Thinking of buying the vacant lot next to your house but don’t know how much you’d have to pay in taxes each year?

Want to pay the taxes on your business but can’t find your tax statement?

Interested in knowing whether or not a county commissioner, school board trustee or city councilman paid their taxes on time?

In the past you had to go into the tax assessor-collector’s office and ask to see the tax records. Or you had to call the tax office and wait while a clerk there looked up the information.

Not any longer.

The Bee County Tax Assessor-Collector’s office has posted the tax records online.

“We are live on the Internet as of July 23, 2008,” said Tax Assessor-Collector Andrea W Gibbud. “What this means is that the tax records, which are public information, are on the Internet for people to visit at www.beecountyonline.net/tax/. Those who are interested are able to search by name, account number, statement number, property address, or mailing address.”

She said the online format simply makes it more convenient for the public to access information and records.

“This has always been public information,” Gibbud explained. “There is nothing here that hasn’t always been available to the public. It’s just easier to access.

“The availability of this information on the Internet will reduce telephone calls from title companies, real estate agents, attorneys, mortgage companies and the general public, allowing tax office staff to devote their time more fully to customers in the office and other responsibilities.”

Once a record is found, the searcher will be able to determine whether or not the taxes are paid, see the description of the property as it appears on the tax roll and see the amount due, she added.

“When we post a payment to pay taxes off or change ownership on a record, the public will be able to see that the taxes are paid or the change we made within minutes,” she said. “It is live.”

For those with taxes to pay, a shopping cart is available where they can collect as many accounts as they need to and pay with a credit card. There is a service fee for the use of credit cards and the customer will be able to see what that fee will be before finalizing their payment.

“We have taken credit card payments over the Internet for a number of years but people had to know their account number and know what they needed to pay ahead of time without the benefit of having that information live,” she said.

The project has taken three months to complete and is sponsored in part by the delinquent attorney firm of Linebarger Goggan Blair Sampson, LLC out of its Corpus Christi office. Gibbud is most appreciative for its considerable contribution to the one time cost of this effort, Gibbud noted.

Gibbud expressed a thank you to the Bee County Commissioners Court for being willing to work with her to find the funds for the county’s portion of the expense.