LIBERTY TAX SERVICE Franchise Complaints

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

• WOW the spin was incredible, not to mention the market really must be glad that their compliance task force has really fixed all the fraud problems….sounds to me Libturdy Tax will be down double digits for the season, any other thoughts?

• Succession planning part sounded fishy to me. Market reaction is a bit of a surprise but no options available on stock, can’t short anymore and volume is so low it would be reasonable to assume it might be a short term run up by MM to give them space to unload there larger positions(relatively speaking). Only larger MM left holding it are index funds anyways. Average daily volume is well under $1M a day can’t unload much without major price moves and SEC regs. The business continues to degrade and the pace has increased to well worse that the market in general. They did a bit better than i was expecting but not a second half company there will no covering it up after tax season. Looks like the going bust phase is well under way. Still may have a year or two before implosion depending on how well they juggle.

• As of 2/28/17, Liberty return count is down 16.4%. IRS paid preparer returns were down over 12% on 2/24/17 and even less (8%) on 3/3/17. Since most Liberty clients are early season filers, it looks like a down year for Liberty.

  They do have less stores too (402).

• Libertys new 2020 goal is to be in business, forget passing Block. Liberty will be known as the fastest company to destroy a few thousand franchisee livliehoods! Awesome legacy for John Hewitt! Collect Billions and Billions of franchise fees off of EITC, promote fraud, highlight and reward the fraudsters at Convention and promote them on Conference calls. The fraud continues just at a lower scale since Liberty declined 16.4% there is now 16.4% less fraud in the system. If your leases are up, it’s time to bail.

• Liberty Tax is done and John Hewitt knows it. His days are numbered that is why they are looking into a successor. At this point he is looking at a exit strategy out of this mess. He is hoping it does not involve jail time. When the feds are done investigating Bablu Shannabuddin, John Balkhi and Steve Deletzsky among others they will press charges against them and shut down corporate. He knows this so the time to get out is now. Those investigation will take another year or two to wind down.

• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-10/americans-aren-t-filing-their-taxes-this-year

  Why is this guy allowed to be the Chairman & CEO of a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g???
  He stinks. ^^^Concerned Zee & Screwed by Corporate: excellent posts. His exit strategy needs to involve jail time. :(

• Well, as tax season continues, Liberty Corporation is getting 0.19 for every dollar a franchisee earns. Ouch!

  Liberty and John get richer and hopefully you generate enough business to pay the 19%, let alone make a profit.

  Very, very bad business model.

  You can buy professional software for under $1000 or you can pay 19% to Liberty on every dollar earned or $1900 on every $10K.

  I hope my simple explanations deter potential investors from buying into this business.

• You can buy software for $649 from Taxact. You can also make $13 from Republic bank for every tax return. Why the hell would you want to be part of this scam?

• Owner of Liberty Tax Franchises Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Steal from the State
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  March 17th, 2017 by WCBC Radio

  Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh and Comptroller Peter Franchot today announced Vanessa Kone, owner of four Liberty Tax Service franchises and operator of six stores in Baltimore City, pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Steal from the State. Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Alfred Nance sentenced Kone to five years incarceration, all suspended, three years supervised probation, and ordered $38,041 in full restitution and a $10,000 penalty.

  In addition to Kone, eight of her former employees also pleaded guilty to taking part in the fraudulent tax scheme. Under Kone’s direction, the managers and preparers in the stores prepared and filed fraudulent federal and state income tax returns, claiming income tax refunds in the names of unwitting taxpayers. As part of the scheme, they claimed the taxpayers earned just enough money from miscellaneous sources to qualify for the maximum earned income tax credit. In fact, none of the taxpayers earned any income, often having been homeless, in drug rehabilitation programs, or disabled.

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• AND MORE GREAT NEWS!!!

  NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH)– The Connecticut Department of Revenue Services has suspended tax processing at three local services after they received “a high volume of questionable returns.”

  DRS Commissioner Kevin Sullivan announced that the agency suspended processing electronic income tax returns from certain tax preparers in Ansonia, East Hartford and New Haven.

