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As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 15, 2012

Registration Number 333-176655

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

AMENDMENT NO. 5
TO
FORM S-1
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

JTH Holding, Inc.
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

1716 Corporate Landing Parkway
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23454
(757) 493-8855
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including
area code, of Registrant's principal executive offices)

James J. Wheaton
General Counsel, Vice President of Legal
and Governmental Affairs
1716 Corporate Landing Parkway
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23454
(757) 493-8855
(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including
area code, of agent for service)

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public:
as soon as practicable after this registration statement is declared effective.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box.    o

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.    o

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.    o

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.    o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," and "smaller reporting company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

(1)

Estimated solely for the purpose of computing the registration fee in accordance with Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act. Includes underwriters' option to purchase additional shares.

(2)

Previously paid.

The Registrant hereby amends this registration statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this registration statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 or until the registration statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to such Section 8(a), may determine.

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The information contained in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and is not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

SUBJECT TO COMPLETION, DATED OCTOBER 15, 2012

PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS

                      Shares

JTH Holding, Inc.

Class A Common Stock

We are the holding company for JTH Tax, Inc., which operates under the name "Liberty Tax Service." We are offering                    shares of our Class A common stock, and the selling stockholders identified in this prospectus are offering                    shares of our Class A common stock. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders. Our Class A common stock is listed on The NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol "TAX." On                             , 2012, the last reported sale price of our Class A common stock on The NASDAQ Global Market was $               per share.

Following this offering, we will have two classes of authorized common stock, Class A common stock and Class B common stock. The rights of the holders of Class A common stock and Class B common stock will be identical, except holders of our Class B common stock are entitled to elect a majority of the members of our Board of Directors. In addition, each share of Class B common stock is convertible at any time into one share of Class A common stock.

Investing in our Class A common stock involves a high degree of risk. Please read "Risk Factors" beginning on page 10 of this prospectus.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

Delivery of the shares of Class A common stock is expected to be made on or about                             , 2012. We and the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters an option for a period of 30 days to purchase an additional                    shares of our Class A common stock. If the underwriters exercise the option in full, the total underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us will be $                    , and the total proceeds to us, before expenses, will be $                    . Discounts, commissions and proceeds will be prorated between us and the selling stockholders.

Joint Book-Running Managers

Prospectus dated                             , 2012

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You should rely only on the information contained in this document and any free writing prospectus prepared by or on behalf of us that we have referred to you. We have not, the selling stockholders have not and the underwriters have not authorized anyone to provide you with additional or different information from that contained in this prospectus. If anyone provides you with additional, different or inconsistent information, you should not rely on it. We and the selling stockholders are offering to sell, and seeking offers to buy, shares of our Class A common stock only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. The information in this document may only be accurate on the date of this document, regardless of its time of delivery or of any sales of shares of our Class A common stock. Our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows may have changed since such date.

This prospectus includes trademarks, including "Liberty Tax," "Liberty Tax Service," "Liberty Income Tax," "Liberty Canada" and our logo, which are protected under applicable intellectual property laws and are our property and/or the property of our subsidiaries. This prospectus also includes trademarks, trade names and service marks that are the property of other organizations.

Market, Industry and Other Data

Unless otherwise indicated, information contained in this prospectus concerning our industry and the market in which we operate, including our general expectations and market position, market opportunity and market size, is based on information from various third-party sources, on assumptions that we have made that are based on that data and other similar sources. Some data is also based on our good faith estimates, which are derived from management's knowledge of the industry and independent sources. This data involves a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such estimates. Similarly, we believe our internal research is reliable, even though such research has not been verified by any independent sources. While we believe the market position, market opportunity and market size information included in this prospectus is generally reliable, such information is inherently imprecise. In addition, information relating to projections, assumptions and estimates of our future performance and the future performance of the industry in which we operate is necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in this prospectus. These and other factors could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed in the estimates made by third parties and by us.

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Prospectus Summary

This summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this prospectus and does not contain all of the information that you should consider in making your investment decision. Before investing in our Class A common stock, you should carefully read this entire prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included in this prospectus and the information set forth under the headings "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." References in this prospectus to "years" are to our fiscal years, which end on April 30 unless otherwise noted, and all references to "tax season" refer to the period between January 1 and April 30 of the referenced year. Unless the context requires otherwise, the terms "Liberty Tax," "Liberty Tax Service," "we," "the Company," "us" and "our" refer to JTH Holding, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.

The Company

Overview

We are one of the leading providers of tax preparation services in the United States and Canada. As measured by both the number of returns prepared and the number of retail offices, we are the third largest and fastest growing national retail preparer of individual tax returns in the United States and the second largest retail preparer of individual tax returns in Canada. From 2001 through 2012, we have grown our number of tax offices (including retail store kiosks) from 508 to nearly 4,200 and from the 2001 tax season to the 2012 tax season we increased the number of U.S. tax returns prepared in our offices from approximately 137,000 to nearly 1.8 million. We provide our customers with value-added federal and state tax preparation services and related financial products both in retail offices and online. Our target customers include taxpayers who for reasons of complexity, convenience or the need for prompt tax refunds desire the assistance of tax preparation services. Our customer growth is driven by our ability to capture an increasing share of a continuously expanding tax preparation market.

We believe that our franchise system is the keystone of our growth. Virtually all of our offices are operated by franchisees, which allows us to focus on marketing, franchisee coaching and support, financial product development and other initiatives that drive our overall success. In addition, our franchise model allows us to grow our tax preparation system with minimal capital expenditures or fixed cost investments.

Our franchise model has been recognized as an attractive investment opportunity for entrepreneurs. In May 2012, Entrepreneur Media ranked us as the eighth fastest growing franchise system, based on the number of new franchise units added in the U.S. and Canada from 2011 to 2012. In February 2012, Forbes ranked us the seventh best franchise in their "Top 20 Franchises for the Buck" list, based on the estimated minimum initial investment, store survival rate, training hours offered and the total number of franchise locations. We believe our system offers best in class training and support to both new and existing franchisees. We have focused on keeping the cost of establishing a Liberty Tax franchise relatively low compared to other opportunities available to potential franchisees in order to attract motivated entrepreneurs seeking to minimize their initial costs. We believe this low upfront capital requirement, combined with the potential for attractive office level profitability, provides an opportunity for a significant return on investment for our franchisees.

Our growth is also reflected in our financial performance. Our total revenues grew to $109.1 million in 2012 from $95.5 million in 2011 and $84.6 million in 2010, and our net income increased to $17.4 million in 2012 from $15.8 million in 2011 and $11.0 million in 2010. Our systemwide revenue, which is the base from which we derive franchise royalties, grew to $359.1 million in 2012, from $338.6 million in 2011 and $304.3 million in 2010. Our systemwide revenue represents the total tax preparation revenue generated by our franchised and company-owned offices.

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Our Market Opportunity

During the 2012 tax season, there were approximately 134 million tax returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS"). The IRS expects the number of tax returns to continue to grow, and projects a greater than 3% increase in tax return filings from 2012 to 2015. The tax return preparation market is divided into two primary sectors: paid tax preparation and "do it yourself" ("DIY") preparation. The paid tax preparation and DIY sectors are distinct, and although recent years have seen growth in the relative portion of the DIY sector that has been captured by online and software-based tax products, the separate paid tax preparation sector, in which we and our franchisees primarily compete, has also continued to grow. The growth in total returns filed with the IRS, the growth in the paid tax preparation sector and our growth within that sector are illustrated as follows:

Based on available data, we believe that in 2012 less than 25% of the paid tax preparation market was represented by the national retail tax preparation companies: Liberty Tax and our two national competitors, H&R Block Inc. ("H&R Block") and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. ("Jackson Hewitt"), each operating under a different business model. While virtually all of our offices are operated by franchisees, H&R Block primarily operates company-owned offices and Jackson Hewitt operates a mixture of franchised and company-owned offices. The remaining portion of the paid tax preparation market is primarily comprised of tens of thousands of independent tax preparers operating at a local and regional level. We believe most of these independent preparers operate individual or a limited number of locations. We expect to benefit from anticipated industry consolidation in this highly fragmented tax preparation market because independent tax preparers may seek to exit the industry as they confront increased costs and regulatory requirements, including tax preparer certification requirements. Additionally, we believe the demands of many customers for their tax preparers to provide financial products that give them faster access to their tax refunds will also drive industry consolidation, given the increasing challenges faced by many independent tax preparers in providing these products.

Our Business Strengths

We attribute our success in the retail tax preparation industry to a number of strengths:

We are a market leader in providing retail tax preparation services.    We are presently the third largest provider of retail tax preparation services in the United States and the second largest provider of retail tax preparation services in Canada as measured by number of tax returns prepared and the number of retail offices. For the 2012 tax season, we had a network of 2,098 franchisees and nearly 4,200 offices, the majority of which had been opened within the past five years, and many of which are in the initial stages of growth. We believe that there is no existing smaller competitor in the retail tax preparation market that could challenge our market position on a national scale due to the expense and length of time required to develop the infrastructure, systems and software necessary to create and support a nationwide network of tax preparation offices. As a result, we believe that it would be difficult for an additional national competitor to emerge in our market for the foreseeable future. Moreover, our brand identity and substantial growth have helped us cement strong repeat business in our offices. Our brand is reinforced by our Liberty logo and our unique advertising techniques, which include personalized and highly visible marketing strategies. We believe our model creates a powerful platform that allows our franchisees to continue to grow their scale and profitability as they become more seasoned.

A highly scalable and attractive franchise business model.    Our franchise model enables us to rapidly expand while keeping capital expenditures and fixed cost investments low. Virtually all of our offices are

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operated by franchisees, which allows us to focus on marketing, training and expanding our value-added services, while our franchisees focus on locating and opening new office locations and increasing the number of customers at existing locations. We believe that our time-tested and proven franchise strategy, when combined with the economics of our low-cost franchise model, enables us to grow our brand by attracting highly motivated entrepreneurs. Our standard franchise fee per territory is $40,000, which is typically lower than other franchise opportunities, and we offer our franchisees flexible structures and financing options for franchise fees and royalty payments. We believe we offer a stable franchise opportunity and have designed our franchise model to closely align our interests with those of our franchisees in an effort to promote their profitability and return on investment. Our status as a market leader is demonstrated by the fact that we continue to be highly ranked in independent national publications that rank the attractiveness of franchise opportunities and franchisee satisfaction.

Our franchisee and consumer-oriented strategy drives our success and enhances our relationships with our franchisee base.    We believe that we must deliver value to both our franchisees and their customers to further drive our success. We encourage a collaborative and open culture among our franchise base and are proactive in providing ongoing training opportunities to both new and established franchisees. We actively manage our franchise base by enforcing franchisee performance standards in order to optimize systemwide revenue and the royalties we receive from our franchisees. Because of the room for growth in our franchise system, we provide our high-quality franchisees the opportunity to increase the number of offices they own and operate. Our franchise model appeals to a select group of highly motivated individuals who are attracted to a platform that requires them to be intensely focused during the relatively short tax season but also enables them to pursue other business and personal endeavors throughout the rest of the year. Because the personal success of our franchisees is directly tied to the success of their individual offices, we believe our franchisees are more focused than the operators of our primary competitors' non-franchised offices on both providing a positive customer service experience and delivering value to their customers.

