LIBERTY TAX SERVICE Franchise Complaints

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

• Texastee, the truisms in your post made me both sick and angry. I don’t think the franchisees are off the hook–they HAD to know that it is illegal to make stuff up on an official gov’t tax return. If they did so because they weren’t making any money and had big debts to Liberty, it brings up the old ethics question of whether the man who stole medicine his wife desperately needed is wrong to do so. The fact that Hewitt turns in his own zees proves Out’s point that it’s all about money and power to him, nothing to do with the company’s reputation that affects hard-working zees and the investors. In the past when a wayward HRB zee made the news, the company immediately took over the locations and issued press releases saying they would make amends to harmed clients. Obviously they were protecting the company’s reputation and the investors whose profit also depends on the brand. John thinks HE is the brand. What he is doing right now proves both of your points. The company is in hot water with the SEC because it doesn’t have an independent board, so he makes the board less independent? The auditors quit even before that. What is he thinking? Certainly not about the brand and the people whose livelihoods depend on it.

• SarahEA: I see your point about franchisees knowing what they were doing in the falsification of returns. What I wanted to emphasize was that Hewitt and Liberty created an environment where this type of thing was very much encouraged. Liberty and Hewitt knew that this behavior was going to cause trouble for the franchisees in the future and he was able, as a true flim-flam artist, make sure the Franchisees had no choice but to follow this slippery slope. It also is apparent that Hewitt maintained that this way of tax preparation was unlikely to be noticed because of the high volume of returns and the lack of adequate IRS personnel for enforcement. For some time this was true until the IRS started noticing the irregularities, established a pattern that a lot of it was from Liberty, and cut a deal with Hewitt to throw all those franchisees under the proverbial bus. Again, the franchisees had to know what they were doing was bad, but were encouraged and taught how to do this by Liberty Tax corporate. Hewitt merely has used the franchisees for his personal gain and will do the same to the shareholders of Liberty Tax. You just can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

• He is also a loan shark. When I decided to sell my losing store, the AD, which was never any help, pushed hard for me to take loans. Thank goodness I did not! The other store never made more than a few thousand profit, not matter what I tried, no matter who I mentored with. The whole experience was awful: the business model, the stupid marketing plan (charts that show it’s simple – just spend more, buy more donuts), the ADs who knew nothing except the company one-liners. Its hard for me to fathom that this scam has survived for this long. I guess the one thing he is good at is scamming.

• John is just milking the system he created:
  19% Royalties and ad fees from hard working franchisees that receive software at exorbitant prices – 0.19 cents for every dollar they earn. So, a franchisee making $80,000 pays $15,200 for their software and maybe gets some ad promo crumbs to boot. A franchisee making $200,000 pays $38,000 for their software. The guy making $200,000 probably does not need tech support anymore and the electronic submission of 2 1/2 times the returns of the guy making $80,000 is of little extra cost to Liberty Corp. Of course John is fighting like mad to keep this cash cow paying system under his control.

  I hope by now that NO one is seriously thinking about buying into this mess of a company. I haven’t posted on this site in awhile and I am surprised that the business model is still the same (all in John’s favor). Please correct me if the 19% number has changed.

  We are watching the slow death of Liberty. It will die and hopefully the current franchisees that are honest and have built a decent business can continue their operation under their own name or sell their business when Liberty fails. It will fail, just taking a little longer than I thought it would take.

• No fees for that $3,250 refund advance loan from Liberty Tax? Think again.
  By Kimberly Pierceall
  The Virginian-Pilot
  Mar 2, 2018 Updated 8 hrs ago

  https://pilotonline.com/business/consumer/article_4accf2f9-b76a-5ce0-9404-2138eca89d5d.html

• Another one bites the dust!!!

  Tax preparer charged with identity theft
  By Melvin Mason on March 6, 2018 in Lead News, News, Police & Fire ·

  Blanca Quinones

  A Waterbury woman working for a tax preparation company is facing identity theft charges after Stratford Police said she used a customer’s information to fraudulently open utility and credit card accounts.