  “If I had the authority, which we don’t, we would probably suspend them from doing tax preparation. But the only thing I have ability to do is shut down the electronic filing until we get some answers,” said Commissioner Sullivan.

  The businesses affected are:

  Liberty Tax Service, 1003 East Main Street, East Hartford, CT 06108
  Perfect Preparer, LLC, 58 Main Street, Ansonia, CT 06401
  Perfect Preparer, LLC, 206 Dixwell Avenue, Suite 2, New Haven, CT 06511
  The owner of Liberty Tax Service in East Hartford wouldn’t go on camera but told News 8 the state reached out to him in November saying 67 out off the 600 tax returns they prepared last year were done with fraudulent W-2’s. He says he had no idea.

  “We hope there really isn’t a problem, it’s just that there was an aberration. We saw a pattern and we decided until that pattern can be explained we’re going to shut these down,” said Commissioner Sullivan.

  He did not release further details on the “suspicious filings.”

  Commissioner Sullivan says there is legislation in the works to have basic standards for tax preparers and increase oversight. He says the bigger the refund, the more tax preparers get paid.

  “There was a case last year in the state of Connecticut where someone was actually claiming like 200 dependents and they got away with it for a while,” said Commissioner Sullivan.

  He says clients of these companies shouldn’t be too worried but they could see delays with their returns. The three tax preparers affected can still file income tax returns with the state but they have to do it on paper only which means any refunds wouldn’t come for six to eight weeks.

  Free assistance in filing tax returns is available from the DRS by calling 860-297-5962 or going to any regional walk-in center in Bridgeport, Hartford, Norwich and Waterbury. For more information go to http://www.ct.gov/drs

• I have been passing by several Liberty Stores and have found them to be deserted. I know that this is a slow time of the season, but I usually pass by them around noon time as well as on my way home. This has been consistent throughout the year. I see the lights on, but no one in there. Maybe 1 preparer working. That’s it. I have seen the same lack of activity in the Jackson Hewitt’s as well. Even HR Block seemed quieter, even though they seem to have a few people within their stores. Has anyone noticed that this tax season has been slower for the street level preparation firms? Have the past deceptive practices by Liberty finally caught up to them? Are there more people using on line tax software?

  Thanks!

• It must depend on what state you’re in, but retail stores are down everywhere I think. If you don’t have experienced preparers and high retention rates, it’s trouble.
  I’m seeing returns from moms and pops with crazy deductions and credits, so I think its crazy out there.
  Also talked to folks (older customers) who I didn’t expect to use turbo tax and they tried it this year.
  It’s a new game and only the strong ones will survive with a new approach to get clients. The old ways no longer work. It’s change or quit.
  We are not down from last year but we know what we’re talking about and treat customers like they’re important, so they return.

• Texastee: I am seeing the same thing LTS ghost town JH about the same HRB has people but still slow but the IRS is still down allot. We will see how it pans out allot of things causing this in my opinion look at the IRS numbers. HRB has a 2nd half the other two do not we will see how it turns out.

  https://www.irs.gov/uac/2017-and-prior-year-filing-season-statistics

  http://comptroller.marylandtaxes.com/Media_Services/2017/03/17/owner-of-liberty-tax-franchises-pleads-guilty-to-conspiracy-to-steal-from-the-state/

• Tuesday | March 21
  TAX PRACTICE
  Liberty Tax Earnings Down 48%. Founder Hewitt Wants Out.

