[speaker001:] so is your tax situation pretty straightforward or not straightforward at all
[speaker002:] yeah actually actually uh mine's real straightforward um basically uh you know I take my standard deductions um on my house which I have a mortgage on
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh that's usually the big the big payoff part of the year for me because I get a couple thousand dollars back usually
[speaker001:] oh that's nice
[speaker002:] but uh actually I uh I don't really begrudge uh the uh the government their due I do I do think that uh probably just like just almost anybody else that you know there's a lot of inefficiency in how they distribute taxes
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and I don't think that they uh they do a very good job of distributing them to the people who really need them but uh
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] generally I think they're pretty necessary and life would probably be a lot worse if they didn't have taxation so
[speaker001:] right I don't have any problem at all with income tax some of the property taxes are well I don't know if they're unfair they're confusing and I there seems to be less ability to get those all together
[speaker002:] yeah we actually we actually had a situation here where uh our house was appraised you know every year by the county
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and we have to uh pay taxes on the basis of what that appraisal was
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and first year we owned the house um that appraisal was something like twenty five thousand dollars higher than we had just bought the house for
[speaker001:] really
[speaker002:] and so uh despite you know a lot of kibitzing by our neighbors and stuff I decided to go in to uh talk to the Board of Equalization
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] uh in Prince William County and make sure that you know a mistake hadn't been made and all that kind of stuff and so I just sort of made my case on the basis of um you know analogy to other to other houses around us that were similar in terms of
[speaker001:] you just bought it right
[speaker002:] square footage you know and size all and and you know general property size and things like that and just just showed that you know our obvious for some reason our property had been valued much higher
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and uh they bought it they actually reduced the uh reduced the appraisal
[speaker001:] really they didn't raise the they canceled your neighbors' taxes
[speaker002:] uh they didn't raise my neighbors' yeah they actually reduced mine to be in line with uh a more reasonable appraisal
[speaker001:] that's really great
[speaker002:] so I you you know I I realized well the you know few instances you can fight city hall on things like property taxes but uh
[speaker001:] that's wonderful
[speaker002:] yeah it was it was an interesting experience because the guy before me went in and he had a really kind of poorly organized discussion you know I mean he was sort of mad at the world and uh he he had sort of that that mad at the world attitude right off the bat which you could you know see a mile away
[speaker001:] right um-hum
[speaker002:] and then he uh then he started talking about all the things that were wrong with this property you know like you know the leaves hadn't been cleaned out in two years and the gutters are falling off and you know a lot of really minor stuff
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] that just didn't impress these guys at all and they sort of gave him a hard time but uh you know when I pointed out that that our house was appraised at this and all these similar houses in the subdivision were appraised at you know twenty five thousand dollars less I mean
[speaker001:] right and you just bought yours that's the best argument I think
[speaker002:] yeah so it it it worked it was actually pretty uh pretty satisfying satisfying experience
[speaker001:] that's wonderful
[speaker002:] but it was it was kind of like going up to the Pope though you know I mean they they uh were sitting in these you know at these giant judges tables you know like
[speaker001:] I bet um-hum oh it was a it was a
[speaker002:] it was like a judge's chambers that that you
[speaker001:] really wow it wasn't it wasn't the county council
[speaker002:] it was the it was the county but it wasn't the council they have different people on this Board of Equalization I don't know I don't even know how they get on it you know I I'm just guessing they're appointed
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh one of the guys is actually a kind of a well known realtor around here so you know I I figured if anybody gave me a hard time it'd be him you
[speaker001:] um-hum right well he did he probably knows it really well the real estate market
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] so that was probably help
[speaker002:] but other than that uh I haven't had too much too much problem with taxes actually when I was in grad school I lived in Virginia also I went to school down at uh Charlottesville and uh
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] uh I had a you know one of these graduate fellowships
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and fortunately it was not taxable at that time
[speaker001:] right now it is
[speaker002:] but they actually they actually hassled me over it though
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and I had to I had to go to some length you know I actually got one of these letters that that said you know you got to show up at the local you know IRS office and explain
[speaker001:] oh you got audited wow
[speaker002:] yeah and actually explain you know what was going on and you know I just I said hey I mean it's tax free I mean that's my understanding of things so anyway eventually they they accepted that that it was but actually work I work with a guy now who's I I I guess he was right