LIBERTY TAX SERVICE Franchise Complaints

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

• The fact is the University of ISCREWU is utilizing the hard earned dollars of a new zee to grow SCREWITTS business. GUARANTEED if Liberty offices were profitable SCREWYOU would be kicking every franchisee to the curb ASAP. There are a few token “winners” because SCREWU needs the drones to sell his SCAM. HEWITT says that he loves zees because they work the hardest, blah blah blah….. the fact is he wants you to take ALL the risk and then when you are broken he flips your office to another zee that is still stroking his ego. Do you think Henry and Richard Bloch franchised for a reason…to speed up the growth. Then eventually when the cash was flowing they bought majority of large and small franchisees out in most of the major metro areas that had high numbers of returns. Those zees made a killing especially those Texans and most of the preparers and managers etc. made a great career. The difference…SCREWYOU is no where near the caliber of a human being as the Blochs! SCREWYOU is a fool, he had an opportunity to really compete and brought in good people and grew both JH and Liberty quickly. The problem for SCREWHIM is greed and that the industry has changed, no RALs, debt indicator, FREE PLACES EVERYWHERE….etc. etc.. and his greed has caught up to him. Most importantly the internet has created the ability to learn about his tactics and the ability for people to communicate on this forum and others to get the word out about his “business” savvy. SCREWYOU will never be as big as Block, because he is a horrible CEO and he churns and burns majority of the corporate staff and franchisees. There is one thing that Hewitt could do this Christmas, get on his knees and pray for forgiveness. This and only this will allow him to grow his business to become the number one tax prep company in the universe if not slowly will this company fail, a little less growth this year, next year and the next. IMHO. God Bless you John and have a Merry Christmas!

• excellent point Greg.

  I appreciate your response. I can only speak from my experience and I have NEVER had an office not do at least 300 returns even in first year or any year for that matter. If you are only doing 300 returns except for the busiest 2 or 3 weeks you should NEVER have over 1 person in office PERIOD. You shoudl cut your hours accordingly and go into survive mode. My office that only does 550 returns now did about 360 (only about 325 paid) my first year there so I have some experience with this.

  My rent at this spot is only 1500 so that helps rent at my top spot is 2400 so again I jsut used 2k numbers will be slightly diff for each office. I definitely realize it is not all rosy and if the 325 paid office woudl have been my first or only office that first year I might have hung it up. I basically broke even that year with this office. I think i figured it up and made aroudn 2.5k profit not counting any of my time I spent with it (which wasn’t much that office is my eveil stepchild and I basically just let it go at least that year I did)

  adding to this, if you follow Liberty exactly you would blow twice as much payroll as my numbers above and would also blow 10k more in marketing etc.

  I have not looked at what the avg Liberty store does, honestly it takes a min of 500 returns to make any meaningful profit at this, so if the avg store does less than that, then yes I agree with you that the majority of zees are either losing or only making peanuts for all the effort they put into it.

  But some of the mess on here is just silly, people claiming to have lost 100k operating every year not counting any startup franchisee fee etc. Pardon me but how the **** can they do this. Even my top producing office comes in close to 100k in expenses every year and it grosses 160k or so.

  Liberty has alot of good things about it and alot of bad also, but I have no problem making decent money with this by anyones standards I would assume. So it definitely can be done. I am merely trying to give some advice on the other end of the coin and like you am only trying to help people out. If they are struggling, then cut costs to the bone. If they still cannot do a min of 300 paid returns (and I just don’t see how this is even possible to not do 300 paid returns with a decent location and proper techniques) then yes they will fail and need to exit out ASAP. 300-500 range they will just float along but should definitely NOT be losing any money in this range and the closer they get to 500 the more actual profit they should recognize.

  Any office that does 500+ paid returns should be making enough money to justify its existence or again you must be doing things wrong
  JMHO.

  good luck guys!

• Ed – It is very easy to loose $40K – $100K a year when you have other Zees hogging the area and not enough “first” peak people to pool from. Multiple locations and just ask my cpa about all the money that owed back. Some people have cash to play with LTS without loans. But if the areas is ruined by crappy zees, then the ones coming in behind will be lower and lower.

  LTS will sell a territory based on 29,000 people (not marketing units). So if you have an area of 29,000 people (maybe depending if their are large families in at area, your marketing unit could actually be 10,000 or less). Also they will sell territories where there are only businesses and actually very limited living areas.