  Hewitt
  Liberty Tax Inc. reports results for the third quarter ended Jan. 31
  By CPA Trendlines Research
  Liberty Tax, the chain of almost 4,000 tax prep offices, is suffering from a variety of problems, both internal and external, according to Founder and CEO John Hewitt.
  “The 2017 tax season marks another period of change for the industry as filing patterns continue to shift later into the season,” says Hewitt in a statement. “The whole industry has been slow, but we are clearly not satisfied with how we have performed in comparison to the market. There is still a lot of season in front of us and we are focused on delivering a strong second half and on implementing the appropriate changes to be successful in an evolving landscape.”
  Through Feb. 28, the company said it had prepared 915,000 U.S. tax returns, as compared to 1,094,000 U.S. tax returns prepared in the comparable prior year period, representing a decline of 16.4%. The company operated 3,823 offices in the U.S. in fiscal 2017, down from 4,225 offices in 2016.  The decrease represents a decline of 250 permanent office locations, as well as a reduction of 152 seasonal and processing center locations, some stemming from compliance problems.
  Hewitt surprised listeners on the company’s quarterly earnings conference call by saying he’s looking to turn over the reins. “It’s time I have a backup in the company,” he said.

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• To add to the great information I am subscribe to the Latino Tax Professionals Association.

  http://www.theprogressiveaccountant.com/Tax/liberty-returns-drop-16-4-percent?inf_contact_key=d207977e25fd33fa378c84fe74509bc7485b3a277ffb3fcb3568501330098379

• One thing for sure, Hewtwit will spin it anyway he can. Hewitt termed the results an “aberrant year” and that the company “has put the worst behind us.” That would seem to imply that they will have better second half season results. My guess is that they likely complete about 40% of their returns in March and April. These latter season filers are generally more educated than the first half season and meaning they likely read the news. The negative publicity with all the fraud that has been going around will punish this POS company further! This company is absolutely going out of business, the death spiral has started and will accelerate as negative results compound with negative territory sales. Hahahahahahahahahahahahah!

• “It’s time I have backup in the company”, means he’s fleeing the country with all the money. Getting out while he can. DOJ & IRS: You had better prosecute him with all the info. you’ve been collecting on him for years. Please do not let him just walk away. If I had a chart of his face, I’d throw darts at it. He makes me physically ill.

  NCHillbilly: YOU ARE THE BEST!!! You always have the greatest of information!!! I LOVE reading your posts!!

  I KNOW for a fact that all these “fraudsters” were taught by no one other than the man himself. You definitely see an overwhelming amount of people “caught” from LTS locations. As soon as he leaves, the fraudsters will be no longer! They absolutely need to regulate this with proper licensing.

• I though John was not going to quit until Liberty was the #1 tax service in the universe? I would imagine Barvilla is shuttering his stores by now, too. If you are an owner, get out while you can, you will only lose more money.

• Don’t flatter yourself believing customers are reading the news and leaving because of the company issues.
  Customers leave because of fees and turbo tax fighting hrblock which is decreasing fees across the board. The turbotax – hrblock fight is also hurting hrblocks. What would you do if they adv. free schedule a and you’ve been paying $400 – $500 to file?
  JH is empty because their season is over. Mostly EIC. They got a pick up due to paystub start. They will see an improvement.
  Market is declining and will continue to drop. People filing online or filing late.

• Sorry guest my office is up 18% and growing. We have customers from Libturdy and Block even a small few from the free places.

• Mike’s situation is indicative of paid tax preparation trends. Guest1 is also correct, based on IRS filing data.

  What will continue to eat away at Blocks and Liberty’s customers base is the lower tax prep fees an independent can offer. I am surprised that a business model that produces revenues for 1/4 of a year to cover 12 months of expenses has been able to survive this long. Liberty will be the first market player to go bust.

  As for the do it yourselfers, they tend to be simple, low revenue producers for the tax prep industry.

  Bottom line is that the tax prep business has little variableness, other than the type of returns clients have. Sure, you can make money on bank products and other miscellaneous things but you only see your client once a year. The nature of this business means you better have a lot of volume to survive. Along with increased volume is increased labor costs so your profit margin increases some but often the extra work is maddening for the small window to do your business (4 months).