  Police charged Blanca Quinones, 46, of 353 East Main St., Waterbury, with seven counts of identity theft and sixth-degree larceny. Quinones was arrested on Feb. 16 after police served a warrant.

  Police said Quinones is accused of stealing the personal information of a customer at Liberty Tax Service and using it to open two utility and five credit card accounts for her personal use. Police said Quinones told officers she had worked at Liberty Tax for nine years preparing customer tax returns. Police also discovered that Quinones has five pending criminal dockets and is being charged with multiple counts of first-degree forgery and larceny.

  Quinones appeared in Bridgeport Superior Court on Feb. 28. Her next court date is set for March 28.

• I guess LTS isn’t going to report results (soon) they have always been the day after HRB and haven’t seen anything?

• Rumor from within LTS, return count is down nearly 25% compared to last year’s.

• Definate troubles.

• I quit and couldn’t be happier. I am now on my own and made more money in three months than I did in five with with LTS. GREEDY is all I can say about the whole organization. GREEDY, GREEDY, GREEDY.

• It’s so sad reading these comments that because of your failure with the company you are rooting for the current zees to fail as well. I understand exactly how and why you all hate LTS , but it sad that some are praying for failed results of the current zees. I know it’s a horrible company that they should not have bought into but rooting and praising any bad news hurts so many more families. It’s as if you can’t wait for thousands to be in the same position you ended up in. Some owners are actually doing very well. Not cool!

• So how will the Liberty quarterly reports address the business impact related to the founders legal problems?

• ^^Concerned:

  You are right and not right with your comment. I am an ex-zee from many years ago. I personally do not wish harm on the company as a whole, just “The Man” who started this whole crappy game he’s playing with people’s money & lives, the entire corporate office along with the legal team and the justice system. Not individual zee’s.

  I DID NOT FAIL. Many zees who are now ex-zees did not fail. Some chose to leave, some were ousted, some decided the headaches & stress were too much………you cannot generalize and say “just because you failed”. It’s not really a correct statement.

  The point of this forum is to educate potential franchisees about the pitfalls of that company and let them decide for themselves if it’s the right move or not. I really wish this forum was around when I began, because it would have altered the course of my life. I certainly would not have plunked down a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g. I have no idea if it’s better or worse now, since I’ve been out for awhile, but I do know that earlier in this forum, I convinced many people to save their money & look elsewhere. They were grateful to me for saving their a– and for me it was a bit of a satisfaction knowing that I stopped people from investing in this crappy company.

  Maybe it’s not crappy any longer…..but I still would warn people to stay away, even today. This was never a franchise to support your dream of becoming your own boss. It was greed all the way. Has it changed? Who knows, but all I can say is beware of the pitfalls before plunking down hard earned $$.

• You’re absolutely right. Hewitt should pay for everything he has done and yes I am aware of the point of this forum. I just don’t agree with some of the poster who seem to hope and pray every day that the entire company goes down and out of business which would hurt even more zees. That’s all!

• Concerned:

  Yes there are likely many good zees still with Liberty and maybe even 2 or 3 that make money! However, I hope the whole company goes down in flames! Those good ones will be fine when they take their clients and open up their own shingle. I am so glad that Screwitt has taken back the reigns because if he didn’t then the company likely would have been bought, and survived. If the company goes down then no more people will get Screwitted!! There are likely many AD’s still peddling Johns’ BS even if he would not have been able to get his company back!

• Agree with Concerned. The good ones will be better off! The not so good are hanging on loosing money being lied to by corporate and cajoled into high interest loans.
  The overwhelming majority of Zees work hard to make their business a success and even if their business is not profitable they have not failed because they are not good business people. The cards are stacked against them; the cards in this case is a lousy business model and a crooked company.

