LIBERTY TAX SERVICE Franchise Complaints

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• ^^^Yeah, sued in Virginia Beach, right? Same here. Years ago. I had to find and hire a Virginia Beach lawyer and then fly him here to see my operation. You will not win in VA Beach, no way, no how. With or without that disgusting leader, who was finally pushed out. It's all fixed. That was the beginning of my issues with LTS, which is closer to 2 decades ago and still wrapped up in their crap. Well, not so much with LTS now, but what the asshole did to me that I'm still picking up the pieces of. Almost 2 decades later! No joke! The amount of stress and money expended is SO not worth it. That guy, JTH, should be hung by his toes, upside down and tortured. Money down the drain faster than drain-o. :(

  I then moved my office way outside the 25 mile radius--36 miles-- and they still went after me and shut me down. That organization and their past leader, JTH the asshole, was as vindictive as anyone can get. They did everything they could to harass me. Because I was a threat and knew too much and saw too much. If you notice in the last 10-15 years how many zee's have left and why, I bet it's because they were driven out by his truly. He was the one to call the IRS on each and every zee, and he even admitted to that stupid fact! And he was the one who taught each and every zee for "special after hours" training, where the more seasoned people taught you how to screw around with the system. So he taught them (the new zee's) and then called the IRS to go after them to get them out of LTS. That includes all the first Canadian owners (in 1997) where he experimented and perfected in setting up his unique scam. That enabled him to re-sell a developed territory to some other poor schlump. As I stated so many times before, this was a marketing company, not a Tax company. That's precisely how they made their money. Selling made up territories to unsuspecting people willing to part with their hard earned money. It was and is a scam. Read some of the other forum's on this website. You will see a familiar pattern........

  Whoever reads these posts: NO FRANCHISE OF ANY KIND IS WORTH ALL THE MONEY AND STRESS.

• John Hewitt graces the cover of the February, 2019 Franchise Times magazine.

  The article lays out his plans for his next franchise venture, his view on his many scandals, and his priorities of God, Family & Business... in that order.

  Oh, and whether he had loud sex in his office.

  Forced out of Liberty Tax Service, founder John Hewitt will try again

  https://www.franchisetimes.com/February-2019/Forced-out-of-Liberty-Tax-Service-founder-John-Hewitt-will-try-again/

  "John Hewitt is poised to launch his third tax prep franchise from scratch after the other two brands he founded, most recently Liberty Tax Service where his alleged actions wreaked havoc, pushed him out in a chaotic mess. Can the man who sold 5,000 units, which he figures has ‘got to be the top 10 in the world,’ gain franchisees’ trust and do it all over again?"

  Excerpts:  “With his trademark braggadocio, Hewitt, age 70, says he expects to duplicate his success with his third tax brand, to be launched under the umbrella name Loyalty Brands and to also include three other franchise concepts. “I’ve sold 5,000 franchises in my career. That’s got to be the top 10 in the world,” he tells me from the shared conference room in his new headquarters in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where in October he had leased a suite of offices but had not yet furnished them.”

  “Earlier, at the office tower for Loyalty Brands, Hewitt and Martha O’Gorman detailed some of their plans for their new company. O’Gorman was with Hewitt at Jackson Hewitt, and she joined him to launch Liberty Tax, too… The plans are for four concepts: a business brokerage franchise called First Choice; a ‘high-end’ franchise to provide bookkeeping, accounting and tax services to small businesses and high net worth clients; a barter organization, in which businesses provide their excess capacity to trade for other needed services; and the new retail tax service, scheduled to be launched the day after Hewitt’s non-compete expires. He plans to focus on the Hispanic market, he says, something he tried at Liberty by launching SiempreTax in 2014.

  “I asked O’Gorman why she joined Hewitt to help him start over. “Why not?” she says, adding she helped him to start Liberty Tax, too. “It was so much fun. I got so energized, and seeing the potential, I’m excited to be able to do it again.”

  “’My priorities are God, family, business,’ in that order, [Hewitt] declares…

  “Is there anything he regrets about what happened at Liberty Tax? ‘I don’t look back. I try never to think about it because it’s a waste of my time… We felt blessed to be with Liberty Tax. We had great years. I can guarantee you that Loyalty is going to do the same thing to Jackson Hewitt, Liberty Tax and H&R Block. We’re going to beat them up,’ he says. ‘I come to play.’

