After a year of planning, Ector County Tax Assessor-Collector Lea Taylor announced Tuesday that motorists may pay for their annual motor-vehicle registration online beginning Tuesday.
Since June 4, Taylor’s office has been accepting property-tax payments online as well. “We’re so pleased about it because it is new and more of a convenience for the taxpayers and the motor-vehicle owners. And, really, they requested it,” Taylor said Tuesday.
The move to e-government cost the county nothing, Taylor said.
The state paid for the equipment related to online motor-vehicle registration. and the company that processes property-tax payments, Certified Payments, collects a 2.75 percent “convenience fee” for processing each transaction, Deanna Rushing, an accountant at the Tax Assessor-Collector’s office, said.
“Whatever the taxpayer elects to pay is the counties,” Rushing said. “The 2.75 percent never touches the county’s business.”
Rushing said the transition to the online ad-valorem payment system was “very uneventful” and she expects the same thing with online vehicle-registration payments.
Taxpayers may make electronic payments via the county’s Web site (www.co.ector.tx.us) or the Web site of Certified Payments (certifiedpayments.com), the company with which the county is contracting for the online service, Rushing said.
Taxpayers must enter the Bureau Code, 5955201, to continue the payment process.
Motorists wishing to register vehicles with the state may do so by going to the county Web site, proceeding to “Local Web Links” and then clicking on the Texas Online icon at the bottom of that page. Rushing described both processes as “very user-friendly,” Rushing said. “The steps just flow through.”
Taylor said residents may pay their taxes and register their vehicles the tried and true way, by coming to the her office, located in the Ector County Administration Annex Building at 1010 E. Eighth St. A computer terminal is available at Taylor’s office for use by motorists and taxpayers. And staff will be available to help residents navigate through the programs, Rushing said.
All tax payments will appear as “pending” transactions on computers in Taylor’s office. Postings will occur 48 hours after payments are made, Rushing said.
Autor: Julie Breaux
Quelle: Odessa American, 28.07.2004
