Fairfax updates tax modernization: more payment options, four-kiosk pilot for underbanked residents
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Summary
Fairfax County technology and tax officials reported continued progress on tax modernization including off-mainframe migrations, expanded online payments and a four-kiosk pilot targeted to underbanked residents; officials said card fees run about 2.35% and scheduled-payment flexibility has grown.
Fairfax County technology and tax officials told the Board of Supervisors’ Technology Committee that the county’s tax modernization work has reduced transaction times, expanded payment options and will pilot kiosks to serve underbanked residents.
Gregory Scott, director of IT, and Jay Doshi, director of the Department of Tax Administration (DTA), said the county completed moving the TABs system off a 1984 mainframe in 2021 and has since focused on customer-facing improvements. Rob Barr, division director for revenue systems, said teams have streamlined online flows, enabled real-time bill posting and added credentialed login options to myFairfax.
DTA will pilot four payment kiosks intended to serve underbanked and nonstandard-hour residents at North County, South County, Mason District and the Government Center; if the pilot succeeds and the board approves, kiosks could expand to a kiosk per magisterial district. Barr said the kiosks initially will accept personal-property payments by cash, check or credit card and may expand to other payment types.
On merchant fees, Jay Doshi said the county’s effective credit-card fee recently declined to about 2.35% but noted those fees are set through a Department of Finance banking contract and must meet security requirements. He agreed to revisit the question of whether the county could absorb or selectively waive fees for small personal-property bills.
Officials highlighted new online capabilities: MyFairfax registrations have grown (noted as about a 114% increase in four years) and standalone ePay transactions have risen roughly 39%. DTA said customers can schedule payments (personal-property scheduling currently capped at 385 days; real-estate scheduling was described as capped out years in advance). Officials cautioned that a numeric throughput figure in a slide was unclear in the transcript and therefore not reported here.
The county is also upgrading call-management and CRM systems, digitizing records (DTA estimated about one million pages of paper records to digitize) and working on an opt-in/opt-out communications process to comply with the Virginia Data Protection Act of 2023.
The committee did not take a formal vote on policy changes during the update; the presentation concluded with board questions and agreement to return with more detailed cost and fee options.
