First-Installment Property Taxes Due Monday!

Ypu might have to set aside your holiday shopping for a bit, the first-installment Orange County property tax payments are due Monday.

Treasurer-Tax Collector Sheri Freidenrich estimated Saturday $1.7
billion in property taxes had been paid as of Thursday, The Orange County
Register reported. First-installment assessments total about $2.5 billion.

Second-installment payments are due April 10.

Property owners who pay after Monday will be charged a 10 percent
delinquency fee, plus interest. To avoid the  penalty, property owners can pay
in person, by mail or online.

To pay in person, go to at the Hall of Administration at Broadway and
Santa Ana Boulevard in Santa Ana between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Mail payments to County of Orange, Attn: Treasurer-Tax Collector, P.O.
Box 1438, Santa Ana 92702-1438. Letters must by postmarked by Dec. 10.

Consider getting the letter hand stamped to ensure you get Monday's postmark.

Pay online at bos.ocgov.com/octaxbill using the free eCheck system, a
credit card or a Visa personal debit card. Online payments must be completed by midnight. There's a 2.3 percent fee for using a credit card. The fee for Visa
personal debit cards is $3.95, while other debit card fees are 2.5 percent.
Online payments are becoming more popular, Freidenrich told the newspaper.

The eCheck system accounted for 11 percent of payments so far. Mail-in payments accounted for half.

--City News Service