The tax targets people who use ride apps like Uber, Lyft, and taxis.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — When it comes to money, 1.5% doesn’t sound like much, but when 1.5% is added to your bill, as a new tax, you’ll notice it.
North Carolina’s new tax is the Transportation Commerce Tax. It begins July 1, 2025. The tax will be added to the bill when you take a taxi or use a ride app.
“As a customer, if you take a ride with a taxi or transportation network company, what you will see at the end of your ride on your receipt is a brand new tax,” said Andrew Furuseth, Director of Sales Tax Division, NC Department of Revenue.
The 1.5% is for an exclusive ride service, which, even though it says exclusive, just means that the person paying kind of exclusively decides who’s in the vehicle with them. So it may be friends, it may be family.
The 1% rate only applies to something called a shared ride service, and that is when the taxi company or the transportation network company connects you with other riders that you don’t know and puts you in the vehicle together and charges you both up there.
“Most rides, the riders should really expect a 1.5% rate,” said Furuseth.
The Transportation Commerce Tax was part of a 2023 state budget bill. It’s in effect two years later.
The tax money will go to the state highway fund, to be used for roads and bridges.
According to NCDOR, ride drivers and taxi drivers don’t have to individually register with the state, but the main company does.