The paid tax preparation business is inherently a neighborhood business, and we support our franchisees in utilizing our model in a way that allows them to maximize the success of their offices. Franchisees interact directly with existing and potential customers, which drives high customer loyalty within their market areas. We utilize our mix of franchisee support and services to mitigate the challenges of a franchise business model, which include our lack of direct control over day-to-day operations in the tax offices and our reliance on franchisee growth and expansion to grow our business.

We are a market leader in making financial product choices available to tax customers.    We recognize that some of our customers value the wide range of financial products we enable our franchisees to provide. We have consistently endeavored to provide our franchisees access to a full range of competitive product and service choices, including electronic refund checks ("ERCs"), prepaid debit cards loaded with their tax refund amounts, and refund based loans, along with other electronic filing products and services.

The evolving legal and regulatory climate surrounding some of the financial products that we have made available to our franchisees and their customers has required us to adapt quickly to new limitations that made it more difficult to offer customers the same financial product choices as were available in prior tax seasons. We have adapted to these challenges by developing alternatives for customers, including our "instant cash advance" ("ICA") product, and by ensuring that we are a market leader in this area, and although the law and regulations may continue to change, we expect to be able to continue to give our franchisees and their customers a range of financial product choices that will be at least as broad as that offered by our competitors.

Our experienced management team has a proven track record.    Our senior management team has significant experience in the tax preparation industry. Our founder, Chairman and CEO, John Hewitt, is a pioneer in the tax preparation industry. Prior to Liberty Tax, Mr. Hewitt began his career with H&R Block and was the founder of Jackson Hewitt. Likewise, our Chief Operating Officer, Rufe Vanderpool, has been with Liberty since 2004, and has been in the tax preparation industry since 1998, and our Chief Financial

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Officer, Mark Baumgartner, has been with us since 2003. Many of our other key personnel also have a long history of working in the tax preparation industry.

Our Growth Strategy

We believe we are uniquely positioned within the retail tax preparation industry to seize the available growth opportunities. Our strategy for growth includes:

We plan to grow our number of franchised office locations within the U.S.    We plan to aggressively expand our number of office locations. We believe there is substantial untapped potential for us to add more than 7,000 additional offices, after which we would be comparable to the size of our largest national competitor, H&R Block. We believe we can increase the average number of tax offices operated by our franchisees by continuing to offer programs and support designed to encourage franchisees to expand their business. For example, we intend to place new and existing franchisees in remaining undeveloped geographic territories. We have recently begun to offer existing franchisees the ability to operate in additional territories for one tax season before electing to acquire those territories. We believe we can achieve this growth because we have a significant number of undeveloped territories. We also offer several innovative programs for new and existing franchisees, including the introduction in 2011 of a "zero franchise fee" alternative that allows franchisees to minimize their initial investment in exchange for paying higher royalties during the first five years of the franchise term. In addition, we recently entered into an agreement with Walmart that will allow Liberty Tax offices to operate as kiosks in a number of Walmart stores during the 2013 and 2014 tax seasons. We anticipate that our franchisees and we will operate these kiosks in more than 300 Walmart stores during the 2013 tax season.

We plan to grow our number of returns.    Many of our offices are relatively new, and as they continue to become more seasoned, will be able to add new customers who we expect will become repeat customers. Approximately 42% of our retail offices open during the 2012 tax season were in the first three years of operation, providing substantial room to add additional customers. Our new retail offices typically experience their most rapid growth during their first five years as they develop customer loyalty, operational experience and a referral base within their community. In addition, we believe that our unique marketing programs, customer oriented services, easy to use tax preparation software, and national presence will continue to drive the number of tax returns prepared in our franchised offices.

We are poised to take advantage of anticipated industry consolidation and strategic opportunities to increase our number of offices and returns.    We expect to benefit from anticipated industry consolidation as we believe many independent tax preparers will look to exit the industry as they confront increased costs, regulatory requirements and demands to provide financial products. We believe we will be a beneficiary of this consolidation because we are able to more efficiently address changing regulatory requirements due to our scale and also because we have succeeded in providing a fully competitive mix of the kinds of financial products sought by customers. In addition, our reputation in the market should continue to drive new customers to our brand, which will also enhance our position in a consolidating industry. As a result, we believe we will continue to accrete market share by virtue of our attractive platform for preparers and for new franchisees looking to capture customers from exiting independent preparers. We may also consider larger strategic transactions if those opportunities arise.

We may strategically acquire Area Developer ("AD") areas.    We operate under a two-tier franchise system, which includes franchisees operating retail offices in "territories" that encompass a target population of approximately 30,000 people and ADs that operate in areas that include large clusters of territories. We use ADs to help us build out our retail franchise base by marketing available franchise territories. We initiated our AD program in 2001, at a time when we were seeking to accelerate the growth of our franchise system. We continued utilizing the AD program in recent years to focus on areas with large underdeveloped groups of territories we believed would benefit from the dedicated sales attention that an AD would bring to our franchise sales process. We presently have 178 active AD areas, and as of July 31,

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2012, those areas had 3,919 unsold franchise territories located within them. Our arrangements with our ADs require us to pay a substantial portion of the franchise fees and royalties we receive to our ADs. Although we still expect to grow our franchise network through the sale of new AD areas, opportunities often arise to acquire underperforming AD areas or AD areas in more mature markets at favorable terms, offering us better future profitability from the associated franchise locations as a consequence of repurchasing the area rights of those ADs.

We will leverage our financial products leadership to attract and retain customers and to market our competitive advantage to prospective franchisees.    We have expended considerable effort since 2009 to ensure that our franchisees are able to offer a complete range of tax-related financial products to our customers, and to provide our customers choices in these products. We began to pilot our ICA refund loan product in a limited number of states in the 2011 and 2012 tax seasons. We expect to be able to offer ICAs in more than 30 states in the 2013 tax season, and are exploring other alternatives to make tax settlement product choices available to consumers. We are also exploring product alternatives in the states where we may not offer ICAs. At the same time, we expect to continue to offer non-loan tax settlement products such as ERCs to customers in all of our offices. We believe that our innovation in offering alternatives to the traditional refund anticipation loan ("RAL") will allow us to attract and retain customers by meeting customer demand for quicker access to funds. This competitive advantage over some of our competitors who are not offering similar ranges of products should also permit us to demonstrate to prospective new franchisees, as well as franchisees considering expansion, the potential advantages of the Liberty Tax brand.

Risk Factors Associated with our Business

You should carefully consider the risks described under the "Risk Factors" section and elsewhere in this prospectus. These risks could materially and adversely impact our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flow, which could cause the trading price of our Class A common stock to decline and could result in a partial or total loss of your investment.

Recent Stock Listing

We filed a registration statement on Form 10 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was declared effective on June 13, 2012. Accordingly, we became subject to the reporting requirements of Securities Exchange Act of 1934 in June 2012, and after a short period of trading on the over-the-counter bulletin board, became listed on The NASDAQ Global Market effective July 2, 2012. Our Class A Common Stock is traded under the symbol "TAX."

Corporate Information

We were originally incorporated in Delaware in September 2010 as JTH Holding, Inc. We are the holding company for JTH Tax, Inc. d/b/a Liberty Tax Service, which was incorporated in Delaware in October 1996. Our principal executive offices are located at 1716 Corporate Landing Parkway, Virginia Beach, Virginia 23454. Our corporate website address is www.libertytax.com. Information contained on or accessible through our website is not a part of this prospectus and the inclusion of our website addresses in this prospectus is an inactive textual reference only.

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The Offering

The number of shares of our Class A common stock to be outstanding immediately after this offering is based on 13,125,833 shares of our Class A common stock (including shares issuable as a result of the conversion of exchangeable shares) outstanding as of September 30, 2012 and excludes:

•

2,475,177 shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the exercise of options outstanding as of September 30, 2012 granted pursuant to the JTH Tax, Inc. Stock Option Plan, as amended (the "1998 Stock Option Plan"), 2,032,677 of which were exercisable within 60 days of September 30, 2012; and



•

328,135 shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the exercise of options, and 15,971 shares underlying restricted stock units, outstanding as of September 30, 2012 and granted pursuant to our 2011 Equity and Cash Incentive Plan (the "2011 Equity and Cash Incentive Plan") and 1,957,739 shares reserved for grant or future issuance under that plan, none of which were exercisable or deliverable within 60 days of September 30, 2012.

Unless otherwise stated, information in this prospectus (except for the historical financial statements) assumes no exercise of the underwriters' option to purchase additional shares.

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Summary Consolidated Financial and Other Data

The following tables summarize the consolidated financial data for our business. You should read this summary in conjunction with "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," "Selected Consolidated Financial Data," and our consolidated financial statements and related notes, all included elsewhere in this prospectus. We derived the consolidated statements of income data for the years ended April 30, 2010, 2011 and 2012 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of April 30, 2011 and 2012 from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. The balance sheet data as of April 30, 2010 has been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements not included in this prospectus. We derived the consolidated statements of income data for the three-month periods ended July 31, 2011 and 2012 and the balance sheet data as of July 31, 2012 from our unaudited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. We derived the balance sheet data as of July 31, 2011 from our unaudited consolidated financial statements not included in this prospectus. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future. The unaudited consolidated financial information was prepared on a basis consistent with that used in preparing our audited consolidated financial statements and includes all adjustments, consisting of normal and recurring items, that we consider necessary for a fair presentation of the financial position and results of operations for the unaudited periods. The interim results of operations are not indicative of the results that may be expected for a full fiscal year because of the seasonality of our business.

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Adjusted EBITDA

To provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we have disclosed in the table above and within this prospectus Adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA represents net income, before income taxes, interest expense, depreciation and amortization and certain other items specified below. We have provided a reconciliation below of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

We have included Adjusted EBITDA in this prospectus because we seek to manage our business to achieve higher levels of Adjusted EBITDA and to improve the level of Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue. In addition, it is a key basis upon which we assess the performance of our operations and management. We also use Adjusted EBITDA for business planning and the evaluation of acquisition opportunities. In particular, the exclusion of certain expenses in calculating Adjusted EBITDA can provide a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons. We believe the presentation of Adjusted EBITDA enhances our investors' overall understanding of the financial performance of and prospects for our business. Adjusted EBITDA is not a recognized financial measure under GAAP, and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies in our industry. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation from or as an alternative to net income (loss), operating income (loss) or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP.

