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The Official Web Site of the State of South Carolina

New Taxes and Fees for Road Maintenance

To raise additional money to improve the state’s existing roads and bridges, the S.C. General Assembly passed Act 40, which took effect in July 2017. The law increases the state’s gasoline tax by 12 cents per gallon over six years (two cents per year) and imposes a variety of fee increases on vehicles. The state estimates that Act 40 will raise about $625 million of new annual revenue when fully implemented.  For more details refer to the legislation.

Act 40 requires that most of the new revenue be accounted for in a special fund called the “Infrastructure Maintenance Trust Fund” for use only to repair, maintain, and improve South Carolina’s existing highway system. The Act also creates a “Safety Maintenance Account” to enable motorists to claim state income tax credits for amounts spent on preventive maintenance for their vehicles, subject to certain limits. Get more information about these tax credits.

Act 40 cited the deteriorated condition of our state’s existing roads and bridges to justify increasing taxes by $625 million a year, and it limited using these increased tax collections to repairing, maintaining, and improving those deteriorated roads and bridges. Because of our commitment to showing that the new revenue is properly accounted for and used only for purposes authorized in the Act, the links below for the Infrastructure Maintenance Trust Fund (IMTF) and the Safety Maintenance Account (SMA) open to tables that we update monthly. These tables disclose the receipts and disbursements of the various new taxes and fees imposed by Act 40.
 

Infrastructure Maintenance Trust Fund

  • Receipts & Disbursements - summarizes the various receipts and disbursements recorded in the State’s accounting system on a monthly and year to date basis as well as showing totals for the prior year and since the inception of Act 40.
  • Contractor & Vendor Payments - lists the cumulative amounts paid by individual projects sorted by county and district since the inception of Act 40.
  • Distributions to Donor Counties - lists the amount of “C” Funds distributed to donor counties as defined and directed under Code of Law § 12-28-2740.
     

Safety Maintenance Account

  • As per South Carolina Code of Laws § 11-11-240(B), after December 31, 2022, the Safety Maintenance Account shall no longer be credited funds collected pursuant to § 56-3-627(D). As of January 2023 the Safety Maintenance Account has been closed for any further activity.