The early months of a new year bring several critical state reporting requirements for municipalities and municipal officials.
Audit
Depending on when a city’s fiscal year begins, audit reporting may or may not be a beginning-of-year issue. SC Code Section 5-7-240 requires all municipalities to submit a financial audit to the Office of the State Treasurer within 13 months of the end of that municipality’s fiscal year.
An audit must include all financial records and transactions of the municipality and any agency funded in whole by the municipality, plus a report that includes the recording, collection and distribution of applicable court fines.
For municipalities with fiscal year beginning January 1, the 13-month requirement means that the audit for FY 2023 is due by February 1, 2025. For a fiscal year beginning July 1, the audit for FY 2022-2023 will be due August 1, 2025.
Any municipality missing its audit submission deadline may have all of its state payments — including 100% of Local Government Fund dollars — withheld by the State Treasurer's office until the audit is received. The Office of the State Treasurer posts a list of municipal delinquent audits at its website.
Act 71, passed in 2023, allows cities and towns with less than $500,000 in total recurring revenues the option of providing a compilation of financial statements instead of a full audit. Municipalities with a court system must submit this annually, and those without a court system must submit them once every three years. They should follow the same rule of submitting them within 13 months of the end of the fiscal year.
Local Government Finance Report
Cities and towns must also submit the Local Government Finance Report to the SC Department of Revenue and Fiscal Affairs, due by March 15. The online report is available through the RFA website. Municipalities that do not submit this report on time face the penalty of losing 10% of the municipality’s share of the Local Government Fund, according to SC Code Section 6-1-50.
Statement of Economic Interest
Under SC Code Section 8-13-1110, public officials must use the State Ethic Commission’s Statement of Economic Interest forms to report their income as well as any economic interest in real, personal or business property. They must report income through these forms even if their public service is unpaid.
The law defines an economic interest as “an interest distinct from that of the general public in a purchase, sale, lease, contract, option, or other transaction or arrangement involving property or services in which a public official, public member, or public employee may gain an economic benefit.”
The economic interests that officials must disclose on the forms include their own business dealings and property, but also those of immediate family members as well.
The State Ethics Commission maintains a full list of all types of public officials subject to the SEI requirement, as well as the circumstances under which they must make a disclosure, on its website. The forms are due by electronic filing by noon on March 30.
The fines that can be charged to the individual official, not the municipality, for overdue SEI submissions can be substantial. Once the forms become overdue, fines for not filing them can start increasing daily until they hit maximum amounts.
Key Dates
- February 1: Audits due for cities with fiscal year beginning January 1
- March 15: Local Government Finance Report due
- March 30 at noon: Statements of Economic Interest due
- August 1: Audits due for cities with fiscal year beginning July 1