Complaint Review: Liberty Tax

My husband and I decided to use a paid tax preparer for our very simple 1040-A filing instead of filing at home for free in hopes of being approved for a RAL -- I have been out of work for a few months, unpaid bills are piling up, and though we knew the RAL was not a guarantee we decided to take the risk -- it was a gamble, but if we lost, we would still have our return coming to us by 02/11/2011, and we would have the insurance of a paid tax service in case we should be audited.

We entered the liberty office and were helped by a confused man who couldn't seem to answer any of our questions but was desperate to give us cups of coffee. Every question we asked about costs and fees was met with, "I don't have a list of that information, I won't know until everything is in the computer." Well, he got everything in that old computer and quoted us $400 for something we could do for free. After some discussion we decided to take the risk. If an RAL was denied we would be converted to a return that would post in 8 days and spared $61 in preparation costs. As we left the office the nervous preparer, who had run down the competition several times during our excessively longpreparation session, pressed snicker bars on us, and, as if to reinforce the casino-like gamble we were making, let us spin the "prize wheel" for a plastic calculator that smells like asphalt.

We left the office and when to an evening meeting and returned home after the tax office was closed to a message that we had failed to sign some of the necessary paperwork and would need to return in the morning to sign them. We rearranged our morning accordingly (no easy task) and rushed down there to sign papers we had already signed. I know we had signed them as these were the forms with the giant warning in the background "A RAL IS A LOAN". When told we had signed these already, we were told we had not. Upon insisting that we had, we were told they had been misplaced. We resigned the papers, and were told the paperwork would transmit that night. This was at 9:00 on the morning of 02/-3/2011, which date is a cutoff for submitting returns to the IRS for the next fund dispersement window, so my husband asked that they be submitted then to ensure our money being available by 02/11/2011 if the RAL was denied.

We were told that would happen, but the next morning, at ten minutes before seven o'clock, Liberty called to tell us the RAL had been denied. They had assured us the RAL was no based on credit-worthiness, and now they were giving us a number to call to find out why we were denied. This number was to an automated system that told us our return would not arrive until 02/18/2011, and that we would receive a letter explaining our denial. A call to the IRS provided this information -- the cut-off for submission on the third of February had been 11:00 am local time. A call to Liberty confirmed that they had entered our information at 12:30 in the afternoon on the third and not transmitted it until 8:30 that night.

Doing our taxes from home would have been free and would have gotten us our return direct deposited by the 11th of February. Paying $400, or $340 if they actually credit us back the RAL fee, got us less than nothing -- another week of waiting. We are in a worse situation now than before. We should have burned the money, at least we could have huddled around the warmth. I have unpaid bills and utilities, a very sick daughter, food pantry grub that I am very grateful for, and busted-out shoes I cannot afford to replace. I didn't need to feed this rip-off factory any of our dollars, let alone $360 - $400 of them.

Be forewarned!!! Stay away from this scam, don't fall into the promises of quick solutions to your desperate problems. As for the assurance of a paid tax preparer in case of audit -- I am not assured at all. I would rather take my own chances than call on these shysters for assistance.