in our county one must have an appointment to protest the appraised value of thier property. it takes at least six weeks to be notified of when they will have time for you. as luck would have it, my appointment was set during a visit from my 9yr. old nephew. he lives in sonora ca, and we only get to see him once a year. feeling uncomfortable about leaving him and my 3 children with a sitter, i decided to take them -all 4 of them- to my appointment. after all, the notice did say "informal" :) besides that, i'm the customer, it's their job to accomadate me!!! while i do realize this is not a mutual point of view, it made me feel justified. so there we were, me and these 4 hungry, sleepy, sweaty and under dressed children. (runny noses would have been great, but flu season is over in texas )Mr. Rob Baker Tax Appraiser wanted to die, i could just tell. with his perfectly manicured nails and well kept office, this guy had probably never seen a dirty diaper in his life. not that i condoned bad behavior but what exactly are two toddlers and two 9 year olds gonna do when locked in a perfectly organized 10x10 office? besides that, kids go crazy when the smell fear. it was beautiful. this guy wanted us gone, and very quickly figured out i was determined to have things my way. he expained a few laws and completely understood my complaints. we agreed upon a fair amount, and we were on or way. next year i'm borrowing the neighbor's twins.
Ha!
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This also works well at IRS audits especially if you can't manage them well. Experience from many years ago. ;D
My brother got audited for claiming 6 kids. They made a day of it and marched the whole clan into the IRS office. THey all look like a combo of him and my sister in law. It was just before lunch time and they started getting fidgety---it was the quickest audit on record for that office