South Carolina gas tax
State fuel excise · tax year 2026 · federal tax excluded
On a 20-gallon fill
$5.60
Over 500 gallons
$140
Per gallon
28.0¢
state only
Rate rank
23
1 is the highest
What South Carolina charges at the pump
- South Carolina takes $5.60 in fuel tax from a twenty-gallon fill. Keep driving and the year's total reaches $140. On the rate behind those numbers the state comes 23 nationally. It is one of the few taxes you pay weekly and never think about once.
- In South Carolina diesel is taxed no more heavily than ordinary fuel. Twenty gallons carries $5.60 against $5.60. That is unusual — most of the country adds a premium to diesel — and it quietly matters to anyone running a van or a truck here.
- South Carolina adds a little more beyond the main fuel tax. Inspection and environmental charges come to $0.15 on a twenty-gallon fill. It is not large, and it is not optional either.
- Fuel excise in South Carolina totals $5.60 per twenty-gallon purchase and $140 over five hundred gallons, a rate ranking 23 nationally. ⚠️ Excluding federal excise throughout. Because the charge is fixed in nominal cents rather than indexed to price, its real burden has declined steadily wherever a legislature has not revisited it — several states now index explicitly for that reason.
- Diesel and gasoline are taxed at parity or with diesel favored in South Carolina, at $5.60 and $5.60 per twenty gallons respectively. ⚠️ Since most states impose a diesel premium, the absence of one here is a structural feature worth noting in any comparison of operating costs across neighboring jurisdictions.
- Beyond the principal excise, South Carolina levies separately-reported charges on motor fuel worth $0.15 per twenty gallons. ⚠️ Because states differ in whether such charges are consolidated into the headline rate or reported apart, cross-state rate tables — including the rank on this page — are not strictly comparable at the margin.
Your year of fuel tax
A $75,000 salary
| State fuel taxper gallon | 28¢ |
|---|---|
| Fuel tax, year | $175 |
| You must earn | $275 |
| Hours of work | 7.6 hr |
State excise only. Federal fuel tax and any local levy are not included.
Tax in a tank
A $75,000 salary
| State rate | 28¢ a gallon |
|---|---|
| Tank costs | $44.80 |
| Fifty tanks a year | $196.00 |
State excise only. The federal fuel tax and any local levy are on top of this.
Gasoline, diesel, and the charges reported separately
Per-gallon rates are shown as South Carolina publishes them, to a tenth of a cent. The money columns are what those rates come to on a 20-gallon fill and across 500 gallons. Federal tax is charged on top of all of it and is not included.
| Fuel | Per gallon | On a fill | Over a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gasoline | 28.0¢ | $5.60 | $140 |
| Diesel | 28.0¢ | $5.60 | $140 |
| Other state charges | 0.8¢ | $0.15 | — |
What this page cannot tell you
- ⚠️ Federal fuel tax is charged on top of all this and is not included above. It is the same everywhere in the country.
- The tank and the year here are round reference amounts, not a guess at your driving. Your own total scales directly with the gallons you actually buy in South Carolina.
- And some places add local fuel taxes of their own on top of the state's. Those are not counted here.
- ⚠️ Federal motor fuel excise applies in addition to every figure on this page and is deliberately excluded, being uniform nationally. Including it would raise each state's figure by the same amount and compress the differences this page exists to show.
- Quantities are reference points rather than estimates of consumption: liability is strictly proportional to gallons purchased, so any household's figure is this one scaled by its own volume. ⚠️ Fuel purchased outside South Carolina is taxed by the state where it is bought, which is why the figures describe purchases rather than mileage.
- Local option fuel taxes exist in a number of states and are excluded from these figures, which cover the state levy only. Where a county or city in South Carolina imposes its own charge, the true per-gallon burden at that address exceeds what this page reports.
Questions people ask
Why is there no tax line on my fuel receipt?
Because it was charged long before you got there. Fuel tax is levied per gallon on the way to the pump, so the price on the sign already contains it — nothing is added at the register, and the amount does not change with what the fuel happens to cost that week.
How does this compare with other states?
In the middle of the pack — 23 of 51. That is a more common position than either extreme, and it means neighbors are likely to be charging something similar rather than very different.
Is diesel taxed the same as gasoline?
No — it carries its own rate, a lower one here. States set the two separately, usually reasoning about road wear from heavy vehicles rather than about the fuel itself, so the gap between them is a policy choice rather than a chemical one.
Why does motor fuel excise not appear as a separate charge?
Motor fuel excise is levied per gallon at the distributor or terminal, not at retail, so it is embedded in the pump price and not separately stated. Because it is volumetric rather than ad valorem, liability per gallon is invariant to the retail price and its real value erodes with inflation absent legislative change.
Where does this state sit in the national distribution?
This state ranks 23 of 51, within the middle third. Cross-border substitution effects are weakest at this position because adjacent-state differentials are typically small relative to travel cost.
How does the diesel rate relate to the gasoline rate here?
Diesel is taxed at a rate set independently of gasoline and is lower in this state. The differential is generally justified by road-wear attribution to heavy vehicles rather than by fuel characteristics, and several states index the two grades differently.