Liberty's creative marketing of its icons is establishing brand name awareness quickly, and attracting more new franchisees to the company. Liberty now is second only to HRB in number of franchisees in its operating system. Liberty is off to a record start with franchise sales thus far this year, with 51 new franchisees on board who will open in January of 2005. 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.

"We have a winning strategy applied by a vigorous team of headquarters staff and franchisees," commented John Hewitt, "Our mission is simple: to continue aggressive marketing, deliver quality preparation and customer service, and not stop until we dominate this industry."

Liberty Tax Service has over 1,400 offices operating in the United States and Canada in 2004. This year, Entrepreneur magazine ranked Liberty Tax Service as the 9th fastest growing franchise opportunity, the 2nd in the Tax and Accounting industry, one of the top 20 low investment opportunities, and #28 on the overall list of best franchises. Accounting Today magazine ranked Liberty 66th in most gross income for tax & accounting companies in March 2004. Liberty Tax Service is ranked #106 on Inc. magazine's 500 22nd annual ranking of the 500 fastest growing private companies in the United States (Fall 2003). The Liberty Tax Service web site is www.libertytax.com.