Liberty Tax

Review: In 2013 we had Liberty Tax do our taxes. Due to my husband losing his job; we cashed out his retirement and wanted a REPUTABLE company to do the taxes so we did not have any problems. THREE YEARS LATER;we get a letter from the company who does local taxes for our area and was informed that we owed $444.76 in back taxes because the person who did our taxes did not take out LOCAL TAX from the retirement funds. When I took this info to the business; I was told that they would only pay the interest WE were responsible for the remaining balance!!! This is unfair as it was not OUR fault that the person who did our taxes was not up to date with the tax law and made the error. I feel that if the business does not want to pay the amount that the person who signed our return as the prepare r should have to pay!! We are a single income family, my husband is disabled and filing for Social Security. This bill puts a HUGE crush on our household budget!! When I called the franchise headquarters; I was told that the owners of the business are responsible and the headquarters has nothing to do with it. Like the IRS...they answer to NOBODY!Desired Settlement: I would like Liberty Tax to pay the tax bill that their employee erred on. I would like to be sure that this woman does not work for a tax company (this one or any other) again. She has cost this business money and customers. Everyone I know and everyone THEY know will never again use Liberty Tax for their taxes!!

Business

Response:

I have reviewed [redacted] complaint to the Revdex.com and I have the following response: My office is aware of the mistake that was made on [redacted] return. It is our policy to pay out any and all interest and penalties that are associated with our mistake, and a check for this amount has been paid to [redacted]. However, we are not responsible for the tax that [redacted] and her husband owe on their return, and we cannot pay that tax for them. The preparer that made the mistake on [redacted] return has been retrained to prepare this type of return correctly.

Consumer

Response:

Attended one day of tax class, did not want to continue. I was promised a refund and was ignored for weeks.I began the Tax Class in September 2013 with a first payment of $50 in cash. After attending just one class I realized I would not be able to finish paying for the class. I informed [redacted], liberty tax employee, that I could no longer attend the class and would like my $50 refunded. [redacted] promised that I would get my money back but to call her the next week because they didn't have the money at the office. I called back, like she said, and was told she was unavailable and she would call me back, she never did. I called multiple times and every time was told the same thing with no call back. I went to the Liberty Tax office and was told she was unavailable again and that she would call back, AGAIN, she never did. I sent them a letter stating that if they did not refund my money I would file a complaint against that office, and now I am.Desired SettlementAll I am asking for is my $50 to be refunded to me, nothing more.Business Response We apologize for any inconvenience caused to Mr. [redacted].Client has been contacted directly and issue has been resolved with him.

Lack of customer service starting on 2/4/14 has resulted in taxes still not being completed on 5/5/14.On 2/4/14 my husband and I went to the Liberty Tax office off of Yopp Blvd in Jacksonville NC and submitted our 2013 Federal Taxes by e-filing. From 2/6-2/14 I kept checking on the IRS website to see if the IRS has received our taxes. They had not. So I contacted the Yopp office and was told "it has cleared our side I don't know what to tell you." I was not satisfied with that answer so I called the Liberty Tax office off of Western Blvd to see if they could further assist me. When I called I was told that our taxes were "kicked back" on 2/5 and that we needed to refile. We never received a call informing us that we needed to come back to the office. The only way we found out was from me following up on our taxes. Completing the customer service that we paid for, $500. My husband and I then went to the Western office to do the amendment that we needed to do to refile. Due to the error we needed to paper file. We were told it should take 4 weeks to be about to track it on the IRS website. 4 weeks goes by and the IRS website still says that they have not received it. I called the Western office again to see what is going on. I was told they would call me back with the details. When I received the call back I was told they called the IRS and they have not received our taxes and we need to refile AGAIN. Yet again if I wouldn't of called the office we would of never known because they did not call me. My husband and I went back to the Western office and we spoke with [redacted] who told us she is the general manager. We told her this is unacceptable and she agreed. At this time my husband and I demanded a refund for services and [redacted] told us she will have to talk to her boss about it. We refiled and [redacted] stated that they would put a tracking number on the paperwork and she will email me the next day with the tracking number and the status of the refund. Another week goes by and I still had not received an email or call from [redacted]. After numerous phone calls with no return or answer I emailed [redacted] on 4/23 asking the status. She responded on 4/24 stating that there is a managers meeting today (4/24) and she will get back to me about the refund. Nothing was said about our taxes. I sent an email on the following days with no response; 4/25, 4/27 and 4/28. On these days I also called both offices [redacted] stated she works out of. No answer or she was not in the office and they took a message with no call back. On 4/29, I filed a compliant with Liberty Tax headquarters. I was told I would be receiving a call from the owner within 24-48 business hours. Instead, I received an email from [redacted] only saying "The IRS recd the return on 4/27 at 334pm". Nothing was said about the service refund. On 5/1, I called Liberty Tax headquarters again stating I have not received a call from the owner and the lady said she would note and and we should be receiving a call. No call was received. On 5/5, I called Liberty Tax headquarters again and was told "we will note it". I asked to speak with her manager because noting it was doing nothing. I was told "there is nothing corporate can do for you". Also, on 5/5 I send [redacted] yet another email. Desired SettlementA service refund. We paid $500.Business Response Paperwork was not accepted by entity for reasons that were beyond our control and as a result of information provided to us. Several messages were left and noted to inform of the situation. Client came in to fix issue. The entity is behind in their processing of paperwork as is acknowledged on their site. Correspondence with the client has been maintained through various means and has been noted and recorded. All procedures have been followed. Circumstances for the results that client would like are beyond the control of both the office and client. In order to honor her request, refund is being issued to assist in her satisfaction.

