Audit Information

Local Government officials can submit their audits or compilations (allowed for certain municipals as described in Act 71 section below) online by emailing annualaudits@sto.sc.gov.

South Carolina State law mandates (PDF) municipalities and counties perform annual audits or compilations for certain municipals to ensure the proper collection, reporting and distribution of fines and assessments from the point of collection to the point of distribution. Audits and compilations should include a supplementary schedule detailing all fines and assessments collected at the court level, the amount remitted to the municipal or county treasurer and the amount remitted to the State Treasurer. 

Note regarding municipalities:

Beginning July 2025, Proviso 98.9 has been amended to remove the suspension of withholding penalties that was previously allowed. Accordingly, the STO will begin withholding on municipals delinquent in submitting the audit that is due as of July 1, 2025. The STO is not permitted to accept extensions on any municipalities, which are allowed 13 months from the municipal year end to provide audited financial statements.

In addition, there were recent changes per Act 71 in which certain municipalities may qualify to submit a compilation report in place of an audit.  Per SC Code Section 14-1-240(E)(3), qualified municipals may provide a compilation of financial statements in lieu of an audit: 1) annually for municipalities with a court system or 2) at least once every three years for municipalities without a court system.  Additionally, municipalities with court systems must include a Uniform Supplemental Schedule Form detailing certain information and are required to engage an external accountant to perform agreed upon procedures (PDF) related to the supplement schedule.

To qualify for compilation, a municipal’s prior year total recurring revenue from all sources must be equal or less than the threshold set per for the municipal SC Code Section 5-7-240, which will be adjusted annually for inflation based on a prescribed Consumer Price Index (CPI) to be calculated by the SC Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office as seen here. Specifically, for the municipal fiscal year beginning during calendar year 2024, a municipal’s total prior year recurring revenue from all sources must be equal to or less than $500,000. And for the municipal fiscal year beginning during calendar year 2025, the inflation adjusted threshold for total prior year recurring revenue from all sources is equal to or less than $514,748.

Note regarding counties: Effective June 7, 2023, SC Code Section 4-9-150 was amended to transition the responsibility of collection of county annual audits and management of related withholding from the Comptroller General’s Office to the State Treasurer’s Office. The State Treasurer's Office is required to withhold certain funding if local governments do not submit their completed audit within the time parameters prescribed in state law.

Counties may request an extension up to 90 days using this form (PDF).

Click below to see which counties and municipalities are delinquent.

Delinquent Municipalities
Delinquent Counties