Taxes & Incentives

Business Taxes

For a detailed explanation of South Carolina’s business taxes, please download the SC Department of Revenue’s 2017 Business Tax Guide.

Corporate Income Tax

South Carolina, with one of the lowest corporate income tax rates in the nation, bases it corporate income tax primarily on federal gross and taxable income. Companies engaged in multi-state activities will only pay taxes on the income derived from business activity conducted in South Carolina.

Annual corporate income is based on the following:

• Income allocated to South Carolina operations (interest, dividends, royalties, rents, property sale gains and losses, and personal services income); and
• Income apportioned to South Carolina. South Carolina offers a single factor sales apportionment formula.

A 5% corporate income tax rate is applied to the sum of these incomes. The resulting figure is the company’s state corporate income taxes.

Sales and Use Tax

South Carolina’s sales and use tax rate is 6 percent. Counties, by approval of a majority of county voters, may assess an additional one to two percent local option sales tax. Proceeds go towards infrastructure improvements or a rollback of property taxes. A variety of sales tax exemptions for companies are offered.  Greenville County has a local option sales tax on prepared food for recreational improvements. All other sales tax rates are maintained at the 6 percent rate.

Property Tax

In South Carolina, only local governments may levy property taxes. A company’s property tax liability is a function of: Property Value x Assessment Ratio x Millage.

To determine Fair Market Value, real property is appraised, while tangible personal property is recorded at cost and then depreciated based on a statutory depreciation rate (for manufacturers) and income tax depreciation (for other businesses). The Fair Market Value is then assessed at rates established in the South Carolina Constitution. The local millage rate is applied to the assessed value to determine the property taxes. Millage rates in South Carolina are site specific and set annually by local government. A mill is equal to $0.001.

Tax Example:  (assumes manufacturer & non-depreciable asset)

$10 Million investment x 10.5% assessment ratio x .2750 millage rate = $288,750 annual tax (before abatement)

Property Tax Exemptions may include inventories (raw materials, work-in-progress, finished goods), intangibles (stocks, dividends, interest) and pollution control equipment.  A partial Property Tax Exemption, called an abatement, may be made available to manufacturing, research and development, corporate headquarters, office and distribution facilities meeting certain requirements.

Corporate License Tax

All companies must pay an annual corporate license tax. The rate is $15.00 plus $1.00 for each $1,000 of capital stock and paid-in or capital surplus. For multi-state corporations, the license tax is determined by apportionment in the same manner employed in computing apportioned corporate income.

Workforce Development and Training Programs

ReadySC

As an integral part of the SC Technical College System, The Center for Accelerated Technology Training and its readySCTM program work together with the sixteen technical colleges to prepare South Carolina’s workforce to meet the needs of your company. Established in 1961, readySCTM is one of the oldest and most experienced workforce training programs in the United States. They are ready to bring this experience and expertise to work for your company.  To learn more, visit www.readysc.org.

Apprenticeship Carolina

A registered apprenticeship is an employer-sponsored job related education program that cultivates highly skilled workers. It consists of two complementary components: a supervised on-the-job training that is provided by an employer at the workplace and is customized to meet job-specific needs; and related technical instruction (or “RTI”). This is often delivered by a technical college and serves to reinforce the theory underlying the skills being learned on-the-job.  Employers with registered apprenticeship programs are eligible to receive a tax credit of $1,000 for each registered apprentice employed for at least 7 months during each year of his or her apprenticeship program, for up to four years. To learn more, visit www.apprenticeshipcarolina.com.

Enterprise Zone Retraining Credits

Cash rebate of $1,000 per year per employee up to 5 years for retraining of existing production employees.  Employer must match each $1 rebated with training expenses of $1.50.

Greenville County and Spartanburg County Workforce Investment ACT (WIA) & One-Stop Business Services

Workforce Development business services in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties are geared to assist employers with pre-screening of applicants, pre-employment skills assessments, and referrals of qualified job seekers accessing the local One-Stop Career System.  Potential grant funds are available for incumbent worker training programs, on-the-job training, customized training for new employees up to 50% of training costs for new employees, and reimbursements for training of WIA referrals.   WIA assistance complements support provided by ReadySC. To learn more, visit www.greenvillewib.com or www.upstateworkforceboard.org.