On February 21, 2015 I went to Liberty Tax located at 1913 Fire tower rd Suite D and filed my taxes. On February 23, 2015 the Liberty tax office called me to inform me that my taxes were rejected by the [redacted] because someone else had already claimed my dependent. I said ok that's fine when can I come by and pick up my taxes because I would like to file elsewhere for free. The woman [redacted] that I spoke with said that I could come by that afternoon after work and my taxes would be at the front desk for pickup since I wanted to file elsewhere. I arrived to the store at about 6:30pm and was told my taxes had already been sent to the [redacted] and they were unavailable for pickup. I left frustrated but expecting my taxes to go ahead and be filed (like they told me). Two weeks went by and I received the personalized net spend card they give you in the mail. [redacted], the woman I originally filed with told me if I received that before my taxes to give them a call. So then I call around the first of March to find out the status of my refund. I am then sent to a different office and told that my taxes were rejected (because of the dependency which I was aware of but thought liberty tax had resolved the problem)and the representative told me they had been sitting in the [redacted] system on reject status. I then called Liberty tax customer service and was given the reference # [redacted] and was told that the franchise owner of this store would contact me to resolve the problem within 24 hours. Two days go by and nothing. I then call liberty tax customer service again to tell them I have not heard anything from the owner.Finally [redacted] calls me and is extremely rude from the start. He then tells me that he will flag my taxes and when they come in he will give me some kind of discount on the $296 fees they charged for my refund (when all I was going to get back was $501). If he had looked into it like he said he would have seen my taxes were on reject status. I do not feel that I should have to pay any fees at this point.Product_Or_Service: Liberty tax fileDesired Settlement$196.00 fee for filing my taxes to be waived because of all of the hassle this situation has cost me.

On 2/9/16 I went in to file my taxes and as soon as I sat down I was lied to about filing fees, my information not being enough to itemize deductions. When I refused to pay $290.00 to do a simple easy form and got up to leave all of a sudden his fee changed. I paid $45.00 last year with Liberty Tax at a different location. He told me I was lying when I pulled out last years return with the receipt he didn't know what to say, I was told that there was no fee for a debit card he was trying so hard to give me because I told him I will call him back with my bank account information for the direct deposit. He assured me that there was no fee and I could deposit the money on the card into my account. I agreed to $100.00 fee even though I thought it was too much but I just wanted this exchange over. when I looked over the paper work that I had to ask for I saw a fee for $44.95 a total of $144.95. I went straight up to him and asked him to refund that and that he lied fight to my face when he said he did not lie I walked out, I then called the corporate office and was told someone would get back to me within 24 hours. I did not hear back.I kept calling for days and they are telling me there is no more information on my complaint. I have never had an experience of walking into a business and it having such an unethical, unprofessional employee dealing with someone's personal and financial information. I am quite disturbed and worried about the situationProduct_Or_Service: tax filingDesired SettlementI want a refund of $44.95 of the so called no fee debit card and a partial refund of $50.00 from the so called $100.00 tax preparer fee. I also would like to be contacted by the district manager of that area so that I can show him the shotty paper work that was given to me upon my request only compared to the packet of paper work that I received last year and also explain in detail of all the shady things this person was trying to do. Business Response I regret our client had such a bad experience at Liberty Tax. The manager has been in contact with the client and has agreed to refund her $44.95 bank fee and $50 of her prep fee. In reviewing the return the $290 originally charged is the correct price for this return. [redacted] lowered the fees in an effort to make the client happy, unfortunately it sounds like he failed to mention that the bank charges of $44.95 to set up an account and withhold the fees so there was nothing paid out of pocket. As for her packet of paperwork. Starting last year we began a green initiative to reduce paper output. This in part reduces the amount of paperwork given to the client. A full copy is available by creating an account at Libertytax.com or by requesting a full copy for the processing department. Consumer Response There was a monetary resolution which I was satisfied with but after filing the complaint I received the Netspend debit card that was pushed on me and unfortunately my name was spelled incorrectly. I had filed with Liberty Tax last year at a different location so my information was in the system. When I was signing the paperwork I noticed the misspelling of my name so he then had to go back in the system to make the corrections but he didn't bother with fixing the name for the debit card. When I went to pick up the refund check I told him of the problem with incorrect spelling of my name on this debit card and he said nothing. Even though I received the refund I will not frequent this business again Final Consumer Response

