Laurens County Treasurer Cindy Burke, right, with Chad Clark, who took advantage of the the one stop shop now available for paying car taxes and late fees and avoiding an additional trip to the DMV.
Laurens County, South Carolina – For close to 20 years Laurens County residents have had the privilege of obtaining their vehicle registration renewal at the time they pay their vehicle taxes right at the Laurens County Treasurer’s Office at Hillcrest Square in Laurens.
As of Tuesday, Jan 13, those who are late paying their vehicle taxes can also take care of everything at the county treasurer’s office rather than having to make a secondary trip to the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles.
“Previously, we could only do this with regular renewals and everyone else had to leave the tax office and then go to the DMV to pay the late fees,” said Laurens County Treasurer Cindy Burke. “We have always wanted to collect the late fees here but we didn’t have the technology at the time. We needed an instantaneous transmission to DMV and return transmission and we finally have the technology that makes this possible.”
Laurens County was the fifth county in the state to begin printing of decals and registrations close to two decades ago, and now it’s the third county in the state to offer the service for those paying the late taxes and required fees. Spartanburg and Aiken counties began in recent weeks, and Burke said she’s had many conversations with the treasurers there about the new process.

It’s a new service which will help county residents and the DMV.
“The DMV handles so many other things. They are doing drivers tests, transferring car titles, and when you go to the DMV, the lines can be long,” Burke said. “We get no money from the late fees. We collect the DMV fees and once a week, we send the DMV the fees we’ve collected.”
There are limitations, she said.
It’s not available for issuing a new car registration, nor for boats, she said, but it’s an excellent option for the county residents who are simply late paying their taxes.
“We send the tax bills out a month and a half before they are due, so most people are on time, but there can be extenuating circumstances that cause taxpayers to be late,” she said. “For those people, this cuts out some of their wait time because we can handle it all here.”
On Monday night, Burke, who has served as county treasurer for 29 years, appeared before Laurens County Council at its regular January meeting to explain the new option to council members.

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