I honestly had no concept of the sheer amount of knowledge that could be garnered through a tax office. Typically taxes are met with gruff annoyance and totally ignored so Preston Trigg’s presentation on what you can find with just a name was enlightening.

The fact that you can research anyone running for government office in order to view if they’ve paid their taxes is golden. Of course if you want to apply it to real life you can always check to see if the person you’re dating has been delinquent on taxes.

Anyone can also uncover anything odd like someone owning too many homes, paying taxes that don’t quite match the value of their home, and how much the home is truly worth if they’re trying to sell it.

The tax exemptions available to homeowners are amazing. If you live in your home you can get a fifty thousand deduction and more if you are a senior citizen or disabled.

You can check the sales history of a house you might be interested, which could help because if it’s changed hands quite a bit in a short span of time, there might be an issue you’re not aware of.

The penalties against a property appraiser involved in fraud are jail or losing their license.

I was intrigued by the White Sox Tropicana scandal in which the city of St. Petersburg managed to hide the deal with the baseball team by giving them the documents and claiming ignorance when someone requested them.