• How long until they get delisted?

  https://pilotonline.com/business/consumer/article_df26dab8-2642-11e8-84eb-ab95c3b2a001.html

• I owned four Liberty territories at one point, but sold 2 early on. The other two supported my family with an income of about $100k a year for over 10 years. I sold one for $160,000 and the other for $100,000. I did not sell them for the multiple Liberty tells you they use – 1.2 to 1.5 revenue. It was 90% of revenue in my case.

  Recent developments are extremely disappointing and I’m glad I’m out. Hewitt is toxic to the company, and yet he has finagled getting a CEO and COO into place that have absolutely zero experience managing a publicly traded company of Liberty’s size. They are undoubtedly figure-heads under the control of John. It’s his personal sandbox, he doesn’t play well with others, and the shareholder lawsuit is going to really take a toll.

  The industry is also turning. When average fees approach $400, that is not sustainable. I know of one franchisee who has lost a lot of business by offering a 50% discount in March only to increase his prices so prior year clients see only a slight savings. People notice nonsense like that. Too much game playing for my taste, and what other franchisees does indeed reflect on all.

• Please! https://pilotonline.com/business/stocks/article_47e88fb8-2965-11e8-8482-979e3830bb96.html

• I’m rooting for all the crappy franchisees who don’t know how to do taxes and don’t have ptins but still do tax returns under the identities of their preparers to all get shut down and get thrown in jail while their families are left begging for food stamps, welfare, and spare change. I want to see the IRS and TIGTA come down hard on identity theft of tax preparers which routinely takes place at Liberty. Corporate is aware of that franchisees don’t have ptins and still do this but they claim they have no regulatory mechanism to stop it. Which is bullshit. This is the same Liberty Corporate who allowed franchisees to use other franchisees EFINs if the IRS rejected their application because those franchisees failed their suitability background checks.

• Liberty will see a dramatic decrease in tax returns this year and for every year to come until either the market changes or the system changes which I dont see either happening. What is maddening is the scam John used on so many franchisees and Area Developers is quite easy to figure out, yet few to this date understand it, which leads me to believe it will happen many times over again to good hardworking honest business people.

  Libertys downfall as a National tax preparation chain is Johns unwillingness to trust anyone, believing that everyone is out to steal him blind. So his system he has bragged on so long is nothing but a system that ensures he has total power and control to destroy anyone he wants too. But a system where he is God and can destroy a Franchisee or a Area Developer any time he wants is not enough. He also has had to make sure he can profit as much as possible off every single Franchisee and Area Developer no matter if they are a success or not and he has done just that for many years. There is no way for a franchise to grow like Liberty with such a limited home office staff and I mean a very limited Corp Office Staff, without doing it by the art of the Scam!

  Libertys System has always been geared toward the poor and the desperate in our economy. He has never geared it toward regular tax clientele because by doing that he looses his ability to maintain absolute control over the money. Any Franchisee that promoted running a professional tax preparation office has always been dealt with and normally destroyed. John does not believe it is possible to get franchisees smart enough to build a professional tax service. With the fees that are charged and the expenses involved running a tax office it is not easy to build any kind of tax office that can be profitable. But Liberty has had many opportunities to save the franchise and in return save many of its franchisees but has always chose to focus on the short term bottom line for John. Making Bank Product Clients the main area of focus is how he has been able to accomplish the growth he has achieved as far as growing the number of franchisees and offices.

  Liberty focuses on bank product customers because it is the only way they can ensure they can have completel control over the money and with that grow very quickly, at least up till last few years. It enables them to loan money with little to no risk overall. It is the cornerstone to there business model. It is also the main cause of most of there problems now and it will be the reason they fail completely . My understanding is that the CEO that replaced John was going to attempt to save Liberty by changing it to a professional tax preparation oroganization. It didn’t take long before he was destroyed also because John refuses to see Liberty go down that road.

  Fact is until the truth is exposed how these franchisors are able to rob and steal franchisees blind and why franchisees have little to no recourse except for complaining on great sites like this, nothing will really change and the deception and thievery will continue.

