we can do to get this group of hoodlums off the market.

• Scammed1, haha… Ur funny, so you now admit the guerrilla marketing tactics work. Probably should have done them when you were in business and before you failed.

• Read carefully, moron, unhappydumdum. This is not an endorsement of a system that does not work. It is an indictment (funny wording, huh?) of a system that does not work. After all, with all the guerrilla marketing, Liberty has still managed to stay behind HR Block and Jackson Hewitt. 3rd out of 3 ain’t bad. Kept its strategic position as the number 3 major tax preparing firm out of a field of 3. Excellent marketing!

  I can hardly wait to see the next great marketing plan that Hewitt and his hoodlums come up with. Free Tax returns? Oops, they already came up with that one with no results. How about getting out of the phone book and hence, the yellow pages on-line? They did that too, so no one can find the phone number of their clowns. Maybe a dancing statue of Liberty to attract their intelligent customers to their stores? Tried that one too and got no results. Liberty and the hoodlums are batting 1000 in how not to market, not spend any marketing money stolen from franchisees and insult the intelligence of the consumer.

  You’re right, Liberty has such marketing genius that it just disappears next to its competition. Wow, I could do that and charge the hapless franchisee’s 2% of gross and be quite content. I guess you need your marketing royalties to dupe the stock market.

• Scammed, don’t forget they ran a commercial. One commercial. But they are still in 3rd place.

• Scammed1,

  You keep saying 3rd out of 3. Actually there are thousands of tax preparation offices and after 15 years to be 3rd is prettty impressive. Yes HR Block is much bigger but they were started in 1955. Jackson Hewitt is still second but not by much but it was started in the mid 80s

  Liberty Tax is no longer in the phone books but it comes up first on yellowpages.com and Superpages.com. Do a google search and Liberty Tax does come up in the top 3 or 4 names.

  Just like unhappydumdums says you seem liked you failed and want to blame everyone else but yourself. Also, it is pretty obvious that Bill/scammed1/Mike/Franchizee/SanFran is you with different names. You also post on yahoo’s message board under different names but everyone realizes you make no sense.

• Oh boy! The stooges post again! How exciting, not.

  Unhappydumdums and john barilla: There is absolutely NO question in anyone’s mind. You are the same person. And your name is Hewitt. And again: The ONE person who is happy with Liberty. Yay for you.

  Liberty and Hewitt reek of crap. They are the MOST unethical there is. Right up there with Bernie Madoff. He was caught. Hewitt is next.

  Somebody’s gotta keep paying those exhorbitant fees. Let it be Unhappydumdum and barilla. Hewitt thanks you for your stupidity in handing over all that $$.

• How about that Hewitt was kicked out of H&R Block and kicked out of Jackson Hewitt? Hmmm? What does that mean?

  After 42 years in the tax business, he SHOULD be number one! But…….he does no marketing, because that would take away some of his personal nest egg and encourages free returns! What a complete dope.

  Sounds like unhappydumdum and barilla fit like a glove into that mindset.

• Barilla and Dumdum, I have’nt been on yahoo myself, but thanks for the tip.

• Hey where do we go to post on Yahoo? I haven’t been on it either and was not aware of an additional site available to post against this predator company along with their accomplices as noted above.

• We are called “dumdums” and “losers” by corp. Funny that I am successful in every other aspect of my life, including a very succesful business that is NOT a franchise.

  Certainly, some people will not be successful at a franchise, or any other business. But a franchise should work the overwhelming majority of the time for those people willing to “follow the system.” With LT – the system doesn’t work except for a select few. They tout the “salesman” aspect – if I were a salesman who could sell sand in a desert I wouldn’t have bought a franchise. Again – I’m very successful at my other endeavors.

  Shame on you LT.

• Same here Zeeout! Their system is so flawed, that they have to deflect off us as being our fault, when they told us we would be successful in any area and demographics. They don’t have a good system unless you are the first zee in or the only zee left. It is basically a pyramid scheme.

• today I received my postcard at the office from Liberty Tax soliciting tax preparers to become franchisees for next tax season had a picture of a lion or something on there what a joke they talk about scrotums 40 years of success they should have said 40 years of screwing people

• I could go on for days here, but I just got chewed out for only averaging a $270 fee on my returns for this year. The old guy who has been working for Liberty for a few years deliberately tells people he thinks he can’t overcharge (young people with one W-2) that I’ll help them, even if he’s not busy or has already talked to them on the phone. Meanwhile, if he’s busy, he’ll stop what he’s doing if he sees an old person with a bulging folder of deductions to make sure that he will get credit for a high priced “sale”… err, return.

  The franchisee repeatedly has praised this guy as a “closer” even though he has three times the walkout rate that anybody else does, and I am the one who has to deal with irate customers who find out later they’ve been charged double from what they’ve paid the previous year. Not this employee or even the franchisee, who does his best to not have contact with customers. He’s too busy with his other 2 locations.

  Yes, this franchisee has become a multiple zee. His first office is in a low income area where they do 1100 returns per season, most of which are EIC returns for which they can overcharge. This franchisee then took over two locations that failed with their previous franchisees, having either been arrogant enough to believe his success at the first location was due to him and his salesmanship, or to the Liberty “system” that he somehow buys into.

