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Two weeks ago, South Salem resident Geraldine Cohen opened up a branch of the tax-preparation company Liberty Tax Services. The Liberty Tax Services franchise is the second largest tax preparer in the country, with 200 offices across New York. Cohen said she did some tax-preparation work in her native Ireland before coming to the United States in the late 1980s,
After raising her family, “I decided that I would like to go back to something in that field and this opportunity seemed to be the perfect set up for me,” she said.
Liberty offers free consultations and is open year round, even after tax season, for eight to 12 hours per week. They also take appointments at any time, she said.
“It is a tax-prep service but we'd like to be involved in the community apart from that,” Cohen said. Right now, Liberty is collecting used cell phones for Cell Phones for Soldiers, and Cohen hopes to get involved in community activities as time goes on.
Cohen said she chose Liberty because the company is family-oriented. "Our Liberty concept is somewhat unique amongst tax preparers. We have a very family friendly, cheerful group of preparers," she said.
Right now, in the early part of tax season, Liberty is running a promotion called “Cash in a Flash,” giving out $50 in cash after doing a customer's returns, and then throwing in three coupons that get that customer another $50 with each referral.
In February, teachers, firefighters, police and military service members have one week each to get their tax returns done for free.
Since the tax season was delayed by the Internal Revenue Service as a result of the last minute fiscal cliff negotiations in Congress, Cohen said, Liberty has had an extra week to become entirely operational.
The fiscal-cliff negotiations have also pushed the start date for e-filing to the end of the month, she said.
"As a result, a lot of the clients who would normally come in at this particular point in time are people looking for refunds as soon as possible, and unfortunately, they won’t be getting refunds until the middle or thereafter in February,” she said.
Liberty's current business hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, and Cohen plans to institute longer hours as tax season gets rolling.
Cohen said she has been in contact with the Mount Kisco Chamber of Commerce and is trying to pin down a date for Liberty's ribbon cutting, to be attended by Mayor Michael Cindrich.
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