  LTS sells as one size fits all and we all know how that does not work!

  Ed do you have any loans with LTS or do you just self fund?

• Ed & John: You both acknowledge the difficulty of starting a tax business and the need to have sufficient knowledge to succeed in this business. Ed you also talked about how you have been successful not because of Liberty but in spite of Liberty tax service.

  As financial professionals – how would you advise your client if they came to you and asked about investing in a Liberty Tax franchise vs, going out on their own? Lets presume they have tax preparation experience and are competent at preparing most 1040 returns. Before you answer I would like to present some facts:

  1) Liberty in its financial statements admits that after 15 years in the tax prep industry has 2% share of the retail market behind H&R Block at 20% and Jackson Hewitt at 3%

  2) The company has limited branding and has no national advertising campaign

  3) Franchise fee is $40,000.00

  4) Minimum franchisee fees of $8,000 the first year and $11,000.00 each year after

  Please explain your response and support it with facts vs. opinion

  Thank you,

• GOING OUT ON YOUR OWN IS REALLY THE O-N-L-Y WAY TO GO. I HAD PLENTY OF TAX EXPERIENCE AND WENT WITH THE FRANCHISE AS A SURE THING. HAD I NOT DOUBTED MYSELF I WOULD HAVE BEEN RAKING IN THE MONEY INSTEAD OF HAVING IT ALL STOLEN FROM BENEATH MY EYES.

  I NEVER TOOK ANY LOANS OUT WITH LTS, THANK GOODNESS, BUT DID TAKE OUT A SECOND MORTGAGE ON THE HOUSE THAT I’M STILL PAYING OFF TODAY DESPITE THE FACT THAT I HAVEN’T BEEN WITH THEM FOR SEVERAL YEARS AND I MADE PLENTY OF MONEY AS A ZEE.

  AFTER PAYING THE RENTS, WAGES, ETC. THERE IS NOT ENOUGH TO LIVE ON AND PAY BACK LOANS.

  THE WORST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE- SIGNING ON TO BE AN LTS ZEE

  THE BEST MOVE OF MY LIFE-GETTING OUT OF THAT HELLHOLE AFTER THE 5 YEAR CONTRACT EXPIRED AND GETTING OUT OF THE TAX BUSINESS ALTOGETHER.

• SanFran,

  Thanks for the advice. I am sure people will read your post an take the advice of a failed business woman. Why do you even waste your time really?

• ^^Failed? Ha, ha, ha,ha, ha, ha!

  I failed only in the sense that I made a snap judgement about LTS being a normal franchise that SUPPORTED their franchisees. Nothing could be farther from the truth. They took money and then took some more and gave back nothing in return. NOTHING. I was quite successful ON MY OWN by Liberty’s standards. Multiple offices. AND I COULDN’T WAIT TO GET THE HELL OUT FAST ENOUGH.

  As a CPA, I find it hilarious that you are scraping the bottom of the barrel by being involved with this franchise. It takes all types, I guess!

  The bottom LINE is: YOU DO NOT NEED TO WASTE YOUR MONEY TO JOIN LIBERTY TAX SERVICE. YOU CAN DO IT ON YOUR OWN. THEY OFFER NOTHING EXCEPT ROBBERY AND LIES AND HEADACHES. THEY HAVE PERFECTED THE SYSTEM OF RIPPING PEOPLE OFF LEFT AND RIGHT.

• San Fran,

  How many offices were there before you joined Liberty? How many were there when you left? I assume way more. Basically, more and more have continued to succeed and add offices and you failed. I am proud to be a CPA and own a Liberty Tax Service business with 4 offices. Using CAPS just makes you seem more nutty than we already know you are .

• THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR KIND WORDS, JOHN HITLER HEWITT.

  IF ALL CAPS BOTHERS YOU, THEN I WILL CONTINUE TO USE THEM! :) AND THANK YOU FOR CALLING ME NUTTY! I TAKE THAT AS A COMPLIMENT COMING FROM YOU. SEE YOU NEED TO DEFEND YOURSELF FROM YOURSELF TOO.

  YAY FOR YOU TO BE A PROUD CPA FRANCHISEE. LET’S HAVE A POLL TO SEE HOW MANY H-A-P-P-Y FRANCHISEES OF LIBERTY TAX THERE ARE. WAAAAAY MORE UNHAPPY FRANCHISEES THAN HAPPY. NOT EVEN CLOSE.