• Sad but true, you comments apply only to those storefronts that cater to the early-season, huge refund clientele. In our CPA office, we do bookkeeping, sales tax and payroll filing etc., but we also do tax year round. We have 150-200 clients who go on extension every year (October is like April 15 in our office). When someone gets a late tax doc after they already filed, we do amendments in the summer. I do estates, which have their own fiscal years. We deal with IRS letters clients bring in. And many of our clients aren’t seen “once a year” but call throughout the year (how do I fill out the W4 for my new job, I’m getting an inheritance, I want to gift some money to my kids, I’m refinancing and need whatever, and the ever popular, the IRS just called me and says they’ll put me in jail if I don’t pay right now.

  Block has year-round offices that can deal with these things, but they don’t keep all their zillions of storefronts open all year because there wouldn’t be enough work for all of them. JH in most locations and Liberty don’t have what it takes to service clients all year. So it’s not like there is no tax work after April, it’s just that they can’t/won’t do it. You CAN make a living doing tax work, but maybe not in a franchise that emphasizes volume instead of skill.

• SaraEA, Your office sounds like a typical CPA office. That is a year round business. I would not be surprised if your office had some former Block, Liberty, or JH clients looking to get tax prep work done after the April filing deadline. Most of the franchise stores have minimal off-season hours.

  Block survives on reputation and a large market share. Not sure about JH. Business marketing classes teach that there is normally room in the market for 2 or 3 major players. In the case of the franchise tax prep business, Liberty is number 3 and falling. When your market presence shrinks because of less stores and less return count, the trend is in place for failure.

• Two ghost preparers arrested here locally in the last several weeks and had a client come in today that a ghost preparer really messed up for 5 years. Rep work cost will be minimal vs back taxes he owes. We are reporting the ghost preparer surely IRS CID will be more on corporate in timely fashion as they seem to be going after the 75-150 ghost preparers pretty regularly around me.

• Liberty is probably responsible for those ghost preparers. That would make sense due to the way Hewitt and Liberty do business. Honestly, $400 for a simple tax return?!! Give me a break.

• Too comment on Johns leaving he has no plans on leaving at present and honestly could not even if he wanted too without severely damaging the company and the companies ability to operate under their current credit agreements. The banks that offer these credit lines have made it clear that the credit line would have to be redone and would be decreased, and in my humble opinion it would be dramatically decreased. John is the master puppeteer and the illusion would be destroyed if he left. So until John and the board is able to locate the person that the financial institutions believe in as much as they do John, he won’t be going anywhere.

  I’m not sure how bad it is right now inside Liberty because I no longer talk to or associate with any Liberty frenachisees or employees. But I can just imagine the smoke and mirror games with the franchisees continue especially since the company is under such great pressure to produce positive numbers. I’m betting that this year they will finaly have to get serious about marketing to late season clients if they have any hope of survival.

  Sooner or later the franchising system needs to be exposed for what it really is and that is a way to drain capital from potential business owners who have a fear that they would not be able to survive without a system in place. Reality is very different from the fairy tale franchisors are selling to its prospective franchisees. Sure you will benefit from the brand once the brand is large enough and individuals move around switching from one office to another, like with Liberty. And in a more limited way you will beneit from the brand once it is large enough and the name becomes more and more well known, but it can also hurt your business as fast as it can help also with negstive press. But the downside to all of this is too great to overcome the few limited benefits you will receive. This is what most people fail to realize because they get caught up in the support that is promised and the “being in business for yourself but not by yourself”. This saying is a true cute saying, but it’s not what potential franchisees think. It means you are paying a large sum of money ongoing to have someone tell you how to run your business in a fashion that is best for the franchisor and not normally is it in your best interest. It means you are paying someone to be a business partner while you drain your life savings. Many potential business owners get fooled especially in the income tax field thinking they must have support and franchising is the only way to get the support. Honestly there are many ways to get the same and in most cases much better support that are substantially cheaper and will not jeopardize your future success or your future financial security.

  Franchising has all the laws written in the franchisors favor and they hold all the cards. These laws will be used against you every chance possible and will frustrate you and drive you insane. Yes there are the few Franchise systems that have been wildly successful such as McDonald’s but if you look at the franchising industry as a whole it’s not anywhere similar. Most entering a franchise agreement in the end regret the decision and that’s just the facts.