• ^^^AMEN!!! Well said!
  HE needs to be put in jail, I’ve been saying this for years. What is the reason the DOJ contacted my Attorney several years ago & asked very specific questions, and my information corroborated with so many other franchisees around the country and HE is still walking around freely and my professional life was in ruins for years & years. You are SO right: HE doesn’t care who he mows down in the process. NOT AT ALL.

  You cannot make this stuff up. The general public doesn’t understand unless they’ve been through it. As long as HE is still involved & not locked away, nothing good will happen :(:(

• SanFranDan, the DOJ investigation in my opinion was always a sham. I heard of the DOJ and the IRS investigating Liberty Corp and John, But all I saw was the IRS and DOJ using the information they were getting from current and ex franchisees and using it to destroy franchisees in the system and leaving John and Corporate completely alone.

  I have not seen any proof that the DOJ or IRS were ever interested in learning how this massive Ponzi scheme was created or how it worked. They were and still are in,y interested in what things look like to the public. And most in the public don’t have an understanding how franchising works. Honestly anyone getting into franchising is more than likely committing professional and financial suicide. Fact is there’s not many out there in authority that cares about franchisees. Franchisors have the money and the power mainly because of being able to steal franchisees blind. Franchisees are just common peasants to most in authority and treated as such.

• Out and SanFran: I have to agree that John and the IRS/DOJ are in cahoots with each other for the simple reason it is easier to prosecute a small time operator that does not have the legal resources that Liberty has. It make for a very easy notch on the prosecutors belt that will allow her/him to get promoted within the DOJ. This also applies to the IRS CIB as well. You advance your career by the number of people you punish in order to justify your existence. This is how government has evolved to this point.

  I wish there was a way to make franchising abuses more of an issue for regulators, but I’m afraid that the same reasons apply: too much legal effort by the regulators to go after the wealthy franchisors. Again, it has to be an easy mark for the government bureaucrats, or they won’t pursue the wrong doers.

  Liberty will thus continue its shenanigans with the blessing of regulators since it is their mutual interests to feed one and another. It can’t be any clearer than this: Liberty will rob you blind, squeeze every penny from you and , when finished, make sure the government will harass you forever. This is the harsh fact of life. Liberty Tax is run by a bunch of criminals.

• https://pilotonline.com/business/consumer/article_4accf2f9-b76a-5ce0-9404-2138eca89d5d.html

  The latest article over Libertys “Race to the Bottom” meaning Liberty Business Model is to capture the poorest and the most desperate in our society, by offering them the largest Free Loans goes to show Liberty will never change. And it shows that what many of us have been saying for years is the hard cold facts.

  We have an economy now that is booming compared to the last 9 or 10 years. Unemployment is at its lowest level in years and things are for the most part pretty good. But Libertys primary marketing plan is to capture the group of clients in our society that are struggling the worse by offering them a pretty appealing advance on there refund. Since the amount of people out there that are struggling and desperate has been decreasing while employment and overall people’s financial situation has gotten Dramaticly better why would Liberty put so much effort into going after the poorest most desperate clientele out there?

  The answer is pretty easy if you understand there business model. First of all Bank Product revenue, which is the revenue they have complete control over, is the most vital and key for Libertys Business Model to succeed. Bank Priduct revenue is key to every part of the scheme they created and have operated for years. It gives them the leverage to loan money to franchisees for operating expense and for expansion. And by loaning the money it gives them absolute power and control over these franchisees business. Because without these loans many if not the majority if franchisees would never be able to survive.

  Bank Product revenue also has been key in Libertys AD or DMA system where they sell 50 percent of an areas revenue to an individual with the agreement that the AD gives support to franchisees in that area and sells new territories where the AD receives 50percemt if the franchise fee.

  The reason it has been and always will be key to Libertys success is because it is the one tool they have that ensures absolute control over the franchisees and Area Developers. Under this system the vast majority of capital that a Franchisee produces is deposited with Liberty then according to Libertys agreements with the Franchisee is disbursed to the Franchisee minus any Royalty’s , Advertising fees, and any outstanding loan balances . Many many times the bulk of the money never reaches the Franchisee bank account because of the fees and the loans due. All of Libertys loans or 99 percent of them is short term loans. Most of the loaned money is loaned for a very short term meaning a year or less at very high interest rates.