The following table presents a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA for each of the periods indicated:

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Risk Factors

The text below discusses the material risks faced by us of which we are aware. Before making an investment in our Class A common stock, you should carefully consider the risks described below, as well as the other information set forth in this prospectus, including the information contained in our consolidated financial statements and the related notes. If any of the risks or uncertainties described below were to occur, our business, financial condition and results of operations would likely be materially and adversely affected. In these circumstances, the trading price of our common stock would likely decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Related To Our Business

Because much of our growth has been achieved through rapidly establishing new offices, we may not achieve the same level of growth in revenues and profits in future years.

Historically our growth has been driven by selling franchises and entering into agreements with ADs who have assisted us in expanding our geographic reach. Our future viability, profitability and growth will depend upon our ability to successfully operate and continue to expand our operations in the United States and Canada. Furthermore, our business has experienced rapid growth in the number of franchisees and office locations in large geographic markets, and our continued growth in those markets may not continue at the same pace. Our ability to continue to grow our business will be subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and will depend in large part on:

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adding new customers and retaining existing customers;



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innovating new products and services to meet the needs of our customers;



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finding new opportunities in our existing and new markets;



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remaining competitive in the tax return preparation industry;



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our ability to offer directly and to facilitate through others the sale of financial products;



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attracting and retaining capable franchisees and ADs;



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our success in replacing independent preparers with franchisees;



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hiring, training and retaining skilled managers and seasonal employees; and



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expanding and improving the efficiency of our operations and systems.

There can be no assurance that any of our efforts will prove successful or that we will continue to achieve growth in revenues and profits.

The highly seasonal nature of our business presents a number of financial risks and operational challenges, which if we fail to meet could materially affect our business.

Our business is highly seasonal, with the substantial portion of our revenue earned in the January through April "tax season" in the United States and Canada each year. The concentration of our revenue-generating activity during this relatively short period presents a number of challenges for us and our franchisees, including:

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cash and resource management during the first eight months of our fiscal year, when we generally operate at a loss and incur fixed costs and costs of preparing for the upcoming tax season;



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the availability of seasonal employees willing to work for our franchisees for little more than the minimum wage, with minimal benefits, for periods of less than a year;



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the success of our franchisees in hiring, training, and supervising these employees and dealing with turnover rates;



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accurate forecasting of revenues and expenses, because we may have little or no time to respond to changes in competitive conditions, markets, pricing, and new product offerings by competitors, which could affect our position during the tax season;

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disruptions in one tax season, including any customer dissatisfaction issues, may not be discovered until the following tax season; and



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ensuring optimal uninterrupted operations during peak season.

If we experience significant business disruptions during the tax season or if we or our franchisees are unable to meet the challenges described above, we could experience a loss of business, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our future success will depend in part upon the continued services of our senior management, including our CEO, as well as our ability to attract and retain capable middle management.

Failure to maintain the continued services of senior management personnel or to attract and maintain capable middle management could have a material adverse effect on us. If any of our senior management were to leave the company, including our Chairman and CEO, John Hewitt, it could be difficult to replace him or her, and our operations and ability to manage day-to-day aspects of our business, as well as our ability to continue to grow our business, may be materially adversely affected. Our future success will also depend in part upon our ability to attract and retain capable middle management, such as regional directors, consultants for franchised offices, training directors, tax advisors and computer personnel, having the specific executive skills necessary to assist us and our franchisees. We face competition for personnel from numerous other entities, including competing tax return preparation firms, some of which have significantly greater resources than us.

Because we are not a financial institution, we can only facilitate the sale of financial products through our arrangements with financial institutions and other financial partners, and if these arrangements are terminated for any reason, we may not be able to replace them on acceptable terms or at all.

In the United States, approximately 21% of our net revenue during our 2012 fiscal year was directly derived from our facilitation of the sale of financial products provided to our customers by financial institutions and other lenders or providers, and we believe that percentage may grow in future tax seasons. Our tax return preparation business is also, to some extent, dependent on our ability to facilitate the sale of these products, because our customers are often attracted to our business by the expectation that these products will be available. Financial products that monetize future tax refunds are specialized financial products, and if our arrangements with the financial institutions and other partners that provide our financial products were to terminate and we were unable to enter into an alternative relationship on acceptable terms, or at all, our financial results could be materially adversely affected. In addition, any changes in our contractual terms with these financial institutions and other partners that result in a reduction in our fee income, if not offset by customer growth associated with lower fees, could adversely affect our profitability. See "— Risks Related to Regulation of Our Industry — We may be unsuccessful in litigation that characterizes ERCs as loans, which could subject us to damages and additional regulation, and which could adversely affect our ability to offer financial products and have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial results."

The loan products that we offer through non-bank lenders may be limited in scope, are dependent on the availability of financing, may be more expensive and could subject us to greater risk of loss.

During the 2011 tax season, we entered into a relationship with a non-bank lender to offer our ICA product to customers in a limited number of our offices. We expanded this program in the 2012 tax season and expect further expansion of similar arrangements in subsequent tax seasons, particularly in light of our previous bank partner's inability to offer RALs after the 2012 tax season. See "Business — Tax Preparation in the Liberty System — Loan Based Products." Because some of the products such as ICAs being offered and expected to be offered by us are being offered in conjunction with third party lenders that are not subject to federal banking law regulations, the products that we offer through these lenders subject us to additional laws and regulation at the state level. These laws and regulations may make the products more

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expensive for us to offer and may increase the cost of these products to our customers. Moreover, we do not expect to be able to offer ICAs in all of the states in which we previously offered RALs due to certain regulatory restrictions. Our ability to maintain and expand the program will depend on the availability of additional third-party financing we have not yet secured. The impact of this additional layer of regulation and the availability of funding may therefore limit our product offerings, and adversely affect our profitability. Moreover, because we are continuing to develop loan underwriting criteria for ICAs, these third parties may experience a higher rate of loss on these loans. We guaranteed loan losses incurred by the third party lender in our ICA program during 2011 and 2012, and if we incur losses as a result of similar guarantees in the future that exceed our income related to these products, they could adversely affect our results of operations. To the extent ICAs become a more significant product in our portfolio of financial products, our risk of incurring losses due to these or similar guarantees will also increase.

We face significant competition in the tax return preparation business and face a competitive threat from software providers and internet businesses that increasingly enable and encourage taxpayers to prepare their own tax returns.

The tax return preparation industry is characterized by intense competition. We compete with H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt, which are larger and more widely recognized than us, and with smaller independent tax return preparation services, small franchisors, regional tax return preparation businesses, accounting firms and financial service institutions that prepare tax returns as part of their business. Additionally, many taxpayers in our target market prepare their own returns. The availability of these alternative options may reduce demand for our products and limit the fees our franchisees can charge, and competitors may develop or offer more attractive or lower cost products and services than ours, which could erode, our consumer base.

We also face increased competitive challenges from the online and software self-preparer market, including the Free File Alliance ("FFA"), a consortium of the IRS and online preparation services that provides free online tax return preparation, and assistance from volunteer organizations that prepare tax returns at no cost for low-income taxpayers. In addition, many of our direct competitors offer certain free online tax preparation and electronic filing options, and limited in-office promotions of free tax preparation services. Government tax authorities, volunteer organizations and direct competitors may elect to expand free offerings in the future. Intense price competition, including offers of free service, could result in a loss of market share, lower revenues or lower margins. Our ability to compete in the tax return preparation business depends on our product offerings, price for services, customer service, the specific site locations of our offices, local economic conditions, quality of on-site office management, the ability to file tax returns electronically with the IRS and the availability of financial products to our customers.

We rely on our own proprietary tax preparation software, and any difficulties in deploying or utilizing our software each tax season could adversely affect our business.

We have utilized our own tax preparation software, beginning with the 2007 tax season. However, tax changes made by the federal and state governments each year, and changes in tax forms, require us to make substantial changes to our software before the beginning of each tax season. Although we engage in extensive testing of our software before deploying it in our franchisees' tax preparation offices, any problems with the rollout of the new software each season could delay our franchisees' ability to file tax returns at the beginning of the tax season, and could adversely affect our business.

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Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights may harm our competitive position, and litigation to protect our intellectual property rights or defend against third party allegations of infringement may be costly.

We regard our intellectual property as critical to the success of our business. Third parties may infringe or misappropriate our trademarks or other intellectual property rights, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or operating results. The actions we take to protect our trademarks and other proprietary rights may not be adequate. Litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our trade secrets or determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. There are no assurances that we will be able to prevent infringement of our intellectual property rights or misappropriation of our proprietary information. Any infringement or misappropriation could harm any competitive advantage we currently derive or may derive from our proprietary rights. In addition, third parties may assert infringement claims against us. Any claims and any resulting litigation could subject us to significant liability for damages. An adverse determination in any litigation of this type could require us to design around a third party's patent or to license alternative technology from another party. Litigation is time-consuming and expensive to defend and could result in the diversion of our time and resources. Any claims from third parties may also result in limitations on our ability to use the intellectual property subject to these claims.

Our business relies on technology systems and electronic communications, which, if disrupted, could significantly affect our business.

Our ability to file tax returns electronically and to facilitate financial products depends on our ability to electronically communicate with all of our offices, the IRS, state tax agencies and the financial institutions that provide the financial products. Our electronic communications network is subject to disruptions of various magnitudes and durations. Any severe disruption of our network or electronic communications, especially during the tax season, could impair our ability to complete our customers' tax filings, to provide financial products from financial institutions or to maintain our operations, which, in turn, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are dependent on our financing sources and any loss of financing could materially and adversely affect our operating results and our ability to expand our business.

We are dependent upon the continued availability of our credit facility, which consists of a term loan and a revolving loan, in order to fund our seasonal needs and for the further expansion of our business. Were we to default on our financing or otherwise lose access to our sources of credit, our ability to provide financing to our franchisees would be significantly impaired, and may result in certain offices closing if our franchisees are not able to secure alternative financing for their working capital needs. In addition, our ability to expand our business would be impaired. We may need to obtain new credit arrangements and other sources of financing to continue to provide financing to our franchisees, to meet future obligations and to fund our future growth. Our ability to maintain or refinance our debt and fund other obligations depends on our successful financial and operating performance and the availability of funds from credit markets. There is no assurance that when our credit facility matures in 2017, we will be able to renew or refinance our debt or enter into new credit arrangements on terms similar to those of our existing loans.

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Our credit facility contains restrictive covenants and other requirements that may limit our business flexibility by imposing operating and financial restrictions on our operations.

Our credit facility is secured by substantially all of our assets, including the assets of our subsidiaries. We are subject to a number of covenants that could potentially restrict how we carry out our business, or that require us to meet certain periodic tests in the form of financial covenants. The restrictions we consider to be material to our ongoing business include the following:

•

We must satisfy a "leverage ratio" test that is based on our outstanding indebtedness at the end of each fiscal quarter.



•

We must satisfy a "fixed charge coverage ratio" test at the end of each fiscal quarter.



