South Carolina Vehicle Fee: 5% Infrastructure Fee, $500 Cap

South Carolina does not charge sales tax on a vehicle covered by the infrastructure maintenance fee; it charges a 5 percent fee that stops at $500, so the cost stops growing once the price reaches $10,000.

This guide explains how the fee works for dealer and private sales, which transactions are exempt from sales tax, the flat $250 fee for a vehicle first registered elsewhere, and where to get answers, using the South Carolina Department of Revenue's policy manual (Chapter 10, September 2025) and the information letter it reproduces, read on 29 October 2026.

How the Fee Works

The owner or lessee of each vehicle that must be registered pays the infrastructure maintenance fee upon first titling or registering it with the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (SCDMV). The fee is remitted to SCDMV and is imposed at a rate of 5% of the gross proceeds of the sale, not to exceed $500, for a sale by a licensed SCDMV dealer, or 5% of the vehicle's fair market value, not to exceed $500, for a sale by a person who is not a SCDMV licensed dealer.

Sales that are subject to the infrastructure maintenance fee are exempt from the state and local sales and use taxes, and the casual excise tax no longer applies to motor vehicles and motorcycles. The fee became effective on 1 July 2017. The same rule is in the statute, S.C. Code section 56-3-627: five percent, not to exceed five hundred dollars, of the gross proceeds of a dealer sale or of the fair market value on a sale by someone other than a dealer.

For a private sale, the statute excludes items transferred to members of the immediate family (spouse, parents, children, sisters, brothers, grandparents and grandchildren) and to a legal heir, legatee or distributee, among other listed transfers. It also excludes items on which sales or use tax has been paid on the transaction. "Fair market value" in the statute means the total purchase price less any trade-in, or the valuation shown in a national publication of used values adopted by the department, less any trade-in.

Examples (our illustration)

The cap applies from $10,000 upwards, so any vehicle priced at $10,000 or more pays the same $500 fee. These are our arithmetic on the department's rules, not an official calculation.

Vehicles Registered Elsewhere First

The fee is also imposed when a vehicle was first registered in another state by the owner and is subsequently registered for the first time in South Carolina by the same owner. This infrastructure maintenance fee is $250. The statute does not apply this $250 fee to an owner serving on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, and the exclusion extends to items owned by that person's spouse or dependent. Questions about the fee go to SCDMV; the Department of Revenue handles the sales and use tax questions that remain.

Official Sources

• South Carolina Department of Revenue: Policy Manual Chapter 10, Maximum Tax Items (September 2025), including Information Letter #22-17
• South Carolina Legislature: S.C. Code Title 56, Chapter 3, section 56-3-627 (infrastructure maintenance fee)
• The Department's manual points to SCDMV (cartaxes@scdmv.net) for questions about the fee itself.