  LIBERTY TAX HAVING LOTS OF OFFICES AROUND THE COUNTRY MEANS NOTHING. I DON’T GIVE A RAT’S ASS HOW MANY OFFICES THERE ARE. HOW MANY ARE HAPPY? HOW MANY ARE SUCCESSFUL? HOW MANY ARE GETTING SUPPORT FROM CORPORATE? HOW MANY ARE MAKING A PROFIT? HOW MANY ARE GETTING RIPPED OFF BY THE HEAD MORON?

  GO AHEAD, MR. BARILLA: YOU CONTINUE TO BE A PROUD LIBERTY TAX FRANCHISEE FOR LIFE LINING THE POCKETS OF EVERYONE ELSE. THE VAST MAJORITY OF US ALREADY GOT OUT OR EVEN BETTER, NEVER SIGNED ON. GOOD LUCK TO YOU. MY LIFE IS 1 MILLION TIMES BETTER BY NOT BEING ASSOCIATED WITH THIS FRANCHISE ANY LONGER.

  YOU CAN CALL ME A “FAILURE” ALL YOU WANT. THAT’S YOUR NAME FOR ANYONE ON HERE THAT CHALLENGES YOU. I’M ACTUALLY NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING A FAILURE. I RECOGNIZED VERY EARLY ON THAT THE FRANCHISE WAS A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY AND A HUGE RIPOFF. AND GOT THE HELL OUT. TOO BAD I HAD TO WASTE 5 YEARS WITH THEM. THEY ARE SO NOT WORTH IT.

• Liberty is a losing franchise. You can see it in the way the franchisees conduct themselves. You can see it in the number of complaints on this board. You can see that it takes an awful lot of tax returns to break even, let alone turn a profit. There are a great many facts that support how shady this franchise is. We have provided numbers that are conservative, that show how terrible a franchise this is. There is little training, no advertising and no support from the Liberty Franchisor. Some of the pro liberty people that post here are just corporate dweebs trying to spin the Liberty franchise system into some thing positive, which it is not. I love how some of these people call others losers when they are not forthcoming with their suggestions or methods on how to improve the system. There are very few facts that support this system as a way to make money. With Liberty Tax Failure is an option, the only option. Caveat Emptor!

• John Barilla – Are you financed with LTS or is all your franchises’ paid off? LTS considers a successful franchisee when they have large numbers, never mind the pesky loans that all the top gun zees have with LTS. At 12% interest.

  Remember, if you need to borrow to balance the books at the end of tax season, you ain’t a successful business in the real world. LTS has to finance their own, because you can’t get loans on a regular basis with the SBA and a bank.

  Having a load of loans does not make you successful. A lot of zees have multiple jobs to have to live off of, where all they do is run on a hamster wheel getting no where. They waste their time, talent and treasure just to pay off the interest. Top guns, most have tons of money in debt with LTS and they are John’s favorite people at his beach house. Why wouldn’t they be invited. They are paying the mortgage on the home. What a bunch of dumb arses!

• Franchizee,

  I am a CPA and I think I know how to calculate net income. My first territory i put $13k down, financed the franchise fee and got $25k working capital from corporate. By 3rd year i had paid off all debt to corporate. Since I am profitable now I am able to get working capital loans for December and January and pay it all off by March at 6% from normal banks. Not a big deal. Having to borrow money because of short term cash flow issues because of the seasonality of the business does not mean I am not successful.

  Yes 12% interest is high but try going to go to a bank and borrow for a business you have not even started and see how they laugh at you., especially ,lwhen I started. At least corporate can finance people that need it and needed it during the Great Recession. Would you rather they not do any loans for anyone?

  Again, if I had to do all over again I would still go with Liberty Tax and not on my own again.

  Starting from scratch as an independent, even as a CPA, takes many many years, more than the 3-4 it takes with Liberty to be successful. The only other option would have been to buy an existing CPA firm at 120% of revenues. That is also very risky as many of the clients had a personal relationship with previous CPA and there is no guarantee you can retain them as your client. You could be paying for nothing. I almost went that route but decided to go the franchise route. At Liberty Tax, customers are not as loyal to their preparer but more loyal to the brand. It helps to keep the same prepares but it is not the end of the world if you have turnover.