•

We must reduce the outstanding balance under our revolving loan to zero for a period of at least 45 consecutive days each fiscal year.

Our credit facility also contains customary affirmative and negative covenants, including limitations on indebtedness, limitations on liens and negative pledges, limitations on investments, loans and acquisitions, limitations on mergers, consolidations, liquidations and dissolutions, limitations on sales of assets, limitations on certain restricted payments and limitations on transactions with affiliates, among others. Our revolving credit facility also includes change of control provisions that may result in our obligations under that facility accelerating if certain change of control events were to occur, including if John Hewitt, our Chairman and CEO, ceases to control our company.

A breach of any of these covenants, tests or mandatory payments could limit our ability to borrow funds under the revolving loan or result in a default under our credit facility. In addition, these covenants may prevent us from incurring additional indebtedness to expand our operations and execute our business strategy, including making acquisitions. We may also from time to time seek to refinance all or a portion of our debt or incur additional debt in the future. Any such future debt or other contracts could contain covenants more restrictive than those in our existing credit facility. Our ability to comply with the covenants, tests or mandatory payments in our credit facility may be affected by events beyond our control, including prevailing economic, financial and industry conditions or our ability to make financial products available to our customers. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Liquidity and Capital Resources — Overview of factors affecting our liquidity — Credit facility."

Our floating rate debt financing exposes us to interest rate risk.

We may borrow amounts under our revolving loan that bear interest at rates that vary with prevailing market interest rates. Accordingly, if we do not adequately hedge our interest rate risk, a rise in market interest rates will adversely affect our financial results. We expect to draw most heavily on our revolving loan from July through January of each year and then repay all or substantially all of the borrowings by the end of each tax season. Therefore, a significant rise in interest rates during our off-season could have a disproportionate impact on our financial results during these months.

The lines of business in which we operate involve substantial litigation, and such litigation may damage our reputation or result in material liabilities and losses.

We have been named, from time to time, as a defendant in various legal actions, including arbitrations, class actions and other litigation arising in connection with our various business activities. Adverse outcomes related to litigation could result in substantial damages and could cause our net income to decline or may require us to alter our business operations. Negative public opinion can also result from our actual or alleged conduct in such claims, possibly damaging our reputation, which could negatively impact our financial performance and could cause the market price of our stock to decline. See "Business — Legal Proceedings."

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If we fail to protect, or fail to comply with laws and regulations related to, our customers' personal information, we may face significant fines, penalties or damages and our brand and reputation may be harmed.

Privacy concerns relating to the disclosure of consumer financial information have drawn increased attention from federal and state governments in the United States. The IRS generally prohibits the use or disclosure by tax return preparers of taxpayers' information without the prior written consent of the taxpayer. In addition, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and other Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") regulations require financial service providers, including tax return preparers, to adopt and disclose consumer privacy policies and provide consumers with a reasonable opportunity to opt out of having personal information disclosed to unaffiliated third parties for advertising purposes. We and our franchisees manage highly sensitive client information in our operations, and although we have established security procedures to protect against identity theft and require our franchisees to do the same, breaches of our customers' privacy may occur. If the measures we have taken prove to be insufficient or inadequate or if our franchisees fail to meet their obligations in this area, we and our franchisees may become subject to litigation or administrative sanctions, which could result in significant fines, penalties or damages and harm to our brand and reputation, which in turn could negatively impact our ability to retain our customers. We may be required to invest additional resources to protect us against damages caused by these actual or perceived disruptions or security breaches in the future. We could also suffer reputational harm from a security breach or inappropriate disclosure of customer information. Changes in these federal and state regulatory requirements could result in more stringent requirements and could result in a need to change business practices, including how information is disclosed. These changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we and our franchisees are unable to attract and retain qualified employees, our financial performance could be materially adversely affected.

Both we and our franchisees depend on the ability to hire a substantial number of seasonal employees for each tax season. We require seasonal employees in order to staff our franchises and customer call centers and company-owned offices, and our franchisees require employees to implement marketing programs, to act as tax preparers and to otherwise staff their offices. The ability of our franchisees and us to meet our labor needs is subject to many external factors, including competition for qualified personnel, unemployment levels in each of the markets in which we have offices, prevailing wage rates, minimum wage laws, and workplace regulation. Our franchisees require a substantial number of employees who are willing to become trained as tax preparers, and who have the ability to engage in temporary, seasonal employment. Moreover, in addition to our seasonal employees, we hire a substantial number of full-time employees who are required to have the technical skills necessary to participate in software development, database management, and other highly technical tasks. If we and our franchisees are not able to hire a sufficient supply of qualified seasonal employees, or if we are not able to secure employees with the technical skills we require for other purposes, our ability to serve our customers in our offices, to deploy our marketing programs, and to maintain the services that our franchisees require may be compromised and have a material adverse effect on our business.

An increase in the minimum wage may adversely affect the operations of our franchisees.

Many of the seasonal employees hired by our franchisees for each tax season receive compensation at or near the minimum wage. If our franchisees experience increases in payroll expenses as a result of government-mandated increases in the minimum wage, their costs of operation may increase at a rate greater than their ability to raise the prices of the services they offer. If this occurs, our franchisees may not be able to maintain seasonal employment at levels that will provide an optimal level of customer service and marketing support, their marketing and advertising programs may be less effective, and their results of operations may be adversely affected, which could in turn adversely affect our results of operations.

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If credit market volatility affects our financial partners or franchisees, our business and financial performance could be adversely affected.

In recent years, the credit markets experienced unprecedented volatility and disruption, causing many lenders and institutional investors to cease providing funding to even the most creditworthy borrowers or to other financial institutions. If additional credit market volatility prevents our financial partners from providing financial products to our customers, limits the financial products offered or results in us having to incur further financial obligations to support our financial partners, our revenues or profitability could decline. The cost and availability of funds has also adversely impacted our franchisees ability to grow and operate their businesses, which could cause our revenues or profitability to decline. In addition, continued disruptions in the credit markets could adversely affect our ability to sell territories to new or existing franchisees, causing our revenues or profitability to decline.

Because the tax season is relatively short and straddles two quarters, our quarterly results may not be indicative of our performance, which may increase the volatility of the trading price of our Class A common stock.

We experience quarterly variations in revenues and operating income as a result of many factors, including the highly seasonal nature of the tax return preparation business, the timing of off-season activities and the hiring of personnel. Due to the foregoing factors, our quarter-to-quarter results vary significantly. In addition, because our peak period straddles the third and fourth quarters, any delay or acceleration in the number of tax returns processed in January may make our year-to-year quarterly comparisons not as meaningful as year-to-year tax season comparisons. To the extent our quarterly results vary significantly from year to year, our stock price may be subject to significant volatility.

Risks Related to Our Franchise Business

Our success is tied to the growth and operations of our franchises.

Our financial success depends on our franchisees and the manner in which they operate and develop their offices. We do not exercise direct control over the day-to-day operations of our franchises, and our franchisees may not operate their offices in a manner consistent with our philosophy and standards and may not increase the level of revenues generated compared to prior tax seasons. Our growth and revenues may therefore be adversely affected. There can be no assurance that the training programs and quality control procedures we have established will be effective in enabling franchisees to run profitable tax preparation businesses or that we will be able to identify problems or take corrective action quickly enough. In addition, failure by a franchisee to provide service at acceptable levels may result in adverse publicity that can materially adversely affect our reputation and ability to compete in the market in which the franchisee is located.

If our franchisees fail to open offices in new territories, or if they are not successful in operating their new offices, our franchise-related revenue and results of operation will be adversely affected.

Each year, we anticipate adding offices to our franchise system, but the opening of these offices depends on the purchase of additional territories by our franchisees, and on the opening of offices in territories previously purchased and newly purchased. Many factors go into opening a new office, including obtaining a suitable office location, the availability of sufficient start-up capital, and the ability to recruit tax preparers and other personnel to work in new offices. If a significant number of offices that we expect to be open in a tax season fail to open, are delayed, or open in unsuitable locations or with insufficient personnel, the revenue we expect to receive from royalty payments and the repayment of indebtedness to us by our franchisees will be adversely affected. Because we utilize an almost exclusively franchise business model, we do not have the same flexibility to open new offices as our competitors that make greater use of company-owned offices.

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Our operating results may be adversely affected by the default of our franchisees and ADs on loans made by us or third parties.

We extend financing to certain franchisees for initial franchise fees, as cash advances for their working capital needs and for other purposes. The financing is in the form of promissory notes payable to us. There can be no assurance that any franchisee will generate revenue sufficient to repay any amounts due, nor is there any assurance that any franchisee will be able to repay through other means any amounts due. At July 31, 2012, the aggregate amount due to us from franchisees for financing was more than $78 million (which includes amounts owed to ADs for their portion of royalties and franchise fees), including accrued interest. This aggregate amount typically increases over the first three quarters of the fiscal year as we provide additional advances to franchisees. Any failure by the franchisees to pay these amounts, if the amounts are not recoverable by us through other means, could have a material adverse effect on our financial performance.

We also extend financing to ADs from time-to-time for a portion of their area development fees. At July 31, 2012, the amount due to us from ADs for financing was $21.0 million. If our ADs fail to pay these amounts, and if the amounts are not recoverable by us through other means, our business and financial condition may be adversely affected.

Moreover, in some cases, we may be liable for office leases or other contractual obligations that have been assumed by purchasers of company-owned offices and acquired tax practices. If the franchisees default on third-party obligations for which we continue to have liability, our operating results will be adversely affected.

We may be held responsible by third parties, regulators or courts for the action of, or failure to act, by our franchisees, and be exposed to possible fines, other liabilities and bad publicity.

We grant our franchisees a limited license to use our registered service marks and, accordingly, there is risk that one or more of the franchisees may be identified as being controlled by us. Third parties, regulators, or courts may seek to hold us responsible for the actions or failures to act by our franchisees. The failure of our franchisees to comply with laws and regulations may expose us to liability and damages that may have an adverse effect on our business.

The Liberty Tax brand could be impaired due to actions taken by our franchisees or otherwise.

We believe the Liberty Tax brand is one of our most valuable assets in that it provides us with a competitive advantage, particularly over our competitors that do not have a national presence. Our franchisees operate their businesses under our brand. Because our franchisees are independent third parties with their own financial objectives, actions taken by them, including breaches of their contractual obligations, and negative publicity associated with these actions, could adversely affect our reputation and brand more broadly. Any actions as a result of conduct by our franchisees or otherwise which negatively impacts our reputation and brand may result in fewer customers and lower revenues and profits for us.

Our tax return preparation compliance program may not be successful in detecting all problems in our franchisee network.

Although our tax return preparation compliance program seeks to monitor the activities of our franchisees, it is unlikely to detect every problem. While we have implemented a variety of measures to enhance tax return preparation compliance as well as our monitoring of these activities, there can be no assurance that franchisees and tax preparers will follow these procedures. Failure to detect tax return preparation compliance issues could harm our reputation and expose us to the risk of government investigation or litigation and could subject us to remedies that could cause our revenues or profitability to decline.