  Liberty has been in business long enough that the revenue from bank products and the revenue from cash, checks, or credit cards should not be as lopsided as it actually is. A Franchisee deposits all cash, check and credit card deposits. But at Liberty the amount of revenue from bank products far exceeds overall as a whole compared to other payments. The excuse for this is that Framchisees are not following the system but that is garbage.

  The truth is Liberty has little to no desire to put much time and effort into growing what people in the industry calls the late season. The culture at Liberty is very clear about who the bread and butter client is. That is a customer who is desperate and needy desperate for cash or the client who just fails to understand why bank products are not wise.

  What’s sad is the public doesn’t understand all this finance stuff and majority of times the Franchisee as usual takes the blame and the heat for practices that Liberty Corp themselves are responsible for and forces on the Franchisee. When marketing these advances the Franchisee has to spend money for staff for marketing and to prepare the paperwork for these advances and then spend money on Labor to try to get as many of these advance clients back in the door to complete the actual return since if no tax return is done they will never get paid. If you don’t have these costs built into your pricing you will not do very well at all and sink further into a hole. But the public and the media doesn’t understand this and because Liberty is so good at blaming all negatives on bad franchisees or in reality any Franchisee, Liberty gets away it while the Franchisee suffers.

  Liberty is also still always the winner and its franchisees are almost always the looser.

• I wouldn’t be surprised if Preparers start coming forward and speaking truth to power in the wake of what went down in Wisconsin. Tax Preparers coming forward will help the IRS and DOJ connect the dots.

• When I came forward to the IRS and DOJ, they were not really interested!

• Some fool yourself about doj or.irs investigation of Corp. Unless Liberty Corp is just breaking every law possible like Instant tax done they are not interested in going after him or Liberty.

  Now as stated before they will use information received.to go after Z’s or preparers because they know they will win and it will.ne easy. But going after Liberty is a pipe dream not reality .

• I believe “Out” is correct. If there is a case against LTS, it will come in the shape of the Franchisee’s because they are the small potatoes. I helped on the case back in 2013 and not much has happened and possibly the person who was working on it is most likely retired from the IRS by now. But in doing so, it did bring awareness to the corruption, but not enough to bring John John down. But what will bring John down is people not renewing their franchise agreements and not buying into the franchise system. The LTS people in my area are struggling, but only to the extent, they are not bringing in as much money as they used to 10 years ago or so. Also, the stockholders have more to say to John than even the franchisee’s. Time will tell, but people are not keeping their franchise’s. The person who took over my locations failed after the 2nd year. But according to LTS I was their worst franchise ever in my state. Yup, but I’m still in business and they aren’t.

• If you don’t live in the Los Angeles market, you are unlikely to be aware of what’s going down with the IRS and DOJ against Liberty. Hence all the air of dismissiveness taking place here. The IRS moves slow and keeps things on the down low. They are going to Taxpayers showing them faces of individuals and asking them if that is the individual who did their tax return, it’s obvious someone who worked as a Tax Preparer for Liberty outed the scam of Franchisees without PTINs acting as Ghost Preparers, which corporate is admittedly aware takes place in CA, and has also admittedly done nothing to stop it. Anyone who attended the DMA in Orange Cty last November would have seen that admission take place.

• ^^I agree with you both. The DOJ and IRS interviewed me extensively. Haven’t heard from them since. JTH made my life miserable because it was either me or him. I’m small potatoes, so it was me, naturally :( He made my life so miserable that it took years to recover. I’m still struggling. I’m sure there are decent franchises out there and decent CEO’s. I just happen to sign up with the worst of the worst. Way back in the beginning, before there ever was an unhappyfranchisee.dotcom website.