• Loyal to the Brand? I had to comment after I stopped laughing! If Liberty has a loyal brand following, how come it has still only 2% of the tax preparation market? Jbarilla, if you are such a smart CPA, don’t you realize the trade off to build your own clientele as opposed to Liberty’s lack of brand recognition for which you pay them 20% of your gross fees? Do the math, 20% taken away each year vs a modest 5% growth in your practice annually seems to me that you are far better growing your practice than being in bed with a bunch of clowns. Even Screwitt has said that there are least 30% of potential customers that are mad at their tax preparation and are looking for other preparers. That also includes Liberty customers. Think about it.

• JB: If your borrowing working capital to cover ordinary business expenses for November and December how profitable can you be? it sounds like your not generating enough cash flow to meet your personal obligations and cover all of the expenses for the business. As a CPA you understand that cash flow statement is the most important statement for any small business.

  Ed: Thank you for your candor, it sounds like you have build a successful tax practice in spite of Liberty. As Texas Tee points out it would be nice to keep that extra 19% that you pay to Liberty. We are going to keep working hard at putting out the truth about this company.

  Buyer Beware!

• FACT:

  Just wanted to remind everyone the original posters of this board was John Hewitt’s OWN FAMILY.

  Happy Holidays

• More research will show that informed buyers of CPA or tax firms don’t pay the 120% of revenue. The 120% is the start of bargaining. Acquisition is probably the best way to increase a practice even if you have a franchise store. I agree if you have to borrow for operating capital, the profit is low, but a bank line of credit makes sense. Advice: if you can still get a bank line of credit, get it now and stay current because the 12% interest is a burden. If you expect to have money in the bank after tax season, get the line of credit then. The 12% interest is a burden. The interest kills your cash flow and decreases the value of your stores.

• @ John – You seem to be doing well, but the problem with building a LTS business, is the clients are theirs not yours! You are just working for the “man” and if he decides he does not like you, off with your territory.

  That is the problem with LTS, John loves to tells everyone how they are building their own business, but just ask some people on this board how LTS went after them for with a vengeance once they left.

  LTS is a stepping stone for a better practice, not the means to an end.

• Guest3: As a franchisee I don’t see the point of acquiring another tax practice unless you can keep the revenue separate from Liberty tax.

• The difference between LTS and CPA and independent’s are LTS has customers and everyone else has clients. Clients are usually loyale and customers are like f@rt’s in a windstorm. They are swayed any which way.

• ^^Franchizee:

  Excellent posts. I also had to laugh at Mr. Barilla’s comments about “customers” not being loyal to the preparer but to the brand name. That’s the biggest crock of shit I’ve ever heard. I worked there when Liberty wasn’t even a brand name, much like today. My “customers” and I agree with Franchizee, they were clients, came to ME, not to Liberty Tax. They couldn’t care less what the name on the storefront said. I treated them very well & very fairly and they came back to ME each year. And referred friends and family. The biggest bitch of all was that they were not mine, they were HIS. That’s exactly why I had to get out of that place. Mr. Barilla: Those clients will NEVER be yours. If you are okay with paying a ton of money each year to clients that are NOT yours, and NEVER will be, then yay for you. JTH LIVES and breathes for franchisees just like you.

• Hi Trisha!

  Gee, why does it not surprise me at all that some of the original posters were Hewitt’s own family?? Not at all surprised. He treats them like dirt and treats frranchisees way worse.

  Buyers: Stay away!!

• to answer, I generally do not borrow any money from Liberty. I used a home equity line to finance my first and second virgin territory purchases. All other purchases were financed through the exiting zee. If you are just getting into this, you should not buy all the bells and whistles. I purchased all my furnture from state surplus. ($20-$25 for desks $10 for chairs)

  Buy cheap computers off ebay etc. All in all even with your $2500 channel letter sign start up costs should not be over 10k (not counting the franchisee fee of course)

  I usually do finance cash in flash especially with the late payouts this year and last. I perhaps could make it w/out it, but just no need in trying to.

  I would think knowing now what I know, I could do clsoe to just as good with Liberty as wout when you factor in I would have more income to work with by not paying roy/adv.

  But with that said, at least where I’m at, Liberty has a pretty good brand recognition/awareness believe it or not and I honeslt feel at least 1 out of 5 customers come into my place just because I am a Liberty Tax. As long as I can say that, I don’t mind paying the 20% roy/adv.

  To add a little fuel to you guys fire though, I have been with the system approx 7 years now and the amount of zee churning I have seen is really alot. However, I feel now like we have a fairly strong core group in place with the bigger 5-6 zees in my DMA owning multiple locations with a several single store operators new into the system every year.