• Also hurting th paid tax preparer market is not just Turbo tax it is the many companies that offer free to near free online tax preparation and do an amazing job at it. Companies like Freeincometax.com are steadily capturing more and more market share. These companies will only get better at providing software at dirt cheap pricing and better and better service which will continue to erode the market share from paid preparers. Companies like th one mentioned allows you to do a complicated return for just 12.95 and that’s for the state return with no hidden costs,. Yes you can add on services tpbut they are clear and not hidden costs associated with them.

  If Trump is able to get tax reform passed making the process much more simple for low income who receive refundable tax credits easy to file with no complicated yearly proof requirements then it would be all but over for a company like liberty and I could see them attempting to sell the company. If not for the requirements this year for individuals to provide proof of their dependents support and relationship upfront this year I believe the industry would have seen a massive hit.

  The model will end up having to change and that change must happen fast if it’s going to save a company like Liberty or at very least not severely hurting them financially. It’s not hopeless because if Liberty would design their system in a manner that clients are desirimg,, giving taxpayers more and more of the services and access they want and that will become the norm in the future, Liberty could become a powerhouse in short order. But that will take the mentality that the company has in primarily focusing on low income low educated clients to make decent profits. Liberty once again will have to go out on limb like they did with their marketing in the beginning and take a bold step offering a system and process that no other large tax preparer has ever offered before and in a way that no one has offered befkre. it would take cutting edge boldness and I just don’t see that with current leadership team. They are too afraid to get accused for being wrong the past 10 years or so. It would also take franchisees trusting and believing in Liberty which is a major hurdle because belief and trust are lacking these days.

  Guess time will tell. I haven’t seen any indications from what I read that they have figured anything out yet.

• Just saw the IRS data book that covered the 2016 filing season (last year) and paid tax prep was at 60% of filed returns, up a bit from recent years. So despite DIY software and free websites, people are still paying for professional tax prep. Out said that Liberty needs to market to late-season clients but that will only work if they have preparers capable of handling late-season clients. This week I handled numerous clients with K-1s from publicly traded partnerships, sales of said PTPs (involves calculating ordinary income and capital gains pieces), a client with Form 8275 disclosure, cancellation of debt, short sales, trusts, etc. I’ll put off the gift and estate tax returns until summer. Liberty shouldn’t market to this type of client unless it can deliver.

  That said, in my years of tax prep I’ve noticed that close to April 15 a lot of easy returns come in. Go figure. They should market the brand now if they want to attract these procrastinators.

• Sara,

  Can you send me the link to the IRS data book you are mentioning. I was curios to read it.

  Thanks

• Data book likely mentioned above:
  https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/16databk.pdf

• Dr. that’s good stuff. There used to be an report that we could drill down to e-file’s by office, it was a nice way to know how the competitors are doing by e-filed returns in a particular zip code, just by chance do you or anyone else know how to get that info? It would be nice to know how many e-filed returns the local Liberty offices are doing.

• There is nothing more for me to say about this company. The franchise agreements suck for the franchisee. The AD’s don’t care a rats a** other than to make sure you pay your minimum royalties on time. Corporate Cluster Program turned out to he a Cluster F*** John is a Super Savy Sly Slick Sneaky Sinister CEO he has staying power and won’t go down until he is kicked out by a BK or dies. Franchisees in this system should tread lightly it’s pointless to complain and Bit** it is unfortanely in your own best interest and preservation to finish out your 5 year contracts and then pull out of this POS Franchise system.

• Per the IRS as of 4/7/17 total returns received are down 3.6% and E filing from
  tax professionals are down 4%.

  Concerned Zee I feel your pain. I’ve been out since 2009 and it still frustrates me. Posting
  to this site was one of the best ways I had of dealing with my anger and frustration.

