Update: Fairfax County Reports Problems With Online Tax Payment Service
Personal property tax deadline extended by a day; must be postmarked Oct. 6.
Update: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova said in a statement Friday that residents would get an extension on personal property taxes due today.
Residents will get "a one-day waiver of the late fee for online property tax payments received before midnight tomorrow, October 6, 2012, and mailed payments postmarked by the same date," Bulova said.
The cause of the issue is still unknown.
Original: The County’s Department of Information Technology is working to isolate and resolve the system problem with our online payment service. Thank you for your patience.
Just minutes before the close of business the day personal property taxes are due, Fairfax County officials are trying to fix issues with its online payment service.
The county announced it was having intermittent problems with the online tax payment system in a release at 4:43 p.m. Friday.
"We have been working on the problem all day and continue to do so," Fairfax County Director of Public Affairs Merni Fitzgerald told Patch. "This has been a unique problem as we have successfully accepted on-line payments at high volumes for years. Some progress has been made, but some taxpayers continue to have problems."
The county says on its website its Department of Information Technology "is still working to isolate and resolve the system problem," but there are no plans at this point to grant waivers for late payments.
“We apologize for any inconvenience to our taxpayers,” Director of the Department of Tax Administration Kevin Greenlief said in a statement. “Thank you for using one of the many payment alternatives to ensure your payment is on time. The county is diligently working to isolate and resolve the system problem.”
Online payments made by midnight will be considered "on time," Greenlief said. Taxpayers are encouraged to use one of several alternate ways to pay. Payments made by mail are on time as long as they are postmarked by today, Oct. 5.
In addition, the Government Center is open until 6:30 p.m. today to process payments.
For more information on alternative payment methods, click here.
Robert F. Dorr
9:20 pm on Friday, October 5, 2012
An excellent report about a problem that's difficult to understand. And it's not the only problem. Have you gotten a thingie from Fairfax County entitled "Renewing Your Vehicle Registration." If so, can you explain it to me, please? I've read every word of it several times and can't figure out what the County wants me to do.
Chris Taylor Moller
9:45 pm on Friday, October 5, 2012
One of the alternative ways to make a payment was to drop it off at an approved bank (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and a few others). Even Wells Fargo couldn't get through to the County's computers & had to give me a hand-written receipt. Big SNAFU @ Fairfax County!
Beth Lawton
9:57 pm on Friday, October 5, 2012
Thanks, Chris! Here are additional alternate payment options:
Bank of America and SunTrust branches in Fairfax County accept cash or check payments. Wells Fargo branches in Fairfax County accept checks; cash payments from Wells Fargo customers only.
You must bring your bill.
Credit card payments are not accepted.
Shoppers Food & Pharmacy
Bring cash payments and bill to customer service desk at Shoppers Food & Pharmacy stores throughout Virginia. $1.25 service fee applies.
Beth
8:33 am on Saturday, October 6, 2012
Yesterday the first payment option worked, through OPC, since it was outside the Fairfax system. There's a $7.00 charge per payment, however.