Local tax preparation franchise, Liberty Tax just completed their 20th tax season in Dover. The franchise is owned and operated by two Dover natives - Doug Doyle & Scott Slacum.
Doyle & Slacum are old friends from Dover High School and have been business partners for over 20 years. In 2002, they decided to purchase a Liberty Tax franchise. The first tax season started January 2003 at the Dover Mall and expanded from there.
Doyle & Slacum decided to expand and purchase additional franchise territories in Smyrna, Middletown, Bear, Seaford, & Camden. At one point they were operating 6 locations. After several years, the company downsized, sold locations, and decided to focus on just the Dover location. By then their permanent location became 500 N Dupont Hwy across from Big Lots in Dover.
“20 years seems like a blink of an eye,” said Doug Doyle. . “I remember being very stressed out that first year trying to get opened and hire staff. My daughter was two and my son was in a stroller-they are 21 and 19 now!”
On averege their Dover offices files around 1200 tax returns a year. Everything from simple W-2 tax returns to very complicated Schedule C and rental property tax returns with depreciation.
“We were really not sure what to expect”, said Scott Slacum. “We knew we had the tenacity and the knowhow; we were just not sure how well we would do finding the right staff to help us succeed.” Slacum has extensive tax background and has been a CPA for over 20 years. “Our model was to not have Doug & I doing the tax returns because we were both working fulltime jobs elsewhere. Finding competent staff was the key, and we succeeded.”
Through all the economic ups and downs, market crashes, real estate booms & busts, filing a tax return was one thing that was consistent. “For the most part, everyone has to file a tax return every year”, said Doyle. “that’s kind of why we thought this was the right business to get into.”
With more than 2,700 franchised locations across North America, Liberty Tax has been serving customers since 1997, offering fast and affordable tax preparation, Liberty Tax serves approximately 1.6 million consumer and small business clients across the U.S. and Canada.
“Dover has been good to us.” said Doyle. “We pride ourselves on 5 Star customer service and we appreciate every single customer. We will be here for a while, no plans on going anywhere.”
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