"After finding out about Liberty on the Internet, we gathered as much information about the company as we could, and talked to other franchisees in the system," said Cerrillos. "We're thrilled about joining a fast growing enterprise like Liberty Tax, and after working at Universal Studios we know we can find people to wear the Lady Liberty costume."

Since its inception in 1996, Liberty Tax Service has grown to the size that it took the other national tax franchises, H&R Block (NYSE:HRB), and Jackson Hewitt (NYSE:JTX) 15 years to realize. Liberty surpassed the 1000 th office mark this year, and now has 1600 offices operating in the United States and Canada. In the last two tax seasons, Liberty Tax Service has doubled the number of tax returns prepared in outlets throughout the US and Canada. Conversely, major competitor H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) has experienced a decrease each of the last two years, despite adding over 800 offices. Liberty Tax Service has averaged selling 400 territories per year over the last 3 years, essentially doubling the average number of territories that Jackson Hewitt (NYSE:JTX)sold during the same time period. Jackson Hewitt has been in business since 1982, and has approximately 700 franchisees. It took H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) 15 years to amass 1000

franchisees. Less than 50 franchise companies have more than 1000 franchisees on Entrepreneur m agazine's list of top 500 franchise organizations in the world.

"This year has been an exhilarating time of record growth in many areas for Liberty Tax. As we hit the mark of 1000 franchisees in our operating system, we continue our quest and drive to be the number one tax company in the industry," said John Hewitt, CEO and Founder of Liberty Tax Service. For the fourth consecutive year, Accounting Today has named Hewitt one of the Top 100 most influential persons in the tax industry. He has founded two franchised companies that Entrepreneur magazine has ranked on their Franchise 500, both companies are currently in the top 30 in the WORLD.

This year, Entrepreneur magazine ranked Liberty Tax Service as the 9 th fastest growing franchise opportunity, one of the top 20 low investment opportunities, and #28 on the overall list of best franchises. Accounting Today magazine ranked Liberty fastest growing on its list of top 100 tax & accounting companies released in March 2004. Liberty Tax Service is one of the "top 10 hottest deals in franchising for 2004," according to the September 2004 edition of Black Enterprise magazine. The company is ranked for the second consecutive year on Inc. magazine's 22 nd annual 500 fastest growing private companies in the United States (Fall 2004).