South Carolina Auto Loan Calculator ($500 IMF Cap & Fees)

South Carolina does not charge sales tax on cars. It charges an Infrastructure Maintenance Fee, created by S.C. Code Ann. § 56-3-627, at 5% of the sales price and hard-capped at $500. That cap is the single most important fact about buying a car in this state, and a percentage-only model of South Carolina is simply wrong.

The arithmetic is short. Any vehicle with a net price at or above $10,000 pays exactly $500, because $10,000 × 5% = $500 and the fee cannot go higher. Below that threshold the fee is a genuine 5%. So the effective rate on a $35,000 car is 1.43%. On a $70,000 car it is 0.71%. Against Georgia's 7% title ad valorem tax or North Carolina's 3% highway use tax, a South Carolina buyer of an expensive car saves thousands at the counter.

The second thing that separates South Carolina from its neighbors is that there is no local rate to add. S.C. Code § 12-36-2120(83) exempts sales subject to the IMF from state and local sales and use tax, confirmed by SC Information Letter #22-17. South Carolina's local option, capital projects, and transportation sales taxes push general retail rates to 8% or 9% in Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville, and none of them touch a car purchase. Any calculator offering you a county selector for a South Carolina vehicle is applying rates that do not apply.

The catch is that South Carolina takes it back later. Counties levy an annual ad valorem property tax on vehicles at a 6% assessment ratio for private passenger cars, and on a $35,000 vehicle that recurring bill will typically exceed the one-time $500 within the first year or two of ownership. This calculator prices the purchase. It does not price the ownership.

The APR columns below are national averages, not South Carolina figures. No primary source publishes average auto loan APR by state: Experian's report has no geographic cut, the CFPB publishes state origination volume but no rates, and the New York Fed publishes state delinquency only. The payment column is the part that is specific to South Carolina, because it runs this calculator's own South Carolina tax and fee rules at each tier's rate.

Payment assumptions: $35,000 vehicle price, $0 trade-in, $5,000 cash down, $225 dealer documentation fee, 60-month term, new-vehicle APR applied to the South Carolina delivered price including tax and statutory fees. At the 6.39% overall new-car average the same purchase costs $600.66 a month.

The score bands are VantageScore 4.0, not FICO. The same borrower can land in a different tier under each model, so a FICO score pulled from a card issuer will not always match the band here. Source: Experian, State of the Automotive Finance Market, Q1 2026, slide 45.

Each row changes one input and leaves the rest at the baseline below. The dollar effects are this calculator's own output for South Carolina, not a rule of thumb.

Baseline: $35,000 vehicle price, $0 trade-in, $5,000 cash down, $225 documentation fee, 60 months at 7.25% APR, giving a $613.12 payment and $6,007.01 of total interest.

South Carolina's Infrastructure Maintenance Fee is 5% but never exceeds $500, so every net price at or above $10,000 pays exactly $500. Five steps.

1. Net price. The dealer closing fee is part of gross proceeds of sale, so it sits inside the base, and the trade-in allowance comes out.

2. Infrastructure Maintenance Fee. Five percent, then the ceiling.

3. No local layer. Nothing is added. IMF sales are exempt from local sales and use tax.

4. Title and registration. A fixed $55, being the $15 title fee and the $40 two-year passenger registration. Both sit outside the fee base.

5. Amount financed and amortization.

where $P$ is the financed amount, $i$ is the monthly rate (APR ÷ 12), and $n$ is the term in months.

South Carolina's Infrastructure Maintenance Fee is 5% but never exceeds $500, so on any car above roughly $10,000 net the percentage is decoration. The step that matters is the cap.

• Vehicle price: $35,000
• Trade-in allowance: $0
• Cash down: $5,000
• Dealer closing fee: $225
• Term: 60 months at 7.25% APR

Step 1 -- The net price. Gross proceeds including the closing fee, less any trade-in: $35,000 + $225 - $0 = $35,225.00

Step 2 -- The uncapped 5% figure. $35,225.00 x 5% = $1,761.25

Step 3 -- Apply the $500 statutory cap. min($1,761.25, $500) = $500.00

Step 4 -- Title and registration, outside the base. $15.00 title + $40.00 registration = $55.00

Step 5 -- Total delivered price. $35,000 + $225.00 + $500.00 + $55.00 = $35,780.00

Step 6 -- Amount financed. $35,780.00 - $0 trade-in - $5,000 cash down = $30,780.00

Step 7 -- The monthly payment. $30,780.00 at 7.25% over 60 months = $613.12

Step 8 -- Month 1. $30,780.00 x (7.25% / 12) = $185.96 interest, $427.16 principal, balance $30,352.84

Step 9 -- Month 2. $30,352.84 x (7.25% / 12) = $183.38 interest, $429.74 principal, balance $29,923.10. Cumulative interest: $369.34

Step 10 -- The accumulation. Interest through month 12 is $2,057.74 with $25,480.30 still owed. Over the full term, $6,007.01

The cap saved $1,261.25 on this purchase by itself.

