Verified — real FDD extraction
Not found in the SBA Franchise Directory under this name — though SBA loans to its franchisees exist; verify eligibility with your lender
JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE
Business Services · independent · est. —
Jackson Hewitt Tax Service is a tax-preparation chain that files income tax returns for individuals, often with locations inside retail stores like Walmart and busy during tax season. A franchisee runs one or more tax offices, employing seasonal preparers and serving walk-in clients.
JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE net unit count declined -4.8% from 2022–2024 per its FDD Item 20.
New to franchising? Start here
A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.
Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
- Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
- Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Proven & steady
Distress
A real track record with an unremarkable region of the ledger: neither the growth nor the exits stand out, for better or worse. The main concern in the record: the system is shrinking.
Exit rate · latest year
4.5%
vs 8.1% across 28 business services systems
Cost to open
$96K–$128K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
4.8%
vs 14.8% avg across rated brands
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2022–2024
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2024, 139 of 3,092 franchised outlets left the system — a 4.5% annualized exit rate, vs 8.1% across 28 business services systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 5,607 | 5,483 | 5,287 |
| Opened | 61 | 73 | 96 |
| Transfers | 134 | 100 | 106 |
| Terminations | 67 | 59 | 7 |
| Non-renewals | 29 | 3 | 1 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 102 | 132 | 68 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 121 | 200 | 131 |
| Outlets at end | 5,483 | 5,287 | 5,221 |
| Net change | -124 | -196 | -66 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 199 SBA-backed loans to JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE franchisees since 1991. Of the 146 that have resolved, 4.8% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 576 rated brands.
4.8%
7 of 146 resolved defaulted
58.1%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
2.8%
default rate × loss severity
$1,199,800
what recent franchisees borrowed
82 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
11 vs 21
distinct banks — pulling back
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Wells Fargo Bank National Association
8.8% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 15.6% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
61.6%
first-time franchise owners
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.
Does experience help here?
+1.6pp
multi-unit vs single-unit owners
Owners of multiple units default at 5.4%; single-unit owners at 3.8%.
Computed from 199 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $50K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $96K–$128K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$96K–$128K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$50K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
15%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$150K
15% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$1.5M
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 23 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $74K in back wages for 426 workers. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
23
Back wages owed
$74K
Employees affected
426
Since 2020
0
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2015.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand looks safer than 76% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
24 / 100
Loan-corroborated
Modeled SBA charge-off
9.1%
Observed SBA charge-off
4.8%
Top drivers: System size (log units) (lowers) · Investment ceiling (log) (raises) · Share financed by high-loss lenders (lowers) · Single-lender dependence (raises). 15+ resolved loans stand behind this estimate. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE franchises closed last year?
In JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2024), 139 of 3,092 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 4.5% — compared with 8.1% across 28 business services systems tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE franchise cost?
Per JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE's 2024 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $50K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $96K–$128K (Item 7).
What royalty does JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE charge?
JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE charges an ongoing royalty of 15.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2024 FDD.
Does JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2024 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.
How often do SBA loans for JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE franchises default?
Across 199 SBA-backed loans to JACKSON HEWITT TAX SERVICE franchisees since 1991, 7 of the 146 that have resolved were charged off — a 4.8% default rate, versus about 14.8% across all rated franchise brands. This is the lender's-eye view of franchisee failure, drawn from public SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA data and independent of the franchisor's own disclosures.