• ^^Hi Bill! :)

  You’re not kidding. This site was the best thing that happened. Thank you ADMIN!!
  When I look at other posts from other franchisees, even in other businesses, it’s almost all the same. The bullying tactics, the marketing ploys, the lack of support…………….those 5 years were MISERABLE. It wasn’t until very recently that I felt ‘free’ from their tangle of lies. Years & years later. And I had my 5 year contract even before Bill! That’s how long the stress has been unbearable. All because I signed on the dotted line. Way at the beginning when there was no “unhappy franchisee” and way before I knew just how bad it would get. How the gov’t let’s these franchises get away with this, I’ll never know. Maybe ADMIN can shed some light as to how these franchises can legally do what they’re doing and get away with it.

  I would say to anyone now, getting involved in any franchise is not for the faint of heart. It is hard work, yes, I knew that, but had no idea how many lying, cheating people are out to grab all your money & offer nothing in return. What a disgusting education that was.

  Anyone looking at franchises, especially Liberty Tax for next Tax Season…………don’t bother!!! They will lie, cheat, steal & demand your first born. You stand there with an open wallet……..amazing how bad franchising is. The world needs to know they are liars, rip off artists and only are about how much money you can hand over, NOT if you know how to do Tax Returns!! :( The experience was about as bad as it could get and then some. :( Walk, no……..RUN away and don’t sign a damn thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• You are all welcome. Thanks to all the commenters on the robust and lively Liberty Tax discussion thread.

  If I could ask you all a favor… If you have found UnhappyFranchisee.Com to be a valuable resource, could you please leave a comment here or on one of the related threads?

  Not looking for a pat on the back, but really need as many users as possible to help validate the legitimate purpose that this site is playing. We are constantly being dismissed as a mere gripe site where whiners blame others for their own failings, or an extortion site where we blackmail franchisors blah blah blah (I’m sure if that were true, Mr. Hewitt would have his checkbook out in an instant!).

  People don’t understand the need for prospective franchisees to get real info from current and former franchisees (as the FTC intended), and for current and former franchisees to share their experiences and opinions with one another.

  Please leave a comment here:

  Thanks and Praise for UnhappyFranchisee.Com

  
  Thanks!

  ADMIN

• As a former franchisee of this POS, I do not relish in watching people spend hard earned money and get nothing in return. The local Liberty store just up the street bit the dust this year after 5 years of horrible sales. Just so someone on this site doesn’t say that the franchisee didn’t follow the plan, this store was literally 500 feet from a HR Block, with better visibility from a major street that sees 5,000 plus cars per day, good parking, visible location, in an area of lower income clients, had bi-lingual preparers,used wavers, signs, offered insurance, etc. Ended up doing a couple hundred returns a year max. Couldn’t wait to get away from this franchise. Wish I had better news.

  As for Admin, it was too late for me, but hoping others get the message. You are providing a great service with your website. While some of the posters on this board are not real, the vast majority are, and the information that gets posted is real. The vast majority are not malcontents, they are real people that went into their journey with eyes open, paid money and realized somewhere in that journey that what was promised never materialized. The tax business can be a good business, but not when you are paying close to 20% of your revenues for a name that means nothing to the masses. Take the time to analyze the opportunity before putting your money down.

• I want to thank unhappyfranchisee.com for giving the outlet that was and is so desperately needed. Unfortunately franchising for the vast majority does not end up in the dream they first had it ends up in a total nightmare. As the economy picked back up you once again see the advertising for franchise ownership dramatically increase hoping they can drain what little money they can from individuals.

  I have no idea how many people that this site saved from Liberty or from other franchises but I am willing to bet the number is quite high. It’s unfortunate that the truth about franchising doesn’t come out in the open even with such a great site like this. But billions of dollars are at stake, the news media and all the other publications and businesses that make a ton of money with advertising, selling, and promoting franchising have a vested interest to have it continue the way it is. Plus it’s a good old boy network to some degree only a very few will ever make money while most will go broke and that is by design not accident

  Liberty and many other companies like Liberty have enough resources to control the media and they have enough resources to ensure you never are able to challenge them in court. If you do most all the contracts you signed when purchasing had language that gave you little to no rights anyway and the franchisors the right to do just about anything they please even though they say your in business for yourself but not by yourself. But this site has been a breath of fresh air helping to enlighten many to the huge risks and limited at best gains with purchasing a Liberty Franchise or many many other franchise opportunities.