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Disputes with our franchisees may have a material adverse effect on our business.

From time to time, we engage in disputes with some of our franchisees, and some of these disputes result in litigation or arbitration proceedings. Disputes with our franchisees may require us to incur significant legal fees, subject us to damages, and occupy a disproportionate amount of management's time. A material increase in the number of these disputes, or unfavorable outcomes in these disputes, may have a material adverse effect on our business. To the extent we have disputes with our franchisees, our relationships with our franchisees could be negatively impacted, which could hurt our growth prospects or negatively impact our financial performance.

Our operating results depend on the effectiveness of our marketing and advertising programs and franchisee support of these programs.

Our revenues are heavily influenced by brand marketing and advertising. If our marketing and advertising programs are unsuccessful, we may fail to retain existing customers and attract new customers, which could limit the growth of our revenues or profitability or result in a decline in our revenues or profitability. Moreover, because franchisees are required to pay us marketing and advertising fees based on a percentage of their revenues, our marketing fund expenditures are dependent upon sales volumes of our franchisees.

The support of our franchisees is critical for the success of our marketing programs and any new strategic initiatives we seek to undertake. While we can mandate certain strategic initiatives through enforcement of our franchise agreements, we need the active support of our franchisees if the implementation of our marketing programs and strategic initiatives is to be successful. Although certain actions are required of our franchisees under the franchise agreements, there can be no assurance that our franchisees will continue to support our marketing programs and strategic initiatives. The failure of our franchisees to support our marketing programs and strategic initiatives would adversely affect our ability to implement our business strategy and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our zero franchise fee sales model may produce less revenue than our standard franchise fee model.

In June 2011, we introduced a new option for new and existing franchisees to purchase territories without the payment of a franchise fee. This arrangement requires the franchisee to pay higher royalties for the first five years of the new franchise. The zero franchise fee sales model has caused a reduction in the franchise fee revenue we receive from franchise territory sales. If this program is unsuccessful, the franchisees may fail to generate future royalties at a higher rate sufficient to offset the franchise fee revenue we forgo. In addition, franchisees may find it difficult to conduct their operations successfully because a greater percentage of their revenues will be diverted to pay higher royalties. If the new model does not generate new and successful offices, our ability to grow our revenues and profitability may be materially and adversely affected.

Risks Related to Regulation of Our Industry

Federal and state regulators may impose new regulations on non-loan financial products that would make those products more expensive for us to offer or more difficult for our customers to obtain.

Consumer advocacy organizations and some government officials have asserted that non-loan financial products, such as the ERCs we offer, should be treated as loan products or otherwise be more heavily regulated. These groups assert that ERCs and similar products are loans because most customers complete the payment for their tax preparation and related fees at the time their refund is disbursed and that the customer has therefore received an extension of credit because of a purported deferral of the tax preparation fees until the refund is received. We are subject to a lower state court judgment in the State of California, which we are in the process of appealing, that treats ERC products that we provide in that state as if they were loans. In addition, certain litigation discussed below involving us and others in the tax industry include claims that ERCs and similar products constitute loans. If we are unsuccessful in our California appeal or if

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other state or federal courts or agencies successfully require us to treat ERCs as if they are loans, we may be subject to the cost of additional regulation, including disclosure requirements that could reduce the demand for these products by potential customers, and may be subject to limitations on our ability to offer these products, which could materially adversely affect our operations. See "Business — Legal Proceedings" and "— Regulation — Potential regulation of ERCs or treatment of ERCs as loans."

We may be unsuccessful in litigation that characterizes ERCs as loans, which could subject us to damages and additional regulation, and which could adversely affect our ability to offer financial products and have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial results.

We were sued in November 2011 in four states, and additional lawsuits have been filed in five other states since the initial filings. These cases have now been consolidated before a single judge in federal court in the Northern District of Illinois. The consolidated complaint alleges violations of state-specific RAL and other consumer statutes, alleging that an ERC represents a form of RAL, because the taxpayer is "loaned" the tax preparation fee, and that an ERC is therefore subject to federal truth-in-lending disclosure and state law requirements regulating RALs. We are aware that virtually identical lawsuits have been filed against three of our competitors.

Although this litigation is at an early stage, and no resolution is expected in the near term, we may be subject to damages in these cases, which purport to be class action lawsuits. These damages could be based on fees charged to prior customers, and could be substantial if we are not able to recover those damages from our financial product partners who designed the ERC programs and related disclosures. Moreover, if we are unsuccessful in these cases, we may also become subject to existing state regulations governing RALs (in the states that have such regulations) and the costs of additional regulation, including disclosure requirements, and we may be subject to limitations on our ability to offer these products. These additional disclosure requirements could reduce the demand for these products by potential customers, and the possible application of state lending and other RAL-related statutes and regulations might adversely affect our fee income to the extent those statutes or regulations impose limitations on fees that we now charge in connection with ERCs. If it becomes more difficult for us and our franchisees to offer these products to taxpayers, or if we are subject to damages in this litigation, it could materially and adversely affect our operations and financial results. See "Business — Regulation — Potential regulation of ERCs or treatment of ERCs as loans."

The failure by us, our franchisees or the financial institutions and other lenders that provide financial products to our customers through us and our franchisees to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including with respect to tax return preparation or financial products, could result in substantial sanctions against us or require changes to our business practices that could harm our profitability and reputation.

Our tax return preparation business, including our franchise operations and facilitation of financial products, are subject to extensive regulation and oversight in the United States by the IRS, the FTC and by federal and state regulatory and law enforcement agencies and similar entities in Canada. The profitability of our future operations will therefore depend in large part on our continued ability to comply with federal and state franchise regulations, and in Canada on our continued ability to comply with Canadian and provincial franchise regulations. If governmental agencies with jurisdiction over our operations were to conclude that our business practices, the practices of our franchisees, or those of financial institutions and other lenders with which we conduct our business, violate applicable laws, we could become subject to sanctions that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. These sanctions may include, without limitation:

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civil monetary damages and penalties;



•

criminal penalties; and



•

injunctions or other restrictions on the manner in which we conduct our business.

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In addition, the financial institutions and other providers of financial products to our customers are also subject to significant regulation and oversight by federal and state regulators, including banking regulators. The failure of these providers to comply with the regulatory requirements of federal and state government regulatory bodies, including banking and consumer protection laws, could affect their ability to continue to provide financial products to our customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our customers' inability to obtain financial products through our tax return preparation offices could cause our revenues or profitability to decline. We also may be required to change business practices, which could alter the way financial products are facilitated and could cause our revenues or profitability to decline.

Federal and state legislators and regulators have increasingly taken an active role in regulating RALs, and because our ability to offer RALs or similar products in future tax seasons may be limited, demand for our services may be reduced, we may be exposed to additional credit risk and our business may be harmed.

From time to time, government officials at the federal and state levels introduce and enact legislation and regulations proposing to regulate or prevent the facilitation of RALs and similar financial products, and take other actions that have the effect of restricting the availability of RALs. Certain of the proposed legislation, regulations and activities could increase costs to us, our franchisees and the financial institutions and other parties that provide our financial products, or could negatively impact or eliminate the ability of financial institutions to provide RALs and similar products through tax return preparation offices.

The financial institutions that have provided financial products such as RALs are subject to significant regulation and oversight by federal and state regulators, including banking regulators. Due to the specialized nature of RALs and other financial products, relatively few financial institutions have offered them. In the 2011 and 2012 tax seasons, the provider of RALs to our customers, Republic Bank & Trust Company ("Republic Bank") was the last bank continuing to offer RALs in any significant number, because several other banks had exited the business under regulatory pressure. In December 2011, Republic Bank reached a settlement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") that required Republic Bank to cease to offer RALs after the 2012 tax season. For this reason, if we are to continue to offer RALs or similar refund-related loans (such as ICAs) to our customers in the 2013 and subsequent tax seasons, we will be required to do so through non-bank lenders.

In August 2010, the IRS announced that, starting in 2011, it would no longer provide tax preparers or RAL providers with the debt indicator ("DI"), which was used by financial institutions to determine whether to extend credit to a taxpayer in connection with the facilitation of a RAL. In eliminating the DI, the IRS no longer discloses to financial institutions or tax preparers if a taxpayer owes the federal government any money that will be deducted from the taxpayer's expected income tax refund. This action caused Republic Bank during the 2011 and 2012 tax seasons to lower loan amounts available for RAL funding, tighten their credit underwriting criteria resulting in lower approval rates, and increase their pricing for RALs. The unavailability of the DI also subjects us to additional risks when we originate refund-related loans through non-bank lenders because those loans are more difficult for the lenders to underwrite and the lenders therefore require us to assume increased risk with respect to the loans.

Even if we continue to develop relationships that allow us to offer refund-related loans to our customers through non-bank lenders, the laws and regulations that apply to those lenders and us may make these products more expensive to offer, or limit their availability to our customers. The loss of the DI will likely cause approval rates and loan amounts to be lower in future tax seasons, and lenders may issue RALs and similar products that have a greater probability of not being repaid. We may experience a loss of customers because of this change, and to the extent our arrangements with financial institutions impose any of the risk of RAL defaults upon us, our profitability may be reduced. In addition, many states have statutes regulating, through licensing and other requirements, the activities of brokering loans and providing credit

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services to consumers as well as payday loan laws and local usury laws. Some state regulators are interpreting these laws in a manner that could adversely affect the manner in which RALs and other loan products are facilitated, or permitted, or result in fines or penalties to us or our franchisees. Some states are introducing and enacting legislation that would seek to directly apply such laws to RAL facilitators. Additional states may interpret these laws in a manner that is adverse to how we currently conduct our business or how we have conducted our business in the past and we may be required to change business practices or otherwise comply with these statutes and could be subject to fines or penalties or other payments related to past conduct.

Republic Bank's discontinuation of RALs after the 2012 tax season could affect our ability to attract and retain customers.

In each of the 2010, 2011 and 2012 tax seasons, Republic Bank was the sole bank provider of RALs to us. However, in December 2011, Republic Bank settled an administrative proceeding with the FDIC, and as part of that settlement, agreed to discontinue offering RALs following the completion of the 2012 tax season. Given the aggressive position taken by the FDIC against Republic Bank in that administrative proceeding, we do not believe that other federally-insured financial institutions are likely to enter the RAL business.