  Caution, you may need therapy to unremember this one: “I asked [Hewitt] if the allegations that employees heard him having sex in the office were true. ‘A guy came to my office at 7 a.m. He heard sounds that sounded like sex in the office. I didn’t refute it,’ [Hewitt] says. So is that a yes, I asked? He didn’t directly answer.”

• Anyone seen any LTS or JH performance numbers yet? Look on the LTS website at locations for sale WOW fire sale!

• Where do you see a list?

• I bet a lot of Liberty Tax owners are relieved the season is over. Now start your exit strategy.

• I have been off this site for awhile, but had to put my two cents worth in again. Again, I live in a major city, and cannot even find a Liberty Tax store. Those that were are no longer, and even if you look on the website, the number has fallen dramatically. I lost $100K on this garbage franchise, and can only imagine how many others have lost that and more. I lasted two years before becoming insolvent. I bought an existing franchise. I found out early the next year that his preparers were filing false returns, taking business expenses that did not exist, and defrauding customers by overcharging them for bank products. What did LT do when I told them? Look the other way and just forget what you found. Yes, that is the company you really want on your side...... This franchise is a certain money loser, and at the end all you will have are a lot of debts you will be paying off for years to come, a lesson you will never forget. I can't stress enough how bad this company is. Stay away.

• ^^^ It started at the very top. The founder & CEO was the biggest con man of them all and that's how he chose to live his life and run the franchises as well as his own personal family life too. It was a fraudulent company from day one. Anything that thief touches is automatically fraudulent and false in every way shape and form. He has been ousted out of each company..................hmmmm............not hard at all to figure out why. And yet he is still walking around a free man. Something is wrong with this picture. DOJ, IRS: you are all aware of his shenanigans and yet you allow him to continue to walk free........ "look the other way" was a daily occurrence back then and certainly what was taught, especially at those "night classes". That guy has been sued so many times, he has an office at the courthouse! (just kidding, but not really)

  Worst time of my life. My 5 year contract turned into a multi-year nightmare. Franchises in general are the worst, but LTS took it one step further and was downright disgusting, manipulative, used scare tactics and threw everyone under the bus. ^^^ Like Frustrated and Disgusted, my advice is to back away, keep your money, your mind in tact, your shirt on your back and your stress level on an even level. Go with them and you lose everything: your money, your sanity, the stress is unbearable and it's SO not worth it. Find some other way to earn a living. You're welcome!! :)

• Seven years of lies and tricks to think you are in a real business when in fact its all a scam . No two people put more into a small business . Our clients loved us , our integrity is still intact but …….Lets start at the very beginning . We went to the franchise day in Virginia Beach and you got some very good info on taxes in general and were promised a visit to a local office to see how one is set up . We boarded a bus and traveled a few miles to find the office was closed . Someone dropped the ball this was day 1 .

• I too was a Franchise owner. I purchased a failing office and turned it around in a year. In 4 years I increased my business to 1000 returns. I did this by reducing the fees that I charged to a resasonalble rate for the area that I was located in.

  I also did not use the Liberty Tax waivers, people in my area thought that Liberty Tax Service was a big circus act. The first year I had my office things were great with corporate. In the fee intercept program corporate kept 1/ 2 of the bank product fees and I got the other 1/ 2. The following years I had to beg to get some of the bank product money from corporate to make payroll and pay the office rent and utilities, until my regular cash paying clients came in.

  Corporates policy of 100% fee intercept of bank products is done with intent to cause financial harm to their franchises. I received threading call from corporate saying that I wasn't charging enough. Then my area developer tried behind my back with a person from corporate to force me out of my store so she could give it to someone she owed money to.

  I went through an internal audit from corporate and the only thing corporate could find that I was not doing as to Their guidelines and rules was that I didn't read Their management manual daily. My response was that I had eidetic memory so I didn't need to. I proceeded to verbalize page parargraph and line of the manual. I was given aB+ on my audit. And told that nobody had ever gotten that high of rating.

  Corporate's and my Area Developer's actions ended up causing me $100,000 in financial harm and almost cost me my marriage. If there was a way to sue I would.

• Liberty Tax is now becoming a furniture store company and changing their name!! hahahahah they are finally done! Adios!