Featured Client: Liberty Tax Service®

Siskinds is proud to introduce its featured client, Liberty Tax Service®. Actually, this time around, the feature is more about Liberty 's founder and CEO, John Hewitt, as a result of the honour recently bestowed on John by the International franchise association, by naming him their “Entrepreneur of the Year” for 2005.

John's award honours lifetime of achievements and contributions to the franchising and tax industry. He has 37 years of experience in the income tax industry, starting with H&R Block as a tax preparer. Taxes fascinated him so much he decided to embrace emerging technology and write his own tax preparation software. His vision for what the personal computer could do for the tax industry led him to start his own retail tax preparation company. Jackson Hewitt was founded in 1982 in Canada and quickly became the #2 company in the industry under John's leadership. In 1997, the company was sold for $483,000,000.

Liberty Tax Service began operations in Canada and quickly moved into the United States, operating just five offices in the first tax season. Today the company has 2,000 offices in the United States and Canada, making it the fastest growing retail tax preparation firm ever. Entrepreneur magazine ( http://www.entrepreneur.com ) ranks Liberty Tax Service #10 overall in the January 2006 Franchise 500. Hewitt is the only person who has founded two companies in this year's top 10; Liberty Tax Service and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service.

John's business success has enabled him to make a difference in the war against world hunger. In 1998, Hewitt co-founded Stop Hunger Now ( http://www.stophungernow.com ) a non-profit international relief organization that coordinates immediate distribution of food and life saving aid on a global basis. Last year, he made a substantial personal financial contribution to the tsunami relief effort through Stop Hunger Now. Liberty Tax Service, company-wide, offered free tax return preparation to those who made a donation of $100 or more for tsunami relief through Stop Hunger Now.

Siskinds has been involved with Liberty Tax Service from its commencement of operations in Canada, and continues to support its franchise operations including such items as:

• Structuring and incorporation of appropriate legal entities.
• Preparation of franchise documentation.
• Preparation of a disclosure document for use across Canada.

For franchise information contact Liberty Tax Service at (877) 902-7089 or visit them online @ http://www.libertytaxcanada.com/franchise_info.htm.