Review: I filed my taxes with Liberty taxes this year with Alizeta K[redacted] and she told me to file if wouldn't be so expensive so after she has done preparing my taxes she told me the fee would be less because Liberty taxes got into trouble for overcharging people. So I left got my paperwork and realized that my fees was $800.00 to file with my children and w2s. I went to the main office to complain on [redacted] and he told me that there is nothing that I can do. As I'm in the office I see a paper on the wall saying it's real business name. It's called [redacted]. I realized that they are scammers and they took my money. Now I am getting much less on my taxes because they stole from me. They write bounce checks for 50.00 u supposed to take the check to the check cashing where they take a $1.00 fee. Which is not right. The place is no longer on [redacted] anymore because they got in trouble so they moved into [redacted]. Inside of an African hair braiding salon. Every tax place I went to discuss this matter told me I was being scammed and I need to file a report against themDesired Settlement: I would like the money refunded back to me which is $800.00 they took from me because the business is a scam.

Review: I have not receive my income tax state and federal money I filed early in February 2015 and have not receive anything . Liberty tax @ [redacted] prepared my refund .Desired Settlement: My State and Federal check

Consumer

Response:

At this time, my complaint, ID [redacted] regarding Liberty Tax has been resolved.

(By clicking "OK", your complaint will be closed as Resolved.)

Sincerely,[redacted]

Review: I contacted this office in reference to a complaint about in error in a tax return to corporate. The corporate office said we needed to call the branch directly when my fianc called the [redacted] he explained "it was out of his hands because we filed a complaint now the unit in the corp office would need to handle it. When asked to speak to the owner he reference if we were to ask to speak to [redacted], could we? Basically stating we could not speak to the owner. When we called corporate the explained it was corporate policy for the branch to handle it on there owns which it has not yet been done.Desired Settlement: I would like for a reimbursement of the penalties paid to the irs including the interest which is stated in the policy if due to error.

Review: They took their fees twice from my refund. The owner is refusing to expedite the return of funds, and tends to take on a defense stance with regards to their mistake.Desired Settlement: Done immediately

Business

Response:

I wanted to let you know that this has been resolved. We spoke with Ms. [redacted] numerous time, went over her numbers numerous times to try and show her that no we did not take her fees twice. She was not convinced and I asked her repeatedly to give me something to work with, what did she see that I did not. She could not do that. She continually just said you took my fees twice. I then sent her file to our corporate office for review. They could not find that either. We matched it up with our schedule of tax payments etc. but nothing. We informed Ms. [redacted] of that and she simply did not like the answer. The answer was in the fact she just THOUGHT she was getting more back in her refund but the IRS will only give you what is due to you minus any other federal obligations (which they cannot tell us) and that is it.In order to try and placate the customer I did refund her bank fee.

