If you pay your taxes by credit card, debit card or e-check, the company that processes the electronic payments on our behalf will charge the following service fees:
- E-checks - Free!
- Credit card transactions - 2.34% of the total
- Debit card transactions - $4.95
Every time you use a credit or debit card, the company processing the payment charges a fee for their service. In the private sector, merchants typically absorb the fee as a cost of doing business. However, like most government agencies, the Treasurer-Tax Collector's department determined it would be cost prohibitive to cover the processing fee for electronic payments. To offer the service free of charge to the taxpayer, it would cost the County nearly $1 million in processing fees that would not be offset by reduced staffing costs. Currently, credit and debit card fees are paid by the taxpayer and go directly to the credit card processing company. Butte County does not retain any portion of the service fee.