The reason I said might have been paid is that I was at home my husband was the one dealing with this police officer. He walked home told me about the tow and I showed him the online payment information. He was not even given a ticket! Nothing. So what was the vehicle towed for? No ticket, no charges.
He's lucky he doesn't have the added hassle of the citation. What it appears to have been towed for was for VC 22651(o) - unregistered for more than 6 months. Understand that the registration was not complete when the fees were paid, if smog was due, the registration was complete when SMOG was also submitted.
If the car was towed because of the registration being suspended than where is our traffic ticket? Isn't there a saying that says, "Charge me or release me?" The same should go for our car.
They do not have to issue a citation to impound the car. In fact, if they had found the car unoccupied on the road, they could have towed it, too. The tow was an administrative matter, it has not been arrested, it has been removed from the public roadway.
Each day that the vehicle remains in impound will cost about $60 more (more or less depending on where you live). After 30 days it will be subject to sale.
So, your husband might want to consider going to the DMV, getting a temporary registration (after fees are paid, if any remain to be paid) and insurance, and getting the car out of impound. If there is no way to afford to get the car released even for a few hundred dollars, and your husband owns the car outright, he might want to consider signing it over to the tow company in lieu of any fees that might be owed - on other words, he can ask to give it to them and walk away from it.
The options are not pretty, but there you are.