Leadership
John Hewitt, our founder, is an icon in the tax industry. Accounting Today has named John one of the Top 100 most influential people in the tax industry 11 times. The International Franchise Association honored John Hewitt as Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006.
How It All Began
John Hewitt started his business career as a tax preparer with H&R Block. In the early 1980s, he and his father developed a tax program that was the first PC tax software of its kind in the industry. When H&R Block passed on the new technology, he started a new tax company, Jackson Hewitt Tax Service. The company utilized its own unique “Hewtax” program.
By 1986, the IRS began electronic filing, which allowed taxpayers to directly file their taxes and bypass the mailing of returns entirely. The timing was right, so John took Jackson Hewitt public in 1994. The company became a solid second to Block and subsequently sold for $483 million in 1997. When John left Jackson Hewitt in 1997, the company was operating 1,345 offices. Jackson Hewitt was the first successful national industry competitor to H&R Block.
Shaping The Future
John purchased the U&R Tax Depot, a Canadian tax company, on September 1, 1997. The name was changed to Liberty Tax Service®, and U.S. operations began in January 1998.
Over the past two decades, Liberty Tax Service® has prepared more than 18 million individual income tax returns and continues to meet customers’ needs, providing income tax preparation and electronic filing. There are currently more than 4,000 Liberty Tax Service® offices operating in Canada and the United States. Each Liberty Tax® office offers its customers friendly, accurate tax preparation in a warm and welcoming environment.
Our current CEO, Ed Brunot, is working with executive leadership and Liberty Tax® franchisees and employees all across the country to continue to build a culture of industry-leading business ideas that offer our customers effective solutions to all their tax needs.
