"They woo the early season clients, and very few others. "

In my business I do about half of my business from January 25 through February 15 and the other half the last two months. So while it may not be an even distribution, it certainly isn't "very few". And yes, they are more complex and more expensive returns later in the season. I'm not sure what it is folks are saying. Are you all arguing that labor is the same in March as it is the first two weeks of February? Not in most retail tax offices I know of. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I'm speaking in generalities here. Liberty actually does a very decent share of more complex returns as evidenced by its lower percentage of RAL customers than either HRB or JTX.