Incentives, Finances & Taxes
- Workforce recruiting and training programs at little or no cost to qualifying companies
- Numerous ways to reduce, or in some cases eliminate, your company’s corporate income taxes
- A wide range of sales tax exemptions to reduce start-up and annual operating costs
- Property tax incentives can be tailored to meet your company’s needs
- Special discretionary incentives at the local and state level can be used to meet specific needs of a company on a case-by-case basis
South Carolina incentive legislation provides the ability for both state and local government to incent business and industry when new jobs are created and new investment occurs. More information on each item below is available by request.
State Corporate Income Tax:
- Corporate income tax rate is 6.0 percent.
- Corporations engaged in multi-state activity are taxed on the portion of income derived from doing business in SC.
- SC permits an extended recovery time for business losses with up to a 15-year carry forward loss period.
Sales & Use Tax:
- SC sales & use tax rate is 6 percent.
- Sales tax applies to all retail, leases, and rentals of tangible personal property, including the value of property purchased at wholesale and used or consumed by the purchaser, unless specifically exempt.
- Use tax based on the sales price of such property.
(Oconee has no additional sales tax.)
State Intangible Personal Property Tax
- SC exempts all intangible property from local property taxation.
State & Local Property Taxes:
- No State tax on real and personal property (local government levies property taxes). Oconee has the 3rd Lowest Property Taxes in all of South Carolina.
- For manufacturers, real and personal property are both assessed at 10.5%.
- Non-manufacturers, 6% for real property and 10.5% for personal property.
SC Business License Fee (Franchise Tax) :
- Annual fee paid to SC Department of Revenue.
- Rate is 1 mill per dollar of a proportion of total paid-in-capital and paid-in-surplus, plus $15
- Earned surplus (retained earnings) is not included in the base when calculating the fee
- Outside the state business, the fee is determined by apportionment with a minimum fee of $25
Local Business License Fees:
- Required Annual License Fee for Businesses (Business License only applies in incorporated areas of Oconee County Required for businesses and professionals).
County Taxes
South Carolina has one of the lowest tax structures in the country for both personal and corporate. In South Carolina, the State administers corporate income and sales and use taxes; the County levies property tax. Hence, each governmental authority’s means to reward growth are tied directly to their mode of taxation.
South Carolina incentive legislation provides the ability for both legislative bodies to incent both new and existing business and industry when new jobs are created and/or new investment occurs.
Incentives from both levels of government take one of two forms. Either they are statutory, meaning if requirements are met, one would automatically qualify; or negotiated, meaning they are offered at the discretion of the appropriate governing body. In general, statutory incentives are fiscal, year-end oriented; negotiated incentives are often time-sensitive and in some cases have a set look-back period to capture eligible expenditures.
The Palmetto State is proud to offer the following statutory incentives:
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- No state property tax
- No local income tax
- No inventory tax
- No sales tax on manufacturing machinery, industrial power or materials for finished products
- No wholesale tax
- No unitary tax on worldwide profits
- Favorable corporate income tax structure
For more information on taxes and incentives, click one of the following:
To quantify the value of state and local incentives, please provide information on capital investment (real and personal property), number of jobs and anticipated hourly wages to Janet Hartman, Executive Director at 1.864.638.4210 .