If an individual or business owes South Carolina taxes, and does not have the present ability to pay off this state tax debt, the South Carolina Department of Revenue is authorized to enter into payment plans with taxpayers to pay these back taxes. Even with a payment plan, DOR may still file tax liens protectively against a taxpayer and his property, and which will remain recorded during the time the payment plan is in effect and until all back taxes are paid. SCDOR also has the power to seize assets of a taxpayer who has not paid state taxes, including bank accounts, and to levy (garnish) a ...
The South Carolina Department of Revenue (the "Department" or "DOR") files tax liens when a taxpayer fails to timely pay his or her state tax liability. The Department files a tax lien in order to establish its priority to a taxpayer's assets. While South Carolina tax liens are similar to federal tax liens, there are important differences.
A "silent" tax lien arises in favor of DOR whenever a person fails to pay his or tax state taxes. S.C. Code § 12-54-120. DOR generally has ten years from the date of a tax assessment to collect a tax liability by seizing a taxpayer's property. S.C. Code § ...
Residents of South Carolina are required to file an income tax return, even if they do not earn income in the state. A resident is an individual who is "domiciled" in South Carolina. South Carolina law does not define domicile. The South Carolina Administrative Law Court (ALC) in a recent decision, however, has analyzed whether a taxpayer was domiciled in South Carolina for purposes of our state income tax. Floyd v. S.C. Dept. of Rev., Admin. Law Ct., Dkt. No. 15-ALJ-17-0458-CC (February 11, 2016).
The taxpayer was a native of Spartanburg, South Carolina. She lived in Oxford ...
South Carolina has some of the highest business property taxes in the Southeast. The state generally taxes land, buildings, machinery and equipment, and furniture and fixtures, but does not tax inventory, pollution control equipment, intellectual property, and other assets.
To reduce the effect of its high business property tax rates, and to make the state a more competitive environment for business, South Carolina offers a property tax incentive and tax savings for those businesses investing at least $2.5 million over a five year period in the state. This incentive is known as the ...
Many businesses are purchased in South Carolina every year. Many of these same businesses, however, have high worker unemployment claims, and are paying high South Carolina Unemployment Insurance taxes to the state to fund these claims.
South Carolina pays unemployment benefits to people that are out of work. The state funds these benefits through a special tax on employers in the state - the South Carolina Unemployment Insurance Tax, or "UI Tax." The more unemployment claims that are filed with the state and related to an employer, the higher the employer's UI Tax rate will be.
Where a ...
The South Carolina Department of Revenue (SCDOR) administers the state's tax laws. Like the IRS, SCDOR audits tax returns, but only certain returns subject to South Carolina tax, such as South Carolina income tax returns, sales and use tax returns, and certain property tax returns.
Depending on the complexity of the issues being audited or examined by SCDOR, SCDOR audits can be conducted through correspondence, or through a field audit.
SCDOR field audits are generally conducted by "auditors." Each auditor has an immediate audit supervisor, and audit supervisors report to a ...
South Carolina offers a statutory incentive to new and expanding businesses that create jobs in our state. The Job Tax Credit ("JTC"), codified in S.C. Code Ann. § 12-6-3360, permits certain businesses to reduce their corporate income tax liability annually by a maximum of 50%. Any unused credit may be carried forward for up to 15 years. There are three types of JTCs: (1) the "traditional" annual job tax credit, (2) the "annual" small business job tax credit, and (3) the "accelerated" small business job tax credit. This blog will address the "traditional" JTC only.
To qualify for JTC, a ...
South Carolina offers a broad range of tax and financial incentives to encourage new and existing businesses to open or expand operations in the state. This is the first in a series of blogs which will review these lucrative incentives and how they function. This blog address the players in economic development in South Carolina, from the Department of Commerce to the county economic development alliances.
- Department of Commerce
The South Carolina Department of Commerce ("DOC") is overseen by Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt, who was appointed by Governor Nikki Haley. DOC is the ...
South Carolina offers many tax credits that can be used to reduce or even eliminate state income taxes and license fees. Examples of these tax credits include the new jobs credit, infrastructure credit, corporate headquarters credit, abandoned buildings credit, biomass resource credit, research credit, community development credit, venture capital credit, historic rehabilitation credit, and conservation easement credit (and many others).
A taxpayer will sometimes seek to claim more than one state tax credit at the same time, which raises the question of how the tax credits ...
The South Carolina General Assembly approved a law on June 4, 2015 allowing the South Carolina Department of Revenue to offer an amnesty program to taxpayers in the state who have not filed tax returns and/or owe state taxes. The law becomes effective on the Governor's signature. Adoption of the law was advocated by the Department of Revenue.
The new law, South Carolina Code Section 12-47-397, is designed to encourage voluntary compliance and payment of taxes owed to the State. The law authorizes the South Carolina Department of Revenue to establish an amnesty program and to designate ...