Because Republic Bank was the last remaining federally insured financial institution that offered RALs, we do not believe we will be able to find another financial institution to provide refund-related loans at the level and in all the locations where we have previously been able to offer refund-related loans to our customers. Our inability to do so will eliminate a competitive advantage we now have over competitors who are unable to offer RALs. This may make it more difficult for us to attract new customers and to retain existing customers who used our services because of the availability of RALs. In fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2011 the percentage of our customers who received RALs was 3.4% and 5.5%, respectively, and our fee income related to RALs represented 1.2% and 2.2% of our total revenues, respectively. Accordingly, if we become unable to offer RALs or similar products, that change could have an adverse effect on our results of operations, although we would expect (as we have experienced in recent tax seasons) a substantial number of customers who would have obtained RALs to instead obtain a non-RAL financial product from which we might receive similar fee revenue.

If our financial product service providers become unable or unwilling to enable us to offer ERCs, we may be unable to offer financial products to our customers.

Our ability to offer ERCs (as well as other financial products that require the creation of a customer bank account) is dependent on the ability and willingness of our financial product service providers to make available to our customers the bank accounts into which their tax refunds are deposited. If any of the federal or state regulatory authorities with the power to regulate these service providers prevents or makes it more difficult for our service providers to make these bank accounts available to our customers, or if the service providers determine that they no longer wish to participate in these transactions, we may be unable to find alternative service providers that will be willing to provide the required number of bank accounts to our customers. We recently terminated our relationship with Republic Bank, which provided 79% of our ERC products during the 2012 tax season. We expect to be able to replace that capacity with other service providers, but if we are unable to make bank accounts available for ERCs, we will not be able to enable our customers to utilize these accounts for the direct deposit of their federal and state tax returns, which would materially affect our ability to offer financial products to those customers.

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Recent legislative and regulatory reforms may have a significant impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

In July 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the "Reform Act") was signed into law, which contains a comprehensive set of provisions designed to govern the practices and oversight of financial institutions and other participants in the financial markets. The full impact of the Reform Act is difficult to assess because many provisions require federal agencies to adopt regulations implementing provisions of the Reform Act. In addition, the Reform Act mandates multiple studies, which could result in additional legislative or regulatory action. The Reform Act, as well as other legislative and regulatory changes, could adversely affect our businesses. There is particular risk associated with the establishment of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") with broad authority to implement new consumer protection regulations. For example, the CFPB may pursue initiatives that negatively impact our ability to offer financial products.

The effect of the Reform Act on our business and operations could be significant, depending upon final implementation of regulations, the initiatives pursued by the CFPB, the actions of our competitors and the behavior of other marketplace participants. In addition, we may be required to invest significant management time and resources to address the various provisions of the Reform Act and the numerous regulations that are required to be issued under it. The Reform Act and any related legislation or regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Increased regulation of tax return preparers could make it more difficult to find qualified tax preparers and could harm our business.

From time to time, the federal government and various states consider regulations regarding the education, testing, licensing, certification and registration of tax return preparers. The IRS is in the process of implementing a new model for tax return preparer regulation. Although we believe that our training for preparers already exceeds the requirements the IRS will impose, regulation of tax return preparers could impact our ability to find an adequate number of tax return preparers to meet the demands of our customers and impose additional costs on us and our franchisees to train tax return preparers, which could cause our revenues and profitability to decline.

Risks Related to Changes in Tax Laws and Regulations

Because demand for our products is related to the complexity of tax return preparation and the frequency of tax law changes, government initiatives that simplify tax return preparation, reduce the need for a third party tax return preparer or lower the number of returns required to be filed may decrease demand for our services and financial products.

Many taxpayers seek assistance from paid tax return preparers such as Liberty Tax Service because of the level of complexity involved in tax return preparation and filing and frequent changes in the tax laws. From time to time politicians and government officials propose measures seeking to simplify the preparation and filing of tax returns. The passage of any measures that significantly simplify tax return preparation or reduce the need for third party tax return preparers may be highly detrimental to our business. In addition, any changes or other initiatives that result in a decrease in the number of tax returns filed or reduce the size of tax refunds could reduce demand for our products and services, causing our revenues or profitability to decline.

For example, several members of Congress have proposed legislation that would authorize or require the IRS to allow taxpayers to access web-based tax preparation tools that would include "pre-populated" tax return forms that would presumably include data provided to the IRS from other government agencies, such as the Social Security Administration. If these or similar proposals are enacted, many tax customers might elect this service rather than paid tax preparation or the use of fee-based tax software or online tax preparation.

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Initiatives that improve the timing and efficiency of processing tax returns could reduce the attractiveness of the financial products offered to our customers and demand for our services.

Our performance depends on our ability to offer access to financial products that increase the speed and efficiency by which our customers can receive their refunds. The federal government and various state and local municipalities have, from time to time, announced initiatives designed to modernize their operations and improve the timing and efficiency of processing tax returns. For example, during the 2011 tax season, the U.S. Department of Treasury introduced a prepaid debit card pilot program designed to facilitate the refund process. If tax authorities are able to significantly increase the speed and efficiency with which they process tax returns, the value and attractiveness of the financial products offered to our customers and demand for our services could be reduced.

Delays in the passage of tax laws and their implementation by the federal or state governments could harm our business.

The enactment of tax legislation occurring late in the calendar year could result in the beginning of tax filing season being delayed, or make it difficult for us to make necessary changes on a timely basis to the software used by our franchisees to prepare tax returns. Any such delays could impact our revenues and profitability in any given year.

Proposals to make fundamental changes in the way tax refunds are processed or to impose price limitations on tax preparation, if enacted, could result in substantial losses of customers and other risks.

Some regulators have suggested that it would be appropriate to allow taxpayers to "split" their tax refunds, in a manner that would separate the payment of tax preparation fees from the balance of a customer's refund. In describing these proposals, some advocates have called for a cap on tax preparation fees that would adversely affect the ability of tax preparers to charge market prices for tax services and could reduce income to our franchisees, and therefore to us.

There can be no assurance that these proposals will be enacted at all, or in their present form, but if enacted, our growth and revenues could be adversely affected.

Our participation in government programs designed to speed access to tax refunds may result in customer loss when the IRS fails to perform.

The IRS has responded to the increase in electronic filing by developing programs designed to reduce a taxpayer's wait to receive a tax refund. We have participated in some new programs offered by the IRS, including in the 2011 tax season the IRS' Modernized Electronic Filing ("MEF") program. During the early portion of the 2011 tax season, this program did not perform as expected, resulting in significant delays in processing refunds for some of our customers. During the early portion of the 2012 tax season, we were not uniquely affected by these problems because the IRS also required our competitors to participate in the MEF program, but the IRS again experienced substantial delays in processing refunds, and our customers were again adversely affected by these delays. Although we continue to seek to give our customers quicker access to their refunds, doing so involves the risk of customer dissatisfaction and injury to our reputation in the market if the IRS fails to perform, which is outside our control.

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Risks Related to Our Class A Common Stock and this Offering

We are controlled by our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, whose interests in our business may be different from yours.

John Hewitt, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, currently owns all outstanding shares of our Class B common stock. Our Class B common stock has the power to elect, voting as a separate class, the minimum number of directors that constitute a majority of the Board of Directors. As a result, Mr. Hewitt will, for the foreseeable future, have significant influence over our management and affairs, given the Board's authority to appoint or replace our senior management, cause us to issue additional shares of our Class A common stock or repurchase Class A common stock, declare dividends or take other actions. Mr. Hewitt may make decisions regarding our company and business that are opposed to other stockholders' interests or with which they disagree. Mr. Hewitt's ability to elect a majority of the Board of Directors may also delay or prevent a change of control of us, even if that change of control would benefit our stockholders, which could deprive you of the opportunity to receive a premium for your Class A common stock. The power to elect a majority of the directors may adversely affect the trading price of our Class A common stock due to investors' perception that conflicts of interest may exist or arise. To the extent that the interests of our public stockholders are harmed by the actions of Mr. Hewitt, the price of our Class A common stock may be harmed. For information regarding the ownership of our outstanding stock, please see the sections titled "Principal and Selling Stockholders" and "Description of Capital Stock."

Because we are not required to comply with certain NASDAQ corporate governance requirements, you may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of the NASDAQ.

Because Mr. Hewitt owns all of the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock and therefore has the ability to elect a majority of our directors, we have elected to be a "controlled company" for the purposes of the NASDAQ listing requirements. As such, we are exempt from certain corporate governance requirements, including the requirements that our Board of Directors be comprised of a majority of directors who are independent under NASDAQ rules and that we have nominating and compensation committees with members meeting the NASDAQ independence requirements. We currently intend to voluntarily comply with the NASDAQ's corporate governance standards, but may choose not to in the future. If we choose not to comply with certain of the requirements, our Board of Directors may have more directors who do not meet the NASDAQ independence standards than they would if those standards were to apply. We may also elect not to maintain formal nominating/corporate governance and compensation committees or, if we maintain those committees, they may not be comprised of independent directors. In such circumstances, you will not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of the NASDAQ, and circumstances may occur in which the interests of Mr. Hewitt could conflict with the interests of our other stockholders.

Our stock price may be volatile, and you may be unable to resell your shares at or above the initial public offering price or at all.

Our stock price may decline below the initial offering price, and you may not be able to sell your shares of our Class A common stock at or above the price you paid in this offering, or at all. Our stock price could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to many risk factors listed in this section, and others beyond our control, including:

•

actual or anticipated variations in our operating results from quarter to quarter;



•

actual or anticipated variations in our operating results from the expectations of securities analysts and investors;



•

actual or anticipated variations in our operating results from our competitors;



•

fluctuations in the valuation of companies perceived by investors to be comparable to us;

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•

sales of Class A common stock or other securities by us or our stockholders in the future;



•

changes in expectations as to our future financial performance, including financial estimates by securities analysts and investors;



•

departures of key executives or directors;



•

announcements by us or our competitors of significant contracts, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, financing efforts or capital commitments;



•

delays or other changes in our expansion plans;



•

involvement in litigation or governmental investigations;



•

stock price and volume fluctuations attributable to inconsistent trading volume levels of our shares;



•

general market conditions in our industry and the industries of our customers;



•

general economic and stock market conditions;



•

regulatory or political developments; and



•

terrorist attacks or natural disasters.

Furthermore, the capital markets have recently experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies. These fluctuations often have been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations, as well as general economic, political and market conditions such as recessions, interest rate changes or international currency fluctuations, may negatively impact our stock price. Trading price fluctuations may also make it more difficult for us to use our Class A common stock as a means to make acquisitions or to use options to purchase our Class A common stock to attract and retain employees. If our stock price after this offering does not exceed the initial public offering price, you may not realize any return on your investment. In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert our management's attention from other business concerns, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial position.

After the expiration of certain resale restrictions, a significant portion of our outstanding shares of Class A common stock may be sold into the market, which could adversely affect our stock price.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock in the public market could occur at any time following this offering, subject to certain securities law restrictions and the terms of contractual lock-up agreements. Sales of shares of our Class A common stock, or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares of Class A common stock intend to sell shares, could reduce our stock price. Upon consummation of this offering, we will have outstanding                      shares of Class A common stock and 900,000 shares of Class B common stock, which are convertible into shares of Class A common stock on a one-for-one basis, assuming no exercise of our outstanding options and the sale of                     shares of our Class A common stock to be sold by the selling stockholders.

