TaxO Express helps motorists to pay traffic tickets online
Published:Friday | December 10, 2021 | 12:07 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
Motorists can now pay outstanding traffic tickets without attending court by accessing a new online service being offered by TaxO Express, which will research and find long outstanding tickets and tabulate the respective charges, for a fee of between $5,000 and $75,00, or more, depending on the extent of the work that needs to be done.
This comes on the heels of the recent announcement by the Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) that persons holding traffic tickets will have no choice but to visit the respective courts across the island to pay their fines. Now TaxO Express is offering this as an add-on to their suit of services which include the renewal of driver’s licence, payment of motor vehicle registration, motor vehicle fitness and even the payment of property taxes.
When contacted, Leighton Beckles of the Communications Department of the TAJ declined to comment on the matter.
However, founder Castelle Barnes told The Gleaner that his operation was a third party provider and not currently endorsed by the TAJ, but instead was working in the interest of motorists to get their tickets paid on time and to have the outstanding ones cleared up.
He explained that in order to access this service, persons just need to go to the website ( taxoexpress.com/ticket) where they will be required to provide relevant contact information such as tax registration number (TRN), telephone number and email address. Using this information, TaxO Express then generates a report which will show fees to be paid in court and the total points accumulated, based on traffic tickets incurred and other pertinent information. After the report is shared with the client, they can then make a schedule with TaxO Express to pay the fines.
PRIORITISE PAYMENT OPTION
In recognition of the fact that some persons may not be able to pay all their outstanding tickets at one time, the company facilitates a timetable of payments, with the offender having to option to prioritise payments.
Payments are done using the bank transfer system which allows clients to track their payments to TaxO Express and if, for instance, the court rules that a fine is less than what the company had estimated, based on the range of possible fees, that money is refunded. The client is sent a receipt with the amount paid to the court and then gets back the difference in the amount originally sent to TaxO Express.
Barnes says the response to the new service which started in April has been overwhelming, with motorists logging on for the convenience and ease of service offered. The savings in time and money have been easily the strongest calling cards. For paying current traffic tickets, the fee is $5,000, while for outstanding ones, it starts at $7,500 and with any further escalation based on the amount of research to locate and print the outstanding tickets.
“The request has been overwhelming but thanks to our automated system which allows us to answer a lot of these queries because persons don’t really need to call us,” said Barnes.
“Once they go on the website and they use what is a quizzsi which is a digital automated system once they go they can ask pretty much any question and it will give a response. I think it is something that everyone will be happy with in the long run because we are gonna save a lot of persons time and money.”