After paying Liberty Tax service over $500 to do my 2009 taxes I found that my taxes had not been filed. After contacting them they pretty much blew it off and refuse to reimburse any of their fees. I recently filed the taxes myself.

I filed my taxes on January 21st. I chose the RAL. At the time I was told the fees would be around $360. High, but around what I normally paid at Jackson Hewitt. I received part of my refund the same day, as promised. However, I was told the rest would come in 8-15 days. It took a month! When it did come, it wasn't what I was expecting. Turns out they charged me $524 in fees!!! When I went into the office to not only pick up my copy of the tax return, but to complain, they said that the fees were $434 PLUS $90 fee for the bank. This was not what I was told at the time! I will NEVER go back. Also, they wouldn't give me a copy of my return until after my refund came. NEVER AGAIN WILL I MAKE THIS MISTAKE!!!

The Manager, Hatel, had me teach the basic tax course for two days, Monday (Jan. 10, 2011) and Tues. (Jan. 11) .
He promised to pay me by the end of the week. He still hasn't paid me for the days I worked. I contacted the NYS Dept. of Labor and filed a complaint, so that
other workers won't be scammed by this company. The manager has repeatedly lied to me about sending my check.
Would you trust these people with your personal information if they repeatedly lie to their employees and dont't pay them the wages they are due!

Never go here to get your taxes done. I have never dealt with a worse company and here's why...I had never done my taxes on my own before and wanted to get some outside professional help. There was a Liberty Tax right near my apartment, so I stepped in and had a few words with the ladies working there. They seemed very friendly and competent so I came back the following week.
I asked for a price upfront she said it would depend on my situation. After completing my taxes she attempted to charge me almost 400 dollars, now keep in mind I did live in two states that year, but I own no property, I'm a recent college grad with no spouse, no kids, and only one source of income. I balked at the price and she cut it in half for me, now that should have been my first warning sign, the fact that they could be so arbitrary with their prices. They sent me home with all my documents and detailed instructions on where and how much to send, unfortunately many of the totals they gave me were incorrect. They failed to communicate that with me even though they realized the mistakes they had made. I came to find that their head quarters had a very different set of numbers than I had. I also found out that they had failed to submit my data to another state I had lived in. Not only that by they had charged me an extra fee after I had made very clear I did not want a particular service.
I became irate and demanded my tax prep fees back. They refused even though I had ample proof that they had done a very poor job. However I did not give up. I called their customer service line every two days and sent countless emails for at least 2 months hoping that someone from Liberty would actual try to deal with my problem instead of ignoring me hoping I would go away. BTW the manager actually refused to give me the customer service line number I had to go look it up when I returned home. They gave me the runaround at every chance they could and even 'lost' my complaint twice. Eventually I did get my money back, but wasted a lot of my time in the process. Please save yourself a headache and do not go to this company.

I just found out the very sad news from this Liberty Tax offices #1 record holding blue eye daughter named Annie Fuller that affter her short 4 season with them, breaking the national record, winning every kind of award and being paraded around to show "this is what you too can do" to prospectives buyers and current franchisees, she is now telling the truth.
The lies they feed are that its great to join them, FINANCE you business and you will earn equity, have new life, better quality and everything will be great. She is the latest in a line of seemingly successful Liberty Franchisees who have suddenly disappeared.
Although Ms Fuller is by far the most outrageous, greatest marketing queen and most generous giving person I have ever had the privilage of meeting, she too now is being kicked to the curb. John Hewitt has used her up, and when they made some mistakes, she turned to them for support, none was to be had. when she questioned their financing practices as they alledgedly took far more than they should have from her revenue, they started finding fault with her, and now finally have offered her peanuts to move on.. I will not reveal what, but this girl is amazing, thousands of liberty stores have increased revenue 10 fold from her help, she was rarely compensated for this but still gave it freely. Liberty tax and John Hewitt should wake up. I AM a current zee, I WAS going to expand this year, I NOW am more concerned about figuring a way out of debt and out from under the dictatorship of this corporation. An intersting question to ask Liberty when considering Buying or expanding is this :what percentage of franchisees who are established 2-3 years or more do over 300 tax returns per year (average fee is $200 or less btw)? The answer is less than 20%, See if they are truthful with you.
I would highly advise anyone to get into the business, NOT with Liberty and even if you are swayed by their dog and pony show, do NOT sign up for their 12% financing.
Once you start, you will not make enough to pay it off, and then they'll loan you more until you're too far upside down to ever get out.
Annie Fuller who is the exception and made plenty of money, owes less than half the value of her stores and they are forcing her to take a deal or let her stores die. They have all but told her they will block her selling her stores unless she gives THEM the money and then they decide how much profit she should get. Contact her to get her side and hear the REAL truth.. She is the epitamy of perfection with marketing, a franchisee we all strived to be like. she DID follow the system and this is how she was treated.. I'm selling too Miss Annie, I hope you read this and others DO learn the truth from you and open their eyes too!
God Blees you, and thanks for all you have done, keep positive as you always tell us. It will work out!
scared zee
When the #1 Record holding franchisee cant make it what hope is there for the rest of us?