  They always go after the easy targets, the little guy. Whereas it’s the big guy in 100% of the cases that need to be brought down. Always. Still waiting for vindication…….and waiting……I know it WILL happen, just don’t know when. But again, if they keep going after the little guy, HE will never be brought down.

  There isn’t any doubt what-so-ever that the DOJ and IRS are fully aware of how corrupt HE is. But he’s obviously bringing them money and we all know money is everything! Not corruption, not scams, not blatant dishonesty and distrust…….MONEY. Sucks.

• In the defense of the DOJ and other govt agencies they did go after some of the biggest fraud shops at the top of LTS. These were some of the biggest and best operations doing millions top of the Elite 18. Now at least they can start investigating our new CEOs operation and our COO and Chief Strategy officer I’m sure they are squeaky clean. Unlikely since one of them bought Doleskys AD and stores, we all know that StevyDs stores were ripe with Fraud and abuse.

• Concerned Zee…You must have been psychic…Doletzky busted.

  https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-files-lawsuit-shut-down-tax-preparation-businesses-st-petersburg-area

• NICE!!! The funny thing is how these zees were so awesome!! I would imagine that there are likely more zees out there that have done the same thing! I hope the government keeps searching!

• Dolestsky ran Fanatical U and trained Liberty Zees on Fraud with John’s approval and financial support! I skipped all those B.S. Trainings. He thinks he is the Tony Robbins of tax Prep but he’s only good at Fraud. Check out his insurance business I’m sure thats clean too. These guys are only interested in a quick buck to Payoff Liberty Debt. John brags about making over 700 people Millionaires which was proven bogus he has Definitely Bankrupted 700 Franchisees. John’s legacy will be that he was the only CEO of two Bankrupted Publicly Traded Companies. Great accomplishments SteveD and John! What’s next I’d check out Hartford CT and Cincinnati OH and Los Angeles if I was the DOJ. Actually any Liberty office that has Agi less than 40k in the area that does over 1200 returns would be a good place to look. That will narrow it down because less that 5% of Liberty offices do that many returns

• Don’t forget Chicago where offices do 200-300 returns by January 15th.

• The DOJ and IRS are already checking out Los Angeles. There’s a Grand Jury already in place looking to indict John Hewitt. The IRS CI are already roaming the streets of LA and Orange County gathering information and evidence.

• First the irs and doj investigating closing the sale will use that information to go after as many franchisees as they possibly can. When it comes to them trying to go after Liberty i don’t see it ever happening.

  The reason is most Americans do not know the difference between Liberty Corp and Liberty Tax Franchisee. Also Liberty has committed so many more crimes than closing the sale which I think would be near the bottom. Liberty using there well written franchise and Area Developer Contracts to steal people blind knowing that they will never be held to there obligations of the contract because very few can fight them in court. And Liberty has been very careful and made sure that they sold to people who could not afford to fight them in court for their rights per the contracts.

• WOW, it’s about time! Doletsky was one of the biggest scumbags around. Can’t believe that he lasted as long as he did. Hope that he enjoyed his first stint in jail, cause it sounds like he will be heading back. This is one of the original guys that was promoting fraud……and if you didn’t follow his lead he would try and work you out of the system. EVERYONE at Liberty knew what he was about, and not only turned a blind eye but encouraged him to teach others what he was doing.

  It’s kind of a shame, some of these guys were talented and could have built sustainable businesses. Instead, they committed fraud to grow faster and make millions.

• IRS and DOJ need to start cutting deals with the small fish.

• Steve is the type of person that John loves. Because in the end Liberty is able to financially gain and in the end Liberty will turn on him as they have already done and place all the blame on someone like Steve while claiming that they do not support or encourage anything except by the book tax preperation.

  The problem is that franchisees and Area Developers both quickly come to a realization that to not go bankrupt owning a part of Liberty that something drastic will Need to take place. Otherwise they will be facing complete failure. This is not a good excuse to turn down a road of breaking the law but it is the reason that it does happen more often than you would think. Most never come anywhere close to what is being described in Steve’s situation. Most struggle daily with how far they should push the limits. But the pressure on franchisees that are made to feel like they are idiots and worthless by Corp is intense at times.