Now add a $10,000 trade-in. The net price falls to $25,225, which is still well above $10,000, so the IMF stays at exactly $500.00 and the trade-in tax saving is $0.00. The payment drops to $413.92, entirely because the loan is smaller. This is the South Carolina trap in reverse: in almost every other state a trade-in is a tax lever, and here it usually is not one.

The trade-in only bites when it pulls the net price below $10,000. Take a $30,000 car with a $22,000 trade. Net price is $8,225, the IMF is a true 5% at $411.25, and the credit is worth $88.75. Compare a $9,775 car with the same $225 closing fee: net price is exactly $10,000, the fee is exactly $500, and one dollar less on the price starts reducing what you owe.

• The annual county vehicle property tax, which is the real cost. Counties assess private passenger vehicles (GVW 11,000 lbs or less, net weight 9,000 lbs or less) at a 6% ratio under S.C. Const. Art. X § 1(8)(B)(1), value them from the SCDOR Motor Vehicle Values manual, and multiply by local millage. Medium and heavy trucks are assessed at 10.5%. Vehicle taxes are the only personal property taxes billed a year in advance in South Carolina. This is a purchase calculator and materially understates the total cost of owning a car here.
• The $250 flat IMF for vehicles moving into the state. A person who registers a vehicle in South Carolina that they previously registered in another state pays a flat $250 rather than the 5% capped fee.
• Private-party purchases. A casual sale is taxed at 5% of fair market value, also capped at $500, and remitted by the buyer at registration rather than collected by a dealer. The casual excise tax no longer applies to motor vehicles or motorcycles at all, only to aircraft, boats, and boat motors.
• The trade-in citation. S.C. Code § 56-3-627 imposes the IMF on gross proceeds of sales, and gross proceeds for vehicles is computed net of trade-in under Title 12 Chapter 36 principles. Primary-source text tying the deduction directly to § 56-3-627 was not located, so treat the trade-in mechanic as well supported rather than confirmed. Given the cap, it changes the answer only below $10,000 net anyway.
• Title and registration amounts. The $15 and $40 figures come from secondary aggregation because scdmvonline.com refused automated connections. Registration is reduced to $24 for two years for owners aged 65 and over.
• Closing fees above the safe harbor. There is no statutory maximum. A dealer may charge more than $225 if it can justify the amount, and the fee stays inside the IMF base either way.
• GAP insurance, extended warranties, and aftermarket add-ons, unless you fold them into the vehicle price.

• Applying a percentage to an expensive car. Five percent of $60,000 is $3,000. The actual fee is $500. This is the error that makes most online South Carolina estimates useless.
• Adding a Charleston, Columbia, or Greenville local rate. Those 8% and 9% figures are general retail rates. IMF sales are exempt from local sales tax, so the correct local rate on a vehicle is zero, statewide.
• Expecting a trade-in to cut your tax. Above $10,000 net it does not, because you are at the cap either way. Negotiate the allowance on its cash merits alone.
• Forgetting the county property tax bill. It arrives every year, it is billed in advance, and on a newer vehicle it will exceed $500 quickly. Buyers moving from a state with no vehicle property tax are routinely surprised.
• Assuming the $250 relocation IMF is instead of registration. It is a separate charge for bringing an already-owned vehicle into the state, not a substitute for title and plate fees.
• Judging the loan by payment alone. Stretching this $30,780.00 balance from 60 to 72 months cuts the payment to $528.47 and raises total finance charges from $6,007.01 to $7,269.92.

• South Carolina Department of Revenue, SC Information Letter #22-17 (confirming that IMF sales are not subject to local sales taxes) dor.sc.gov
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z, 12 CFR § 1026.22) disclosure requirements for installment credit. ecfr.gov/current/title-12/chapter-X/part-1026

Also consulted: S.C. Code Ann. § 56-3-627 (Infrastructure Maintenance Fee, 5% of gross proceeds, $500 maximum, $250 flat fee for vehicles previously registered out of state); S.C. Code Ann. § 12-36-2120(83) (exemption of IMF sales from state and local sales and use tax); S.C. Code Ann. § 37-2-307 (dealer closing fees; Notice of Closing Fee filing and the $225 presumption of reasonableness); S.C. Const. Art. X § 1(8)(B)(1) (6% assessment ratio for private passenger motor vehicles; 10.5% for medium and heavy trucks); South Carolina Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Values manual (county auditor valuation basis for the annual property tax); SCDMV fee schedule ($15 title, $40 two-year passenger registration, $24 for owners 65 and over), taken from secondary aggregation because the SCDMV site refused automated connections; Experian, State of the Automotive Finance Market, Q1 2026, slide 45 (average new and used auto loan APR by VantageScore 4.0 credit tier; national, no state level cut published).