A Closer Look: Orange County Tax Collector’s Office

If you saw the Disney film “Zootopia”, you probably had a good laugh at the Department of Motor Vehicles’ (DMV) expense. In one scene, DMV employees – whose characters are portrayed by sloths in the animated film – serve eager customers at a painstakingly slow pace.

“A lot of our customers and employees got a kick out of the movie,” Scott Randolph, Orange County Tax Collector commented.

Today, DMV services in Orange County, including driver’s licenses and vehicle registration, are administered by the Orange County Tax Collector’s Office, and the organization uses technology and an online queuing system called SmartPass to shake the slow-as-a-sloth stereotype.

The Orange County Tax Collector provides residents a variety of services, including:

• Renew your car registration online.

  Drivers must renew their vehicle registration every one to two years. By renewing online, residents can bypass the trip to an office and have their updated registration and sticker mailed to them in two to three business days.

• Need your tag ASAP? Try Tag Express.

  Residents can renew their tag online and pick it up the same day without the wait. There are six branch offices across the County that are operated by the Tax Collector. Each office has a designated counter that allows Tag Express customers to skip waiting in line.

• Make an appointment.

  If your transaction can’t be completed online, the Tax Collector’s Office encourages you to make an appointment on its website at octaxcol.com. Customers with appointments are given priority over walk-ins and are seen within five minutes of their scheduled time.

• No appointment? Use SmartPass.

  With SmartPass, customers can join the line virtually and go about their day while receiving text message updates about their wait time. According to a recent customer survey, 59 percent of SmartPass users reported waiting in the office for less than 15 minutes before they were called.

• Go green with Paperless Tax Bills.

  Paperless Tax Bills, launched in 2018, allows property taxpayers to create an online account, view bills, make payments and receive paperless statements. It not only helps the environment, but saves taxpayer dollars on printing and mailing costs.

Orange County Government’s “A Closer Look” Newsroom series provides residents with an inside look and short, need-to-know information about the different constitutional offices that serve the County. This news story was written in partnership with Orange County Government and the Orange County Tax Collector’s Office. For more information about the Orange County Tax Collector’s office visit octaxcol.com and connect with them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @OCTaxCol.