  Now if Liberty Tax Franchise system was not a franchise that’s business plan focuses almost entirely on the poorest and least educated tax customers things would be easier I think but the fact is the poor and uneducated are the main focus of there marketing with little effort placed on anything else. If your not doing a large number of eic returns and doing them for 200 to 300 a shot your just not going to get much from Liberty Tax Franchise system.

• Doletsky was one of the people that ushered me into their “Special School” for franchisee’s that they claimed would maximize my fees. They did this by ‘suggesting’ that if a low wage earner had a little more income from and outside business such as construction, beauty parlor or child care, they would receive more government tax refund. He instructed several of us on how to manipulate these small time businesses to optimize the EIC by lowering or raising net income through these fake businesses. His rationale was that the IRS lacks enforcement so the likelihood of getting caught was slim. He also argued, along with Stacey Barnes and Corey Hughes, that this would increase our fees and have the client refer other friends and family in a similar situation. These people would provide examples of how this tactic worked and garnered them a high return count and exorbitant fees. Meanwhile, Liberty was getting 19% of the high fees for all these questionable returns.

  Now I see the the illustrious Corey Hughes is now in charge of franchising. It seems to me that the same bunch of crooks are still running the company with John as the emperor. Make no mistake, John will be throwing these people under the bus soon enough. They deserve it.

• Sounds like Steve was (and also having his cohorts and preparers) engaging in the same pattern of fraud and deceit that franchisees such as Nazim Chandrani, Stacey Sanchez, Sam Desai, and others have engaged in out west, with the marketing and assistance training of none other than Danny Hewitt. Also forgot to mention that Doletzy was the one who inspired the top LA Zee, John Balkhi to get into the Household Income game-only his preparers were well versed in the law to do it legitimately.

• SteveyD always ended his training sessions saying Fake it til ya make it! Well it tax prep that just doesn’t work.

• It takes a special skill to sit in front of a client day after day and week after week and year after year and explain to them how despite their W2 info relatively being the same year to year that with me they either owe or will get a lower refund than usual. I have figured out every Liberty Gimmic in the book that I can apply the skill for spotting fraud at the moment I hear “but last year I got a $5K refund.” Automatic response “give me a copy of last year’s return and all worksheets, I’ll find the difference in under 10 minutes.” From Schedule C Fraud, to AOTC Fraud, to EITC Fraud, to Schedule A Fraud, I’ll figure it out. I always figure it out, it’s a bunch of American Born C- Slackers looking for fast money as Franchisees or Fresh Off The Boat Immigrant Franchisees who think the rules don’t apply to them just like back home, so they hire lifetime American Born slacker/poor decision making screwups and Immigrants who don’t know any better as Tax Preparers and train em to do garbage. All these idiots leave a trail, always.

• There are over 300 million people in America. Low self esteem can result in racist comments. Diversify your contacts with taxpayers, the majority of them just want to file a return that includes what they can claim.
  I operate within the laws and with competent people.
  Greed is the problem. Excessive greed is what caught up to Mr. Doletsky. Goody, goody.
  Have a nice day.

• Agreed Rodger……”Tax Junkies” were second class citizens at Liberty. It was a badge of honor to say “I don’t even know how to do taxes, I run a marketing business” A vast majority of Liberty preparers cannot even describe how they arrived at the refund in the first place. In many cases, the preparer was too stupid to know that they were committing fraud, the franchisee was too stupid to know that they were committing fraud, the ADs were too stupid to know, half of corporate was too stupid to know. And, of course, the people at the top, who did know, preferred things that way.

• ^^^Not only did they prefer things that way, they were the ones who taught how to de-fraud the tax payer to begin with! Doletsky was taught by Hewitt. Every trainer, franchisee, AD, Corporate personnel were all taught by Hewitt. That’s why HE needs to go to jail. Permanently. Throw away the key. It was also Hewitt that tipped off the IRS when any one of these people went against him, challenged him, threatened him or any number of actions. ^^They weren’t too stupid………they all knew exactly what was happening. No moral compass at all :( The problem is the IRS and DOJ know all about this because he was kicked out of H&R and JH. Going after the little guy is easier??? Well enough is enough! GO AFTER HEWITT and the company has a chance of surviving without him!