  Honeslty, I hate Liberty sometimes and think they could do alot better, but without a doubt I am much better off today because of them than had I tried it on my own or never became a franchisee. If I am the exception, I don’t know, but again just trying to be honest and I suspect the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

  They certainally are not the failure this board paints them out to be. If that were the case at some point in time it would have caught up to them by now and they would vanish like curves has or other franchisees. IMO they are the best franchisee to get into if you are looking at tax prep industry. HRBLOCK may be better, but they have 30% royalties and have no virgin or “cheap” territories open. It will generally cost you around $500k-1 million to get involved with HRblock franchisee and quite honestly most people cannot pay this. Jackson Hewitt is a train wreck IMO and everything Liberty does bad Jackson Hewitt does worse.

  This is a valid business option for someone to consider. Will they succeed or fail? Alot of that depends on the person. For that matter will they succeed or fail at any business.

• Ed – Thanks for your candid experience. I like what you stated “virgin territory”. You may be in a state that has millions of people and no other zee has raped and pillaged a whole city or county prior to buying in. Some of us pay a higher cost for a “virgin territory” only to find out that a zee 20 or 30 miles away has wasted it and has been advertising in it prior to one coming in and paying the $40K to start.

  Once you come in, its a miracle, their advertising is everywhere. People call wondering if you are their office and can you fax or transfer your call to their office. So these people live 2 miles or less and they are already LTS customers, but are loyal to the people who came in years before and destroyed the area. Or better yet, they as a franchisee messed up so many tax returns in their early years, you are branded a terrible crappy tax prep service, they don’t even give you a time of day.

  Lucky for you, that is not your case. It happens to a lot of zees who are told they are buying a territory that has not been advertised in nor been used and abused. Unfortunately, I and a bunch others in different areas were not so lucky. So yes there are bad situations with LTS and it is real.

  As the old saying goes, “just because you have not seen a million dollars, does not mean it does not exist.” It does exist and LTS is really a bad investment, if there are prior zees in a small area where it has been used and abused. Over marketed prior to buying a “virgin territory”.

• For people looking a LTS, remember, you pay the same amount for a “virgin territory” as one that has never had an office and been used and abused by zees nearby. One would not know if a territory has been used and abused until it is too late into a tax season!

• Ed: your post is very insightful, “I feel now like we have a fairly strong core group in place with the bigger 5-6 zees in my DMA owning multiple locations with a several single store operators new into the system every year.” it shows how the system works. The new franchisees are there for exploitation. Let them spend their money to help build up the brand, finance them at 18%, require a minimum franchise fee of 8,000 the first year, 11,000 the second and subsequent years. After struggling for 4 or 5 years Liberty gets the store back and sells t to the bigger zees in the territory. Its all about economy of scale and is what John means when he talks about filling in in territories.

• @Bill – yup that is what many of us have bought into, that same scenario. The larger zees in the area first get the first borns and the rest get the evil step children.

  It seems this is a pyramid business. The first zees capitalize on the low income people and set them up so they can’t take their business anywhere because no one would give them EIC without getting a fine from the IRS. The zee is not big enough to suck up 10 – 15% fraud without being caught.

  The other zees are there to spread the brand and pay huge percentage of their income to John and the AD to have the pleasure of going broke, because it is their duty.

  Ed and John Barilla needs to come to my area and see how successful they will be, maybe they need a loss just to balance their books. They can also fight against several large zees for their fraud business.

• Franchizee/Bill/Mike/SanFran (All the same idiot posting with different Aliases),

  You do have some very delusional thoughts. You think everyone is out to get you don’t you? Liberty Tax is a good franchisor. Tax prep business is as good as ever and just getting better every day. I really recommend this business to anyone out there considering this franchise. You will work hard for 3 months, and make enough money to where you won’t have to work for the next 9 months. Don’t listne to the losers on here, there are losers everyone where and they would have failed at anything they would have done.

• ^^^Good lord. What an ass. Those three stooges keep posting. Maybe you should take spelling lessons with your free time instead of posting here.

• Testa – Everytime you type, you prove to anyone looking at Liberty just what a bunch of goons you all are. You turn more people away than all of us put together. You tell us what happened to us, is a lie.

  Really? Really? You hurt the brand more, because you deny anything could go wrong with the John Screwitt system.