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's offer. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. If the company does not perform as promised I can get back to you at: [redacted]

Regards,

Review: We used Liberty Tax to process our taxes for the 2011 & 2012 tax returns. The woman who did the return seemed competent the first year, so we returned the next year. Last month, we receive a notice from the IRS saying we needed to pay $7500. I tried repeatedly to contact the company and never received a response to the owner of this office. We decided to bring the taxes and notice from the IRS to someone else to see what was the problem The problem was that the Liberty tax person did not fill out the tax forms correctly. Not just errors, but left things off, filed things in the wrong place, changed numbers, etc. For example, I am retired on disability, so receive social security and retirement check every month. She did not report the social security in the box for social security income; she put it in as wages received, which meant I would have to pay taxes on it. There obviously were many errors. We had to pay $500 to get this mess resolved and are still waiting to hear back from the IRS and State of Maryland. The person who redid the taxes for both years said she couldn't believe the errors that were made. I paid for a service. They represented that they were capable of providing this service and would do it correctly and stand beside their work. Could not contact them, so how are they standing behind their service? VERY upset with the misrepresentation and errors and inability to contact the owner. I feel sorry for all the non-English speaking people who used their service and won't know how to resolve their problems.Desired Settlement: Would like the fee we paid for their service for doing 2011 & 2012 tax returns refunded to us. I want other people to be aware of our problem so that they don't encounter the same problems with their taxes. Think of the implications and how many people could be impacted by their unprofessional work...

Consumer

Response:

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: [redacted]

Date: Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 9:35 PM

Subject: re: #[redacted]

To: [email protected]

I finally have received a refund of the fees we paid to have our taxes done by Liberty Tax service. We will have to put another $100 with the refund from them to pay for having our taxes done correctly, but at least they will (hopefully) be correct. Thank you for your service.

[redacted]

#[redacted]

Review: went to liberty tax on jan,30 2013 to have taxes prepared the taxes was acceepted on feb.14,2013 and was told we would receave our refund in 21 days or a letter stating any problems.on march 26 I went to the office to get with some one from there offices and call the irs to see why I haven't received a refund or letter stating problem.when we spoke to some one from the irs they said give it two more weeks.I returned to libertys office to see why I still have not receaved anything from the irs(april 10).we spoke with some one from the irs and found out the problem.the problem was a error on the individual who prepared our taxes.when the problem was discused between the office manager and me the manager applied it was my fault but when I explain to the manager it was not but the error was the induvadal who filed my papers. the manager continued to act as if it was my falt and laugh about the situation and offered no type of apologyDesired Settlement: partial reimbursement

Review: This is the 2nd year I tried liberty tax because last year I went to another location and had a great experience. He charged me $75. This year I had 6 papers and they tried to tell me my total was $485. I was not in no way going to pay that. I asked the lady for an est cost 3 times and she waited until the end to tell me that, the mgr called corporate they agreed to charge me 150. they were giving 50 for every person who finished their taxes there. I only agreed because I assumed the total was 100. but 10 minutes later she said its really 200 but150 with the 50 we are gonna give you. I would have left if I knew that they were still trying to chrg 200. mom and dad went to a different place with 13 papers and they paid 170. also I was giving no info on my state I don't even know if im getting a refund. when I called the office to ask for the corporate number the mgr hung up on me. please don't go to this location. they will take you in circles to confuse you so they can rip you off,Desired Settlement: I want the $50 I was supposed to get as they advertised. I want an apology and honestly at this point I want part of what I paid back. I was over charged, the lady that did mine wasn't the brightest light bulb in the box. I honestly wish I could back out of this with them get my money back and go to a place that does what they say. I FEEL THE MANAGER SHOULD LOSE HER JOB AND I WILL DO ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING I CAN TO MAKE SURE SHE DOES. NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES.THATS A PROMISE

Business

Response:

From: [redacted] [mailto:[redacted]] On Behalf Of [redacted]Sent: Monday, March 02, 2015 11:51 AMTo: [redacted]Subject: Revdex.com Complaint #[redacted]This customer had forms that caused her invoice to be higher than the previous year. We explained this to the customer, and in an attempt to keep her as a loyal customer, we discounted the return to something that she agreed to and signed for and paid. The preparer that prepared her return did so accurately, and did so professionally. Based on comments and actions made by the customer to our staff in the office that were inflammatory and hurtful, we have decided to refund her preparation fees paid as well as ask her to not to come back to the office anymore. The manager has long been a wonderful manager, tax preparer, and active member in the community, and she has the full backing and support of Liberty Tax Service. She has never had to hang up the phone on anyone before, but had to with this customer after the comments that were made. Respectfully, Liberty Tax Service #4689