  This location is in a firmly middle class neighborhood, where most customers can’t see a good reason for paying $500 for a 1040, when there are plenty of CPAs in the neighborhood that will do taxes for $150-$200 (I will admit that being a CPA does not necessarily mean tax expert, but certainly the people I work with are not experts either). Yet I’m not supposed to discount what the computer tells me to charge people (how it comes up with the amount is always a mystery to me), but then when people don’t come in for a few weeks (which is basically what happened in March) I’m told just to close the deal, do whatever it takes. But then I get reprimanded for not having a high enough average. The franchisee pays us near minimum wage, yet dangles the same bonus structure that exists for his office that does 1100 returns (bonus if you have over 100 returns, averaging $300 per return, no more than 10% walkout. I’m not sure if I have to also get 30 Send a Friends or if that’s an additional bonus, but no one does that in this neighborhood).

  So how is the Liberty system working in this neighborhood? 2 years ago, under the previous franchisee who couldn’t stay in business (because she couldn’t overcharge people), the office did 521 returns, of which only 20 were walkouts. Last year, under the new management, who believe that you have to build “value” so that you can act like a used car salesman and overcharge the elderly because they get a few hundred dollars in dividends per year, the same office in the same location did 430 returns, and 60 of those were walkouts. This year, we have completed nearly 310 returns, of which 53 are walkouts.

  But that is probably my fault, as the franchisee is probably under so much financial pressure that he can’t do proper marketing, and expects his tax preparers to cold call businesses to give away free returns to whoever answers the phones when they have downtime (of which there has been a lot).

  The 310 returns this year also include A LOT! of free returns, which I don’t think was as prevalent the previous year, or two years ago.

  I try to remember when I’m being underpaid and disrespected that this franchisee is probably losing a fortune on this location, and at the third location he bought (which is doing even worse).

• Thank you everyone. Please keep posting. Your information is extremely valuable. “Unhappy Employee,” your post is extremely insightful. I have been looking for those numbers for a couple of years.

• Unhappy employee reinforces what I have seen and said. The so-called Top Gun Zee is a marketing ploy to get people to buy these franchises. Its all demographics, people. I’ve seen Zees who have very successful stores buy a not-so-succesful franchise and those those franchises go nowhere. It is not Top Gun magic. Certainly, some people will be better than others at running a business. That aside, if the market isn’t there then waving Liberties and spending a small fortune making the Dunkin Donuts franchisee successful will not bring success to that location. Period. And again, this works in the EIC, lower income areas. What Unhappy employee stated about middle income areas is exactly correct – the local accountant will do taxes for $150. These middle income taxpayers don’t want to go into a “store” with a waving clown in front. And, BTW, no one is impressed by the John Hewitt story. Sorry. Its true.

• That has been the failure of Liberty: Not getting the middle class through the doors! A certain lack of intelligence is naturally attracted to a clown in front of a store. Even the EIC people are balking at the $400 return price! CPA’s don’ t get that much! Just further proof of what a ripoff this company really is.

• So I opened the store today at 7, even though for the second day straight no one came in until 10. I had time to count the number of free returns. There are 34 free returns (half of which are by the “closer”), or over 10% of the returns.

• Unhappy Empoyee: Liberty’s business model is not focused on middle income America. Liberty’s focus on on bank product type returns which are typically your earlier clients.

  Liberty’s system does not work for a Franchisee that is located in middle income area, it actually hampers the business.To many offices have the taken an national symbol and turned it into a circus clown. This type of marketing does not attract middle income clients, these clients are looking for accuracy and professionalism not a business that is degrading a national symbol.

  Liberty’s TV add was off target it show it actually showed how sloppy Liberty Tax is. I am sure H&R Block is getting 3 billion laughs out of thtat commercial.

  I spoke a friend in Virginia yesterday who finishes in the top 5 offices in Virginia and top one hundred offices in the country and he finally is going to throw the towel in at the end of the month. He explained that Liberty does not support offices that has a mid season peak. The mid season clients are not Liberty focus, John Hewitt has no plans on attracting these type of clients.

  So if you are thinking about purchasing a Liberty Franchise be carefull! Do your due dillegence don’t get caught up in the speal that every office is going to do a thousand returns, that is not even true. Out of Liberty’s 4000 offices or so there will be less than 125 offices that exceed 1000 returns.

  As an independent you will better support from the software provider that you chose than you will from Liberty Tax support.

• That is what I had as a problem with LTS. Mid to late season was my niche and they were not available on a regular basis. I wonder how many zees are going to call it a day with this company.

  NCHillBilly is correct, very few even with multiple offices even come close to 1000 returns.

  Driving around a couple of places in my town, only one office out of 4 had wavers out. None of the offices looked busy. The H&R were open but did not look busy. Of course, I am taking today off doing other errands so first time in a month or so seeing the slowing of the season. Usually this Sunday is quite busy, but not this year.

• Franchizee,

  Why are you spending the 13th of April driving around checking up on other offices. Today my offices averaged $4k in revenues each, and you meantime were driving around…. you are very bizarre.

  By the way, what is your conspiracy theory on why that one H&R Block was slow today too? Do you think the whole industry is collapsing since you failed?

• ^^^John Barilla (or whatever alias you are using):

  YOU are a fuckin lunatic. JUST. GO. AWAY. This website is for unhappy franchisees. You are the one that’s happy. JUST. GO. AWAY.

• Liberty tax in my area were closed today. Good for them it is Palm Sunday. We should all be closed.