  The first full week with LTS, someone was helping us with computers and the biggest thing Screwitt tries to hide from everyone is the huge number of failed stores in the LTS system. It is almost like the evil step children that don’t exist. Of course Screwitt had kept the internet scrubbed clean back when I first signed on. It was a good run.

  They exist and the failure is Screwitt trying to make a one size fits all system. Open 12 hours days, where some areas nothing happens for days or weeks.

  Of course, Screwitt’s system is flawed or he would not have his goons out to shoot down anyone who states otherwise. The three goons or loons obviously are clueless or they write enough fraud business to pay for the full year of bills.

  Or they are the failed zees in home office who live off the advertising royalties to post online every week to keep their job, because the money surely does not make it to local offices.

• Sorry for the typos. I type really fast and don’t review because every second spent on this website is a wasted second of my life, so would like to keep that at a minimum. Is that the best you got, that I have typos?

• ^^Yeah, I agree. Every second of your life is a waste. Especially with Liberty Tax Service. So, bye, bye! :)

• Yes every second of my life responding to your psychotic postings is waste…. so bye bye too….

• Franchizee: your comment “Or they are the failed zees in home office who live off the advertising royalties to post online every week to keep their job, because the money surely does not make it to local offices” is so true. When I first went to explore the franchise down in Virginia they took us to see two Liberty tax offices in the Virginia Beach area. Of course they were very nice locations and the franchisee for the large of the two stores was available to talk to us. She explained how many returns they were doing, showed us the back office and explain how the back office worked etc. Two years later I see her on the traveling show, she no longer had her store and was working for the company.

• So many of the dog and pony shows in home office are by failed zees. I suspect they are paying off their huge loans (manufacture by Screwitt himself). Once they pay off the loans, they either leave or they become a “vice president” of some dept.

• ^^^testicle pirate:

  Who the hell needs you to respond to us? You’ve already said it’s a waste of time. I agreed. So, why do you continue to post? You must be Hewitt. Testicle pirate Hewitt, Qctibs Hewitt, John T Barilla Hewitt, Guest 1974 Hewitt………nothing else but wasting their precious life on a website geared toward UNHAPPY FRANCHISEES.

  Making sure that the general public, especially those interested in owning a Liberty Tax Service franchise know how WONDERFUL the company is. Yes, four of the brightest and the best franchisees are posting here just how wonderful everything is.

  Too bad there are thousands of others who have been unhappy, ripped off, robbed, and taken full advantage of. No, of course THAT would NEVER happen, right??? How about we all have proof that it happens? Constantly!

  Four career franchisees. Just what John T Hewitt wants! More of the same! We sane people got the hell out or better yet, never joined in the first place. It is a huge rip-off and a huge waste of our precious money. Never again.

  Buyers beware. Better to back away and save your money than to join in and lose thousands upon thousands. After 5 years you walk away with nothing. The clients are not yours. It is not your company. THEY like you to think it’s your company, but it’s not. Rules, regulations, notices to cure, on and on and on. The company stinks and the corporate office stinks even more. It really is so not worth it.

• So, who’s been sued lately by LTS? They still seem to fill the VA court with any lawsuit they can make up against franchisees! That alone should scare anyone off from this organization.

  Something else to ponder: If they are the fastest growing franchise, how come it is only with already trapped Zees? No new people coming in.

  A late tax season this year will spell disaster for Liberty in that their infamous software will do its usual meltdown. No support there either.

  Royalties don’t stop when the IRS is late. Nor do expenses. Manning the store in the first 3 weeks of January is silly and expensive. Your employees will be doing a lot of web surfing. They get paid, you don’t!

  Someone is starting to notice the horrible practices of Liberty. The bad training, the fraudulent returns, the high expense and the profiling of a ‘target’ market.

  Think about it, is this a company you want to be associated with?

• Good one TexasTee.

• John Hewitt promotes this company as being Franchise friendly. Why don’t check with any of the current Zees and find out if he sent out any electronic or paper Christmas Cards or Holiday Greetings. Instead as usual Liberty HQ sent out their daily communications emails with things for Zees to be doing. There was not a mention if Merry Christmas.

  Since Liberty does not do any national brand advertising, don’t expect people to flock to your location. Guerilla marketing works very limited at a local level especially when you consider the first peak is extremely short.

  Be wise and steer as far away from this company as possible. Liberty’s numbers and business model are flawed.

• Your right NCHillBilly – Nothing from anyone at HQ saying Happy Holidays or anything else, just a laundry list of to do list to keep you busy from noticing you are totally broke and going more broke every passing day.

