LIBERTY TAX Boasts Growth in Tax Returns & Revenue
(UnhappyFranchisee.com) Liberty Tax kicked sand in the faces of tax franchise competitors Jackson Hewitt and H&R Block by boasting strong systemwide sales growth for the just-completed tax season.
Here is the Liberty Tax company news release, posted on Businesswire. Feel free to share your views about the health of Liberty Tax, Jackson Hewitt and H&R Block in the comments section below.
Read previous posts here about LIBERTY TAX.
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Liberty Tax’s Preliminary Tax Season Results Show Solid Sustainable Growth
Company Has Responded to Changing Industry Landscape
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Liberty Tax Service has demonstrated the ability to respond to a plethora of industry challenges and regulations during its most recent tax season and reports solid growth in both tax returns and revenue for the just-completed tax season. Throughout this decade, Liberty Tax Service has demonstrated significant gains in an industry formerly dominated by tax giant H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) and, during the 21st century, Liberty has grown by more tax returns than both Jackson Hewitt (NYSE:JTX) and H&R Block combined.
Liberty Tax Service prepared 11% more returns through April 19, 2011, compared to the same time period in 2010. System wide revenues increased 12%. The Company continued to offer competitive choices, allowing its growing customer base to choose between professional services in brick-and-mortar locations, and do-it-yourself online tax preparation with its eSmart Tax product at www.esmarttax.com.
In 2011, change proved to be another of life’s certainties, and the major tax players were faced with challenges of offering tax settlement products after the IRS cancelled the direct deposit indicator. The IRS also began phasing in increased regulations of tax preparers and their credentials. With a tax preparer certification process in place since 2007, Liberty Tax Service was poised for stricter IRS standards for tax preparers.
“We have rolled with the punches during this tax season. Tax preparer certification benefits not only the consumer, but the credibility of the tax industry and our collaborative effort to fight fraud. Liberty’s continued ability to offer customers the range of filing and tax settlement product options they expect has been another factor in our success this year,” Liberty Tax Service Founder and CEO, John Hewitt, reflected. “In addition, our execution and preparation paid off.”
Aggressive marketing coupled with a strong commitment to customer service have been key factors in building a successful brand in fourteen years. Since 1997, the Company has grown from 119 offices located in Canada, to over 3,800 throughout the U.S. and Canada today.
About Liberty Tax Service
Liberty Tax Service is the fastest -growing retail tax preparation company in the industry’s history. Founded in 1997 by CEO John T. Hewitt, a pioneer in the tax industry, Liberty Tax Service has prepared over 8,000,000 individual income tax returns. With 42 years of tax industry experience, Hewitt stands as the most experienced CEO in the tax preparation business, having also founded Jackson Hewitt Tax Service.
The Liberty Tax Service franchise opportunity is #1 in the tax franchise category of the 2011 Entrepreneur “Franchise 500.” Liberty Tax Service is the only tax franchise on the Forbes “Top 20 Franchises to Start.” Each office provides computerized income tax preparation, electronic filing, and online filing through eSmart Tax. Other services include audit assistance, a money back guarantee, and free tax return checking.
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John:
Nice job of proof reading it’s “Debt Indicator” not direct deposit indicator. I hope this wasn’t put out by Liberty but it wouldn’t suprise me.
Liberty tax is in the business of selling tax franchises. It sold 300 stores last year.
It already had 2700 stores so it’s tax volumne and revenue was in line with it’s store growth. Unfortunately for many of the new franchisees there was no profit to them. “BUYER BEWARE”!!!!!!!!!!
Please make sure you read all of the posts for Liberty Tax on this site. They are under several different headings. The number of complaints is huge, and buyers need to understand as Bill says, Liberty wants your franchise money. Once they have you hooked, you will be very sorry, as the return is horrible, and in most cases, you will never see above water. PLEASE, PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS FRANCHISE
Wow! I work for Liberty Tax now and the AD is trying to sell me a territory. I haven’t read everyone’s posts, but I am not feeling good about this. Does anyone want to comment? I need input. Thanks.
Sally:
You will see many of my posts under different headings. I am probably one of the more vocal critics of Liberty Tax. What would be best for you to do is put the numbers together and actually see what your return on investment will be. Look at the numbers from this perspective. Even if you do all of the returns yourself, you are still going to need at least one person in your store besides yourself most of the time. There are 73 hours per week for 14 weeks. That’s roughly 1000 hrs. per season. Then you have wavers. If you have at least one waver most of the hours you are open, another 1000 man-hours, Then you have B2B which is probably 10 weeks out of the 14, figure 20 hours per week, so you have another 200 man hours. If you do any type of coupons, figure another 200 hours at least. Add in your food costs, which run $50-100 hours per day. Now add rent, and my best guess for an A location is $1500 per month. While it can be lower or higher, that is a good target. At least $300 per month for utilities, but that could be low. At the end, figure your return count if you have a good first year season is 300@$200. That is f you have a really good season. Many are in the 200 range, some more but don’t let anyone tell you because you know the system, you will do better. That is total BS. Even well established stores are struggling to hit 400 returns. If you finance, your payments per year will be $10,000 and they will be taken out of your first few months of RAL’s and RT’s, so your cash flow will be horrible.
Put the numbers together and see if it works. The main concern is return counts. It is a lot harder than you expect to hit 500-600 per season. I personally do not know any franchisee, and I have talked to a ton of them who average that many.
I know there are people who will disagree with my scenario, but also realize that they are in some way connected to Liberty Tax and are looking at their interests, not yours.
If you can make the numbers work, great,, but what I think you will find is that it is not worth the investment. And oh by the way, if you purchase one and it doesn’t work, you will still be liable for what you owe Liberty, and good luck getting rid of your territory, there are so many on the market right now, you will beg for someone to take it off your hands at any price.
Sally:
We will be very interested to hear your story.