  As things start to pick up with the economy we will see more and more franchises pop up and more people will be tricked into the deception unless they hear honest information.

• Liberty tax returns down 10% for the latest tax season

  http://ir.libertytax.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=233197&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2266710

• Liberty will never be the “number 1 tax service in the universe”. If you can, get out of Liberty now, if you haven’t signed up, don’t.

• Liberty Financial facts based on their reporting – see Dr. Zhivago, 4/27 link.
  IRS.gov – https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/filing-season-statistics-for-week-ending-april-21-2017

  Liberty claims to have over 4000 stores that did 1,590,000 returns by the end of tax season.
  That computes to 398 returns per store (4000/1.59M). At $200 average net fee, that would be $79,500 income, on average, for each store. Liberty gets 19% of that or $15,105.

  Liberty is down 9.7% in return count at their stores. IRS link shows paid professional returns down 0.7% – less than 1% from 2016 returns.

  News Flash to potential investors – Do Not Buy a Liberty territory!

  Liberty Corp. gets your franchise fee and minimum royalty fee. Guaranteed money for them. You get a 5 year contract to feed them your hard earned cash and personal savings. Very bad deal for you but a great deal for them.

  Note: They are losing business at over 10 times the industry average. If you want to jump on a sinking ship, blame no one but yourself if you drown.

• Hopefully next year they will be down 20%!!! I talked to a local Lib Z, they were down 400 returns, they do have a few offices but they asked what is the difference between being independent vs. a Lib Z, I said “19%, FEES!” Slowly but surely they are going down! Anyway, on another note:

  I am looking at switching software for the next season, I have been using Taxwise (since that is what Libturdy used to use for a long time now) they are starting to get pretty expensive. Any ideas or suggestions, looking maybe at TaxAct or Tax Slayer?

• I have been using TaxAct for several years, and have had good success. They upped their prices this year also, but overall have been satisfied. it’s a relatively small expense compared to the overall cost of being in the business as compared to 19% of your gross income!

• Does anyone have any experience with Drake? They are super aggressive with the marketing.

• I’ve used both Proseries and Drake software.

  Drake is better on price, but a few things I do not like about Drake: it does not error check while you input, you have to run the calculating function to see what the software flagged; the software does not save one file per client, its saved in a very confusing way, makes it difficult to back up and move to another computer. On the good side, Drake has excellent customer service, I cant remember ever waiting on hold or talking to someone overseas.

  Proseries is a bit pricey and they have not changed the structure of the software in many years. Its also very tedious to input pricing into the software. I do like the error monitoring, it notifies you as you’re entering data. Proseries will nickel and dime you on the all the extras, and the customer service is not the best. I had an issue this year when I installed the software, my information was crossed with another customer and all his information was populated into my software.

  If you do not mind getting all your errors in bulk after you calculate and you’re tech savvy, I would go with Drake.

• I have been using Drake since leaving LTS. Just paid my next season software last week. Drake’s customer service is absolutely top notch. They have people to walk you through moving your files and their accounting department will move files from one EFIN to another if necessary.

  I thought about using others, but Drake has everything for a one time fee, instead of nickeling and diming you to death. I pay extra for the email system – additional $12 a year.

• I used Taxact. It is no worse than Libtax minus 19% of gross! This company is a piece of crap. No reason to buy into their tarnished name. Do it on your own!

• Does anybody know when the annual convention will be? I can hardly wait to hear the large sucking sound of Hewitt pilfering more dollars from his franchisees.

• ^^^June 1-3, thank goodness I’ll be out of the country. No one could pay me enough money to show up at one of those things again. How the hell he is still there is incredible :(:(

• Is it at the Virginia Beach Convention center again? I would love to be there to here him bulls*t all the franchisees.

• They should really rename it the BS convention. Its amazing that these guys really believe their own crap!