  Funny, you send them 20 or 30 percent of your hard earned dollars and they only take, take and take. Nothing in return!

• ^^^^Amen to all of you! They are nothing but money grubbing leachers.

  I joked around about a year ago stating I’d love to see Hewitt on that show “Undercover Boss”. He has NO empathy, no morals, no values and he would appear on that show and have it cancelled. He is just that terrible.

  I sincerely hope that one day soon he faces some of the same crap he’s given out to so many for so many years. Hopefully the IRS and SEC will see that his money (that we paid to him) cannot keep buying him out of things.

  He is rude, crude and NOT a leader at all. Not a nice bone in that body. He makes more money on people who give up and leave the franchise, so he can resell the same territory for thousands more than he did the first time.

  Buyers, stay away. New franchisees: I feel sorry for you guys. Try to make the best of a difficult situation. Think of your best exit stratedgy that minimizes your dollars lost. Good luck.

• Obamacare Will Be a Boon for Paid Tax Preparers
  By Mark Lin | More Articles | Save For Later
  December 28, 2013 | Comments (0)

  TAXJTH Holding
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  Obamacare, introduced with the aim of providing quality affordable health care, will add significantly to the population of new tax filers and increase the complexity of tax filing. As a result, tax-preparation service providers such as H&R Block (NYSE: HRB ) and JTH Holding (NASDAQ: TAX ) are expected to be key beneficiaries. In contrast, the impact on tax preparation software company Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU ) is less certain.

  Reform driving the need for paid tax preparation
  Two key tax-related implications of the Affordable Tax Act are the advanced tax credit and the tax penalty. Firstly, the government is providing the lower income population with advanced tax credits for their health insurance coverage needs. In return, a beneficiary is bound by law to file a 2014 tax return in 2015. Secondly, a person who neither meets the government’s baseline health coverage requirement nor is exempt will incur a tax penalty when they file a tax return in 2015.

  Without going further into the nitty-gritty details of the tax act, it is obvious that more first-time tax filers will come on board in 2015. Also, more people will require assistance to file their tax returns, given the complexity of calculations and the likelihood of new IRS documentation.

  Online and offline marketing efforts
  Most people are naturally confused about what the Affordable Care Act means to them, along with the potential tax implications. In today’s world, it is typical to simply search for answers on the Internet before even speaking to family or friends. JTH has introduced its own web portal complete with commonly asked questions and a tax subsidy calculator. The website address (http://www.health caretaxinfo.com/) makes it easy for potential clients to knock on its doors from a search engine optimization, or SEO, angle. Although the website address of the portal is titled in a generic manner, ‘helpful’ links to JTH’s Liberty Tax Service are displayed prominently on the site.

  Of course, not everyone is Internet-savvy and some will still prefer to meet face-to-face to discuss their tax issues. Consequently, JTH has also organized seminars for individuals and small business owners to educate them. According to JTH’s recent poll of 800 clients, about 25% of them are without health insurance coverage, which is a clear indicator of the potential demand for its services. JTH’s online and offline marketing efforts should put the company in a good position to seize the associated growth opportunities.

  Size and brand advantages
  Similarly to JTH, H&R Block has gone all-out to reach out to its current and potential customers through a health micro-site, digital ads, and focus groups. However, H&R Block has a slight edge over JTH for two reasons.

  Firstly, H&R Block has a larger base of clients than JTH; it is the largest tax preparer in the U.S. while JTH is third. Since it is easier to sell new services to existing clients, H&R Block has an edge in churning out incremental revenue opportunities from this entire exercise. H&R Block is fully capitalizing on that by sending each of its clients a customized health report based on the tax information they submitted. This report will allow its clients to determine their eligibility for advanced tax credits and other government assistance programs, and estimate insurance premium costs and potential tax penalties.

  Secondly, the specialized and customized nature of tax filing services suggests that people will feel safe leaving their tax filing needs in the hands of a trusted retail brand like H&R Block. This situation favors the incumbent, H&R Block, which has the most recognizable brand in the space.

  Choosing between DIY software and outside tax preparers
  Intuit has updated its TurboTax software for the most recent changes resulting from the Affordable Care Act. It also set up a portal titled TurboTax AnswerXchange, which boasts a list of more than 700,000 frequently asked questions, or FAQs, relating to the Affordable Care Act. By answering a series of simple guided questions, users of the portal are also able to find out if they are required to be insured, and if yes, what the approximate cost will be.