All of the shares of Class A common stock sold in this offering will be freely tradable without restrictions or further registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, except for any shares held by our affiliates as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act. Based on the number of shares outstanding as of September 30, 2012,                      shares of Class A common stock and 900,000 shares of Class B common stock outstanding after this offering will be restricted as a result of securities laws, lock-up agreements or other contractual restrictions that restrict transfers for at least 180 days after the date of this prospectus, subject to certain extensions.                                                   may, in its sole discretion, release all or some portion of the shares subject to lock-up agreements prior to expiration of the lock-up period.

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We have also registered approximately 5.0 million shares of our Class A common stock reserved for issuance under our 1998 Stock Option Plan and the 2011 Equity and Cash Incentive Plan. These shares can be freely sold in the public market upon issuance and once vested, subject to any applicable lock-up arrangements.

See "Underwriting" and "Shares Eligible for Future Sale" for a more detailed description of the shares that will be available for future sale upon completion of this offering.

Investors will experience immediate and substantial dilution as a result of this offering.

If you purchase shares of our Class A common stock in this offering, you will immediately experience substantial dilution in net tangible book value. The initial public offering price of our Class A common stock will be substantially higher than the net tangible book value per share of our Class A common stock immediately following this offering. Therefore, if you purchase Class A common stock in this offering, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution of your investment. In addition, we may raise additional capital through public or private equity or debt offerings, subject to market conditions. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, you may experience further dilution.

In addition, following this offering, approximately        million shares of our Class A common stock (or            % of our Class A and Class B common stock, taken together, outstanding at the completion of this offering) will be issuable upon the exercise of outstanding stock options. To the extent that these options are exercised, you may experience further dilution. For further information, see the "Dilution" section of this prospectus.

An active trading market in our Class A common stock may not develop or be sustained.

Although our Class A common stock began to trade on the NASDAQ Global Market on July 2, 2012, an active public trading market for our Class A common stock may not develop or be sustained. The lack of an active market may impede the ability of our stockholders to sell shares at the time they wish to sell them, at a price that they consider reasonable or at all. The lack of an active market also may reduce our stock price and impede our ability to acquire other companies using our shares as consideration.

Our stock price and trading volume could decline if securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they publish misleading or unfavorable research or reports about our business.

The trading market for our Class A common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that securities analysts publish about us. As of the date of this prospectus, only one securities analyst had commenced coverage of our Class A common stock, and if few securities or industry analysts commence such coverage, the trading price and liquidity for our shares could be adversely impacted. In the event we obtain additional securities or industry analyst coverage, or if one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades our stock or publishes misleading or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price could decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases to cover us or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

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We will incur increased costs and our management will face increased demands as a result of operating as a public company.

As a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as related rules implemented by the SEC and NASDAQ, impose various requirements on public companies. As a public company, we will be required to:

•

prepare and distribute periodic public reports and other stockholder communications in compliance with our obligations under the federal securities laws and NASDAQ rules;



•

create or expand the roles and duties of our Board of Directors and committees of the Board of Directors;



•

institute more comprehensive financial reporting and disclosure compliance functions;



•

supplement our internal accounting and auditing function;



•

enhance and formalize closing procedures at the end of our accounting periods;



•

enhance our investor relations function;



•

establish new or enhanced internal policies, including those relating to disclosure controls and procedures; and



•

involve and retain to a greater degree outside counsel and accountants in the activities listed above.

Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance matters. Also, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly than would be the case for a private company. For example, we expect these rules and regulations to make it more expensive for us to maintain director and officer liability insurance. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified individuals to serve on our Board of Directors or as our executive officers.

In addition, as a result of recently becoming a public company, we are subject to financial reporting and other requirements that will be burdensome and costly. We may not timely complete our analysis of these reporting requirements, which could adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our common stock. If we fail to implement these reporting requirements, our ability to report our results of operations on a timely and accurate basis could be impaired.

The exercise price for the stock options granted by us may not reflect the fair value of the underlying shares of Class A common stock.

Because our shares of Class A common stock were not traded on a public market until recently, the exercise price at which options for our shares may be exercised was determined by our Board of Directors without reference to such a market. Although the Board of Directors has granted options based on its determination of a fair value for the shares of Class A common stock, there can be no assurance that the option exercise price accurately reflects the value at which the shares of Class A common stock may be purchased in an active public market.

We are an "emerging growth company" and our election to delay adoption of new or revised accounting standards applicable to public companies may result in our financial statements not being comparable to those of other public companies. As a result of this and other reduced disclosure and governance requirements applicable to emerging growth companies, our common stock may be less attractive to investors.

We are an "emerging growth company," as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the "JOBS Act") enacted in April 2012, and we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the "Sarbanes-Oxley Act"), the same

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reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements that smaller reporting companies are permitted to provide and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory stockholder vote on executive compensation, frequency of approval of executive compensation and of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company may take advantage of the extended transition period provided in the Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act") and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an emerging growth company may delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We are electing to delay such adoption of new or revised accounting standards, and as a result, we may not comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for non-emerging growth companies. As a result of this election, our financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of other public companies. We cannot predict whether investors will find our common stock less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. We will remain an "emerging growth company" until the earliest of (i) the last day of the fiscal year during which we have total annual gross revenue of $1 billion or more; (ii) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the sale by us of common equity securities pursuant to an effective registration statement under the Securities Act; (iii) the date on which we have, during the previous three-year period, issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt; and (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a "large accelerated filer," as defined under the Exchange Act.

Although we may desire to pay dividends in the future, our financial condition, debt covenants or Delaware law may prohibit us from doing so.

Although we may desire to pay cash dividends in the future, we have no obligation to do so and the payment of dividends will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend, among other things, on our earnings, capital requirements and financial condition, and our ability to dividend funds from our principal subsidiary under the terms of our credit facility. Our ability to pay dividends will be subject to compliance with financial covenants that are contained in our credit facility and may be restricted by any future indebtedness that we incur or issuances of preferred stock. In addition, applicable law requires that our Board of Directors determine that we have adequate surplus prior to the declaration of dividends. We cannot assure you that we will pay dividends at any specific level or at all.

Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents, Delaware law and our revolving credit facility could make an acquisition of us more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management and adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.

Provisions in our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. We have two classes of common stock, one of which is entitled to elect a majority of our Board of Directors and is controlled by our Chairman and CEO as described above. Our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws will also include provisions that:

•

authorize our Board of Directors to issue, without further action by the stockholders, up to 10 million shares of undesignated preferred stock;



•

specify that special meetings of our stockholders can be called only by our Board of Directors, the Chair of our Board of Directors, or holders of at least 20% of the shares that will be entitled to vote on the matters presented at such special meeting;



•

establish an advance notice procedure for stockholder proposals to be brought before an annual meeting, including proposed nominations of persons for election to our Board of Directors; and



•

do not provide for cumulative voting in the election of directors.

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In addition, our credit facility contains covenants that may impede, discourage or prevent a takeover of us. For instance, upon a change of control, we would default on our credit facility. As a result, a potential takeover may not occur unless sufficient funds are available to repay our outstanding debt.

These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our Board of Directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. Any provision of our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws or our debt documents that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change of control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our Class A common stock. Even in the absence of a takeover attempt, the existence of these provisions may adversely affect our stock price if they are viewed as discouraging takeover attempts in the future.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to detect fraud or report our financial results accurately, which could harm our business and the trading price of our common stock.

Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and to detect and prevent fraud. As a public company, we will be required to periodically assess our system of internal controls, and the internal controls of service providers upon which we rely, to review their effectiveness and identify potential areas of improvement. These assessments may conclude that enhancements, modifications or changes to our system of internal controls are necessary. Performing assessments of internal controls, implementing necessary changes, and maintaining an effective internal controls process is expensive and requires considerable management attention. Internal control systems are designed in part upon assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and all such systems, however well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, and not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the system are met. Because of these and other inherent limitations of control systems, there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions, regardless of how remote. If we fail to implement and maintain an effective system of internal controls or prevent fraud, we could suffer losses, could be subject to costly litigation, investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information and our brand and operating results could be harmed, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our common stock.

Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, we will be required to certify the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting annually beginning with the year ending April 30, 2013. Identification of material weaknesses in internal controls over financial reporting by us could adversely affect our competitive position in our business, and the market price for our common stock. However, for as long as we remain an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act, we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404. We may take advantage of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer an emerging growth company.

We will have broad discretion in applying the net proceeds of this offering, and we may not use those proceeds in ways that will enhance the market value of our common stock.

Our management will retain broad discretion to allocate the net proceeds received by us in this offering. The net proceeds may be applied in ways with which you and other investors in this offering may not agree or which do not increase the value of your investment. We intend to use our net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes. We have not allocated these net proceeds for any specific purposes. Our management may not be able to yield a significant return, if any, on any investment of these net proceeds. We will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the shares of our Class A common stock by the selling stockholders.

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Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements concerning our business, operations and financial performance and condition as well as our plans, objectives and expectations for our business operations and financial performance and condition. Any statements contained herein that are not of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. You can identify these statements by words such as "aim," "anticipate," "assume," "believe," "could," "due," "estimate," "expect," "goal," "intend," "may," "objective," "plan," "predict," "potential," "positioned," "should," "target," "will," "would" and other similar expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events and future trends. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about our business and the industry in which we operate and our management's beliefs and assumptions and are not guarantees of future performance or development and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are in some cases beyond our control. As a result, any or all of our forward-looking statements in this prospectus may turn out to be inaccurate. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the risks described under "Risk Factors," including:

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our possible inability to sustain growth at our historical pace;



•

the seasonality of our business;



•

our inability to secure reliable sources of the financial products we make available to our customers;



•

the continued service of our senior management team;



•

government regulation and oversight, including the regulation of our financial products such as ERCs and ICAs;



•

government initiatives that simplify tax return preparation, improve the timing and efficiency of processing tax returns, limit payments to tax preparers or decrease the number of tax returns filed or the size of the refunds;



•

increased regulation of the products and services that we offer;



•

the possible characterization of ERCs as a form of loan;



•

changes in the financial products offered to our customers that make our services less attractive to customers or more costly to us;



•

our ability and the ability of our franchisees to comply with regulatory requirements;



•

changes in our franchise sale model that may reduce our revenue;



•

the ability of our franchisees to open new territories and operate them successfully;



•

the ability of our franchisees to generate sufficient revenue to repay their indebtedness to us;



•

our exposure to litigation;



•

our ability and our franchisees' ability to protect customers' personal information;



•

an ability to access the credit markets and satisfy our covenants to lenders;



•

challenges in deploying accurate tax software in a timely way each tax season;



•

competition in the tax preparation market;



•

our reliance on technology systems, including the deployment of our NextGen project, and electronic communications; and



•

other factors, including the risk factors discussed in this prospectus.