  ^^^ I also remember Corey Hughes. What a complete a-hole he is :(:( He’s been promoted? Figures :(:( Hewitt will throw anyone and everyone under the bus to save his own ass, that includes family members. Been there & done that. Being OUT of there has never been more refreshing, despite the stress and setbacks. NO ONE in today’s world should EVER be subjected to such crap from a so-called professional company. Puuleease.

  Still patiently waiting for the day all these news articles will catch up with each other & the world will know what we’ve all known for years: He’s a fraud, a slime bag, scumbag, and will do ANYTHING to save his ass. It’s about time all these lawsuits catch up with him & send him away. The Corporate office is FILLED with Lawyers upon more Lawyers upon more Lawyers. Put him away already!

• Yo Guest,

  Nice troll job. I suggest you chill yourself out.

  A) I’m also a racial minority and first generation born in the US

  B) I’m speaking off observations specifically in the Southern CA Market having worked at multiple Liberties since January 2016.

  C) I’m also speaking from personal experience of observing how the Financial Accounting and Banking Industries target my friends from lower economic backgrounds and from African American and Mexican American backgrounds, and how immigrants who aren’t of professionally educated status make easy victims/prey for Mutlilevel Scams and Franchise Sham operations like Liberty.

  D) My Liberty clients come from all walks of life. I love them all, and would go to bat for them in an audit.

  E) I don’t have low self esteem, I’m angry, frustrated, and exhausted from having to clear my name from any wrong doing as one of the Franchisees I worked for did criminal activity under my name and PTIN.

  There is not a bigoted bone in my body. As I know first hand what it’s like to suffer bodily an emotional harm from racism and bigotry.

  Keep on making assumptions

• I don’t see greed by franchisees being the issue with the tax fraud that has taken place. I do see it being ego in alot of situations and a desire to be well thought of in the Liberty Organization.

  Liberty Corp and John have not been fools. They knew what Steve was teaching could lead to franchisees and preparers committing fraud but they always had someone else to blame while they just raked in the money from Bank products.

  With the vast majority of franchisees just struggling to stay alive one more season and the pressure that comes from having all your income subject to fee intercept its so easy to bend the rules and get yourself in trouble. On top of that preparers that see the rules being bent will go farther and farther subjecting themselves and the franchisee to a ton of trouble when caught.

  The tax business is changing drastically and I believe the model for success is not yet being widely used. The model is not anywhere close to what Liberty teaches since focusing all your efforts on the bottom third of society will do nothing but get you headaches and a possible prison sentence.

  Anyone looking to get into the tax prep industry I would highly suggest to take the classes and get the Enrolled Agent Certification. Then take a look at the market today and utilize technology and common sense to figure out your own business model. Trust me it’s easier than you think and you will have a real opportunity to build a solid business. You don’t need to pay for someone else to give you a system.

  You can still be successful and make money in the Tax Prep business but it will not resemble the tax industry from the past. It will take individuals who can see the desires of the market place and deliver in a manner the market is desiring.

  A far as Corey Hughes is concerned I never heard or was I ever told anything in private or public suggesting tax fraud or questionable business practices by Corey. Corey in my opinion is talented and has a great business mind and not afraid of hard work I question why he has used that at Liberty for all these years instead of seeing what reality is and getting out. Corey is the one Liberty POSTER Child that is still working at Liberty. Becoming a Poster child at Libert has always been a near guarantee death sentence but Corey survived. The reason he survived in my opinion is because he is smart and hasn’t went down the road of the scam to be successful. But that’s my opinion and Corey is not blind and he has to see what the reality of the situation is at Liberty and chooses to ignore it or fool himself that all is great there.