  While I don’t deny that all this is very helpful, Intuit may not be able to capitalize on the increased tax-filing needs that result from the Affordable Care Act to the same degree as its tax-preparer peers. New tax filers are unlikely to commit time and effort to learning a new tax preparation program such as TurboTax.

  Even for seasoned tax filers faced with new IRS forms and difficult calculations, there will still be a steep learning curve for new features or modules to tackle the new filing requirements. In fact, there is likely to be a shift in market share from do-it-yourself tax filing to paid tax preparation services, to the dismay of Intuit.

  Conclusion
  JTH estimates that there will be an increase of between 1.5 million to 2 million tax filers this year as a result of the Affordable Tax Act, which suggests that future growth prospects look very promising. Unfortunately, the positives have been largely factored into the stock prices of both JTH and H&R Block, as they trade at the high end of their 52-week trading range. Investors will be rewarded for their patience if they wait for better entry prices.

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• I’m glad to see testicle pirate can cut and paste from Motley Fool. He even included the advertisements.

  Do any Zee’s honestly have the confidence in LTS tax software to actually account for the provisions of Obamacare? Judging from past experience, I would think not! Also, the article did point out that the confidence level in HR Block would be higher for handling the complexities of this law. When I read the article on the website, the analysts felt that this would be a bigger factor for HR Block since they are the leader in the tax prep business. Remember #1 HR Block has the lion’s share of the market while #2 Jackson Hewiit has significantly less and #3, LTS still has less than Jackson. Something else to think about.

• ^^I’m totally ignoring any post from any of those 4 stooges. They need to get a reality check.

  Let’s see……4 happy franchisees………thousands miserable. You do the math.

• Did Testa know it is against the law to cut and paste and not get approval from anyone taking an article. Had he taken any CE classes for ethics and law, he would know that. Dumb Arse.

  Anyways, Screwitt has been wrong so many times before. This “manufactured” crisis will not last long and there is really nothing happening this tax season. It will be next tax season, only if the whole bill is not repealed by Obummer himself so he can win the off cycle election.

  There is nothing going on, but a form here or there that will serve a purpose until it like EITC form that anyone with a 3rd grade education can figure out or better yet, Tax course/school has taken away from LTS more than anyone else ever could have but that of course is one of John’s top tens for a successful LTS business.

  I swear, Screwitt must be on dope not to know that times are marching on and he is still stuck in the 1990s and early 2000s. His model is dying and he is grasping at anything to make it work. It will be interesting to see how many zees leave by early Jan 2014 before tax season.

  I can attest, after looking at the lastest renewal contract with LTS, there is a reason that only “53” new territories were sold. You would have to be on crack to ever sign that contract. He treats you like an evil stepchild, and what’s better, I would be paying him for “legally” abusing me! He can’t sell new territories with that hunk of junk.

  The only people signing that new renewal contract, are the indenture servants via “manufactured” debt creative by Screwitt himself.

• The growth here is not in the tax returns but in the insurance. More tax offices will become combined tax-insurance locations. It will make sense and probably be useful for about two or three years. It’s not that difficult to get an insurance license. Tax-insurance offices will have income all year. Block and JTH have to figure it out since no royalty on insurance sales.

• Which insurance license are you talking about – Life, Health, Property and Casualty? All insurance is highly regulated via the states and SEC. It is not an easy profession and the CE is very demanding. Plus in insurance you have minimums to write business to keep contracts.

  They go together but not necessarily easily. Taxes are much easier than insurance.

• Taxes are easier because it’s less regulated. Licenses are separate for life, health, P&C. CE credits can be completed with webinars. I have already been called by at least 2 local insurance offices about working together on the health insurance. Agent can’t pay me for referrals but she can pay me if I am a licensed insurance agent.

• Guest 2. How much will she pay you?

• @guest 2 – That is correct, no one can have money from referral’s if they are not insurance agents. With insurance it is a crap shoot. Sending people does not necessarily result into a policy or a policy that stays on the books.

  Someone who does not have an insurance license, taking the test is not an easy task, because only about 20% ever pass. Not getting in trouble with the division of insurance is going to be hard for some tax preparer who have not had to follow any instruction or laws. Easiest way for unethical people to be caught is to be an insurance agent.

• guest 2 – With regard to the Affordable Care Act, the IRS requires that you get the client’s consent before you use their tax information to solicit them about insurance products.