{"id":27653,"date":"2022-12-07T12:58:12","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T17:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=27653"},"modified":"2022-12-07T12:58:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T17:58:19","slug":"polk-tax-collector-warns-about-private-companies-overcharging-for-vehicle-registrations-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2022\/12\/07\/polk-tax-collector-warns-about-private-companies-overcharging-for-vehicle-registrations-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk tax collector warns about private companies overcharging for vehicle registrations online"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Tax-collector-Polk-Co..webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-27654\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Polk County Tax Collector&#8217;s Office says customers are being overcharged by private online companies for their vehicle registration renewals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI am very concerned about the latest attempt from private online actors to overcharge customers in Polk County for government services without making it clear there are cheaper options,&#8221; Polk Tax Collector Joe Tedder said in a news release Monday morning. &#8220;I do not want to see customers being taken advantage of, and unfortunately, it is happening more and more online, especially with our elderly residents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"224\" height=\"224\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/tedder.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-27655\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/tedder.png 224w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/tedder-150x150.png 150w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The news release said that in one recent example, a customer paid $202.08 at Swifttags.com for a vehicle registration that would&#8217;ve cost $135.10 using the Tax Collector&#8217;s Office website,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.polktaxes.com\/\">polktaxes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The agency said several factors contribute to the confusion. For example, customers using search engines like Google or Bing to search for the Tax Collector\u2019s Office online might unknowingly click on one of the private online actors. Search engines often prioritize advertisements from these private companies first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;These sites have no affiliation with the Tax Collector\u2019s Office and overcharge for the same services that cost less with the Tax Collector\u2019s Office,&#8221; the news release said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The agency recommends that customers who want to renew the registrations online do so by going to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.polktaxes.com\/\">polktaxes.com<\/a>&nbsp;directly, instead of using a search engine. The same address is printed on registration-renewal notices that come in the mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Polk County Tax Collector&#8217;s Office says customers are being overcharged by private online companies for their vehicle registration renewals. \u201cI am very concerned about the latest attempt from private&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}