(A) Upon application and payment of the required fee, the Department of Motor Vehicles may issue a standard license plate to a manufacturer for vehicles it has manufactured and which are used in a benefit program for the manufacturer's employees or used by the manufacturer for testing, distribution, evaluation, and promotion.

(B) The annual registration fee provided for by this section is derived by computing the average price of the vehicle manufacturer's fleet times the property tax rates times the average millage for all purposes statewide for the preceding calendar year.

(C) The plates issued in connection with an employee benefit program may be used only on vehicles provided for the applicant's employees. In the application, the manufacturer shall notify the department in which county the employee assigned the vehicle resides. Twenty dollars of the fee must be credited to the general fund of the State and the remainder must be remitted to the county noted on the application. Amounts received by a county pursuant to this subsection must be credited to the accounts of taxing entities in the county as if it were a county property tax and are instead of state sales or use taxes. If the employee resides outside this State, the fee must be credited to the general fund of the State.

(D) The plates issued in connection with testing, distribution, evaluation, and promotion, not to exceed fifty plates, may be used only for those purposes. Twenty dollars of the fee must be credited to the general fund of the State and the remainder must be remitted to the county in which the principal facility of the manufacturer is located. Amounts received by a county pursuant to this subsection must be credited to the accounts of taxing entities in the county as if it were a county property tax and are instead of state sales or use taxes. The department may require the documentation it determines necessary to ensure compliance with the provisions of this subsection.

(E) Before December thirty-first of each odd-numbered year, the manufacturer shall review the average price of its fleet and submit the cost to the Department of Revenue. The Department of Revenue shall determine the annual registration fee pursuant to subsection (B) and then notify the Department of Motor Vehicles of the adjusted fee amount, which is effective for the next two years.

HISTORY: 1997 Act No. 155, Part II, Section 32C; 2000 Act No. 278, Section 1; 2000 Act No. 387, Part II, Section 20A; 2016 Act No. 214 (S.1111), Section 1, eff June 3, 2016.

Editor's Note

2016 Act No. 214, Section 2, provides as follows:

"SECTION 2. Notwithstanding Section 56-3-2332(B), for 2017 and 2018, the annual registration fee for license plates issued pursuant to Section 56-3-2332 is seven hundred eighty-nine dollars."