Former South Carolina Republican Rep. RJ May, who is awaiting federal sentencing for child sexual abuse material charges, faces additional charges by the state's revenue department for failing to file and pay his state income taxes for three years.
May is charged with three counts of failing to file and pay state taxes from 2022 to 2024.
The state Department of Revenue said investigators found May earned $323,000 in those three years. The 39-year-old owes the state more than $14,000 in unpaid taxes.
The charges carry a maximum sentence for every count of one year in prison and/or a $10,000 fine and the cost of prosecution.
In 2020, May was first elected to the S.C. House to represent District 88 based in Lexington County. The married father of two's full-time job was running his political consulting firm, Ivory Tusk Consulting, which he used to help launch the hardline House Freedom Caucus after his arrival to the chamber.
It was revealed back in October by the House Ethics Committee that May failed to pay state income taxes for years, a disclosure that followed a monthslong investigation.
The committee's lawyers said it was not clear whether May had filed federal taxes.
The ethics report said the Department of Revenue also were unable to find any tax records for Ivory Tusk Consulting, which had more than $600,000 "flowing through it."
May resigned his House seat in August, a month before pleading guilty to five counts of distributing child pornography.
He faces five to 20 years in federal prison on each charge.
May, who is currently being held in the Edgefield County jail, will be sentenced on Jan. 14, the second day of the 2026 South Carolina legislative session.
