South Carolina gas tax jumps for 5th straight year

(The Center Square) – South Carolina residents will be paying a gas tax increase for the fifth consecutive July when they head to the pump Thursday.

The tax increase is part of a plan that began July 1, 2017, to increase the state’s gas tax by 2 cents a gallon each year, ending in 2022. When the six-year phase in is complete July 1, 2022, South Carolina’s gas tax will have gone from 16 cents a gallon in early 2017 to 28 cents a gallon.

The state gas tax becomes 26 cents a gallon Thursday.

South Carolina had the 11th-highest gas tax in the nation in January. Alaska (13.8 cents a gallon), Missouri (17.4 cents) and Mississippi (18.8 cents) had the lowest gas tax.

The highest rates belonged to California (63.1 cents a gallon), Pennsylvania (58.7 cents) and Illinois (52.2 cents).

The state started giving residents an income tax credit in 2017 for each year’s 2-cent increase, asking residents to keep their fuel and car maintenance receipts throughout the year.

Residents can claim, for two passenger vehicles, whichever is lower: the amount spent on vehicle maintenance that year or the amount of the 2-cent increase in gas tax in total paid for the year.

The South Carolina Department of Revenue reported 79,000 South Carolina residents claimed the income tax credit in 2020 with an average credit of about $43.

The total income tax credit for state residents is capped each year, but South Carolina residents didn’t come close to reaching the cap in 2020. Only $3.4 million of the $85 million cap was claimed.

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