Potential investors and other readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this prospectus. Unless required by law, we do not intend to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information or future events or otherwise. You should, however, review the factors and risks we describe in the reports we have filed and will file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. See "Where You Can Find More Information."

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Use of Proceeds

We estimate that the net proceeds we will receive from the sale of                             shares of our Class A common stock in this offering, after deducting underwriter discounts and commissions and estimated expenses payable by us, will be approximately $                million ($                million if the underwriters' option to purchase additional shares is exercised in full). This estimate assumes a public offering price of $               per share. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of our Class A common stock by the selling stockholders.

The principal reasons for this offering are to establish a more active trading public market for our common stock, provide additional liquidity for our stockholders, including the selling stockholders in this offering, to facilitate our future access to public markets, and to enable us to fund our continuing operations, including franchisee financial support and the facilitation of financial products offered to our tax customers. We have not yet identified the timing of any such expenditures. Accordingly, our management will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds, and investors will be relying on the judgment of our management regarding the application of the proceeds in this offering.

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Market Price of Our Class A Common Stock

Our Class A common stock has been listed on The NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol "TAX" since July 2, 2012. We traded on the over-the-counter bulletin board from June 14, 2012 until that date. Prior to that time, there was no public market for our Class A common stock. The following table sets forth for the periods indicated the high and low sale prices of our Class A common stock on the over-the-counter bulletin board through June 29, 2012 and on The NASDAQ Global Market from and after July 2, 2012.

A recent reported closing price of our Class A common stock is set forth on the cover page of this prospectus. Wells Fargo Shareowner Services is the transfer agent and registrar for our Class A common stock. On                    , 2012, we had       holders of record of our common stock.

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Dividend Policy

We have never declared or paid a cash dividend on our capital stock. Although we may pay cash dividends in the future, the payment of dividends will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend, among other things, on our earnings, capital requirements and financial condition, and our ability to dividend funds from our principal subsidiary under the terms of our revolving credit facility.

Our ability to pay dividends will also be subject to compliance with financial covenants that are contained in our revolving credit facility and may be restricted by any future indebtedness that we incur or issuances of preferred stock. For a discussion of the covenants relating to our revolving credit facility, see "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Liquidity and Capital Resources — Overview of factors affecting our liquidity — Revolving credit facility." In addition, applicable law requires that our Board of Directors determine that we have adequate surplus prior to the declaration of dividends. We cannot assure you that we will pay dividends at any specific level or at all.

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Capitalization

The following table sets forth our capitalization at July 31, 2012 on:

•

an actual basis;



•

an as adjusted basis giving effect to (i) the 1 million shares of Class A common stock issuable to the holders of the exchangeable shares of one of our subsidiaries pursuant to the terms of those shares and the simultaneous cancellation of our shares of special voting preferred stock in connection with such exchange, as if such exchange had occurred on July 31, 2012, (ii) the filing of our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation, which will occur simultaneously with the consummation of this offering, and which will provide for, among other things, the authorization of 100 million shares of Class A common stock, 1 million shares of Class B common stock and 10 million shares of preferred stock; and (iii) the sale by us of                             shares of Class A common stock in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $               per share, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

This table should be read in conjunction with "Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data," "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this prospectus.

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Outstanding shares of our Class A common stock reflected in the discussion and table above is based on 13,141,500 shares (including shares issuable as a result of the conversion of exchangeable shares) outstanding as of July 31, 2012 and excludes:

•

2,497,477 shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the exercise of options outstanding as of July 31, 2012 granted pursuant to the 1998 Stock Option Plan at a weighted average exercise price of $14.49 per share, 2,044,977 of which were exercisable as of July 31, 2012; and



•

330,435 shares of Class A common stock issuable upon the exercise of options, and 9,305 shares underlying restricted stock units, outstanding as of July 31, 2012 and granted pursuant to our 2011 Equity and Cash Incentive Plan, none of which were exercisable or deliverable as of July 31, 2012, and 1,939,805 additional shares of Class A Common Stock reserved for grant or future issuance under that plan.

The as adjusted information discussed above is illustrative only and will be adjusted based on the actual public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing.

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Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data

You should read the following selected consolidated financial data in conjunction with "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and our consolidated financial statements and related notes, all included elsewhere in this prospectus. We derived the consolidated statements of income data for the years ended April 30, 2010, 2011 and 2012 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of April 30, 2011 and 2012 from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. We derived the balance sheet data as of July 31, 2011 from our unaudited consolidated financial statements not included in this prospectus. The consolidated statements of income data for the years ended April 30, 2008 and 2009 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of April 30, 2008, 2009 and 2010 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements not included in this prospectus. We derived the consolidated statements of income data for the three-month periods ended July 31, 2011 and 2012 and the balance sheet data as of July 31, 2012 from our unaudited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future. The unaudited consolidated financial information was prepared on a basis consistent with that used in preparing our audited consolidated financial statements and includes all adjustments, consisting of normal and recurring items, that we consider necessary for a fair presentation of the financial position and results of operations for the unaudited periods. The interim results of operations are not indicative of the results that may be expected for a full fiscal year because of the seasonality of our business.

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Adjusted EBITDA

To provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we have disclosed in the table above and within this prospectus Adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA represents net income, before income taxes, interest expense, depreciation and amortization and certain other items specified below. We have provided a reconciliation below of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

We have included Adjusted EBITDA in this prospectus because we seek to manage our business to achieve higher levels of Adjusted EBITDA and to improve the level of Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue. In addition, it is a key basis upon which we assess the performance of our operations and management. We also use Adjusted EBITDA for business planning and the evaluation of acquisition opportunities. In particular, the exclusion of certain expenses in calculating Adjusted EBITDA can provide a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons. We believe the presentation of Adjusted EBITDA enhances our investors' overall understanding of the financial performance of and prospects for our business. Adjusted EBITDA is not a recognized financial measure under GAAP, and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies in our industry. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation from or as an alternative to net income, operating income (loss) or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP.

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The following table presents a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA for each of the periods indicated:

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Management's Discussion and Analysis of
Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. This discussion contains forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties, such as our plans, objectives, expectations and intentions, as set forth under "Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements." Our actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of several factors, including those set forth in the following discussion and under "Risk Factors," "Business" and elsewhere in this prospectus.

Overview

We are one of the leading providers of tax preparation services in the United States and Canada. As measured by both the number of returns prepared and the number of retail offices, we are the third largest and fastest growing national retail preparer of individual tax returns in the United States and the second largest retail preparer of individual tax returns in Canada. From 2001 through 2012, we have grown the number of U.S. tax returns prepared in our offices from approximately 137,000 to nearly 1.8 million. Our tax preparation services and related financial products are offered primarily through franchised locations, although we operate a very limited number of company-owned offices each tax season. All of the offices are operated under the Liberty Tax Service brand.

From 2001 through 2012, we grew our number of tax offices from 508 to nearly 4,200. We and our franchisees operated 3,920 offices in the United States during the 2012 tax season, a 9.2% increase over the 2011 tax season, when we operated 3,590 offices, which was itself a 9.3% increase over the number of offices operated in the 2010 tax season. Approximately 59% of our revenue for fiscal year 2012 was derived from franchise fees, royalties and advertising fees, and for this reason, continued growth in our franchise locations is viewed by management as the key to our future performance.

Our revenue primarily consists of the following components:

•

Franchise Fees:    We earn franchisee fees from our franchisees and ADs. Our standard franchise fee per territory is $40,000 and we offer our franchisees flexible structures and financing options for franchise fees. We recognize franchise fees, net of a provision for franchise fee refunds, when our obligations to prepare the franchise for operation have been substantially completed. When we finance franchise fees, we record the franchise fees as deferred revenue until the franchisee has made a significant financial commitment (payment of 20% of the franchise fee) and met certain other criteria. However, in 2011 we introduced a new franchise fee option that forgoes the initial franchise fee payment in favor of a higher royalty rate. Our franchise fees for AD areas vary based on our assessment of the revenue potential of each AD area, and also depend on the performance of any existing franchisees within the AD area being sold. Our ADs generally receive 50% of the franchise fees derived from territories located in their area. See "Business — Liberty's Franchise Model."



•

Royalties:    We earn royalty revenue from our franchisees. Our franchise agreement requires franchisees to pay us a base royalty equal to 14% of the franchisee's tax preparation revenue, subject to certain specified minimums. Franchisees acquiring territories under our "zero franchise fee" alternative are required to pay us franchise royalties of 25% through their first five tax seasons, and thereafter 14% of their tax preparation revenue. Over time, as our offices continue to "season," we expect that our growth in revenue from royalties will continue to outpace our growth in revenue from franchise fees. We also expect to see steadier growth from our royalty revenue, but our franchise fee revenue may decrease if franchisees choose our "zero franchise fee" alternative. Our ADs generally receive 50% of the royalties derived from territories located in their area.

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•

Advertising Fees:    We earn advertising fee revenue from our franchisees. Our franchise agreement requires all franchisees to pay us an advertising fee of 5% of the franchisee's tax preparation revenue, which we use primarily to fund collective advertising efforts.



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Financial Products:    We offer two types of financial products: "refund transfer" products, such as ERCs, which involve providing a means by which a customer may receive his or her refund more quickly and conveniently, and refund-based loans, such as RALs and ICAs. We earn fees from the use of these financial products. See "Business — Tax Preparation in the Liberty System." Because the remaining bank that offered RALs ceased to do so after the end of the 2012 tax season, we no longer expect to be able to offer RALs through banks and other federally-insured financial institutions, and our ability to offer refund-based loans may therefore be more limited than in the past. However, we believe the negative effect of fewer RALs will be offset by three factors. First, we expect to be able to offer an ICA loan product in more than 30 states during the 2013 tax season, and are seeking alternative credit-based financial products that may be offered in the states where the ICA will not be available. Second, we believe that most customers who previously would have obtained loans have elected to purchase a refund transfer product, and that the continued availability of these products will enable us to experience similar financial product "attachment rates" as in prior years. Third, as we continue to offer more of our financial products through our subsidiary, JTH Financial, LLC ("JTH Financial"), we expect to be able to realize more of the fee income associated with financial products (although we will also incur greater expenses in connection with offering the products).



•

Tax Preparation Fees:    We also earn tax preparation revenue directly from both the operation of company-owned offices and the provision of tax preparation services through our eSmartTax online product.

For purposes of this section and throughout this prospectus, all references to "fiscal 2012," "fiscal 2011," and "fiscal 2010" refer to our fiscal years ended April 30, 2012, 2011, and 2010, respectively. For purposes of this section and throughout this prospectus, all references to "year" or "years" are the

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respective fiscal year or years ended April 30 unless otherwise noted in this prospectus, and all references to "tax season" refer to the period between January 1 and April 30 of the referenced year.