Get your tax IDs in South Carolina

An EIN, if you need one, comes from the IRS. South Carolina then adds a retail license if you sell taxable goods, withholding if you pay wages, and an unemployment account once you are liable.

What’s different in South Carolina

• Sales tax starts at 6%, then the county adds its own. Charleston is 9% on the current table. Greenville is 6%¹. Unprepared food is exempt from the state tax.
• The retail license is $50 and it does not expire. Update it if the business location changes⁴.
• Tax year 2026 has two individual brackets. 1.99% under $30,000, and 5.21% from there up, minus $966. The top rate for tax year 2025 was 6%⁵.
• Unemployment tax stops after $14,000. A new employer’s rate is the rate for tax class 12 that year, or one percent, whichever is higher¹¹. South Carolina does not recognize a professional employer organization as a substitute for your own account.

Do this

1. Get an EIN from the IRS if you need one. It is free and, if approved, issued immediately¹⁴ online. CL-1¹⁵ asks for it when you incorporate. The South Carolina Department of Revenue business tax application² accepts a valid SSN or ITIN for a sole proprietor; an LLC or corporation needs a valid FEIN¹⁶. A partnership also needs a FEIN. Don’t pay a website to apply for you.
2. Apply for a retail license on MyDORWAY before you make a taxable sale. The South Carolina Department of Revenue retail license page² explains who needs it. The fee is $50. It does not expire. Update it if the business location changes. You need a separate license for each business location. The sales tax page says an online-only seller with no store still needs the license. A remote seller needs one after $100,000³ in gross revenue in the current or previous calendar year. An artist or crafter can use the $20 artist license instead, only if you sell at craft shows and festivals more than four times in a fiscal year, and nowhere else, including not online⁴.
3. Look up the rate for the place of the sale on the sales tax rate table. The statewide rate is 6%. Counties and municipalities can add local sales taxes when the county's voters approve them. On the table’s current column, Berkeley is 9%, Charleston is 9%, Myrtle Beach in Horry County is 9%, and Jasper is 9%. Greenville is 6% and Beaufort is 6%. Williamsburg County's rate became 8 percent on May 1, 2026, when it added a capital projects tax¹. Read the row for your county. Do not memorize a neighbor’s rate.
4. File sales tax through MyDORWAY. Returns are due the 20th of the month after the month of the sale. Filing is monthly unless the Department of Revenue approves quarterly or annual filing². A return is due even when you had no sales, and even when every sale was exempt. The sales tax page does not print the late penalty.* Check it in MyDORWAY before a due date passes. On food, unprepared food that can be bought with food stamps is exempt from the state sales tax. A local tax may still apply, depending on which local tax the place charges³.
5. Register for withholding through MyDORWAY when you pay wages in South Carolina. Withholding applies to an employer who pays wages in South Carolina and must file a federal withholding return. Registration is no charge¹³. Start at the withholding page. Returns are quarterly, due the end of the month after the quarter: April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. A resident withholding agent pays on the same schedule as the federal payments. The dollar schedules on that page are for nonresident withholding agents. A nonresident withholding agent pays quarterly, by the last day of the next month, when withholding is under 500 dollars in the quarter. A nonresident withholding agent pays monthly, by the 15th of the next month, when withholding is 500 dollars or more in the quarter. File and pay electronically on MyDORWAY if you withhold 15,000 dollars or more in a quarter, or make 24 or more withholding payments in a year. South Carolina also requires withholding on prizes and winnings, royalties, payments to nonresident contractors on contracts over 10,000 dollars, some rent paid to nonresidents, and the net proceeds of a nonresident's sale of South Carolina real estate¹⁰.
6. Open an unemployment account when you hire. Business One Stop says to file with DEW if you have at least one employee. DEW then decides whether the account is liable¹³. The handbook’s tests are narrower than “one employee.” General employers: 1,500 dollars of wages in a quarter, or one employee for 20 weeks. Nonprofits: four employees for 20 weeks in a calendar year. The weeks do not have to be consecutive or the same employees. Household employers: 1,000 dollars paid in a quarter. Farms: 20,000 dollars in a quarter, or ten employees for 20 weeks in a calendar year¹⁷. Register in SUITS and let the department decide. The wage base is $14,000. A new employer’s rate is the rate for tax class 12 that year, or one percent, whichever is higher. The contribution table puts that at 1.06%¹² for 2027, including an administrative assessment. Reports are due April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31¹¹.
7. Report each new hire, and run E-Verify. New hires go to newhire.sc.gov, for the Department of Social Services within 20 days of the first day of work. E-Verify is separate. State law requires it within three days of employment, and the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation¹³ enforces that law. The hiring guide covers the federal side.

Rates and income tax

General sales tax is 6%¹ statewide, plus the local add-on on the county table. Food is different: unprepared food that can be bought with food stamps is exempt from the state sales tax. A local tax may still apply, depending on which local tax the place charges³.

Lodging is a different line. Rooms rented to guests for less than 90 consecutive days carry a 2 percent accommodations tax plus 5 percent sales tax, plus any local tax, instead of the general 6%¹. Renting them takes a separate accommodations tax license, $50⁴.

Individual income tax, for owners who report the business on their own return, for tax year 2026: 1.99% on income under $30,000, and 5.21% from $30,000 up, minus $966. File by April 15 of the following year, for a calendar-year return. You pay no penalties or interest if you file and pay electronically by May 1. Paper returns and the federal return do not get that extra time⁶. If you are finishing a 2025 return, the top rate for that year is 6%⁵. Use the year’s own table.

A C corporation pays 5% and files SC1120 by the 15th day of the fourth month after the end of the business year. The yearly license fee is 0.1 percent of capital and paid-in surplus, plus 15 dollars, and not less than $25. It is due with the return or the extension, and it applies to the tax year after the income tax year. Quarterly estimated payments are due the 15th day of the fourth, sixth, ninth, and twelfth months of the tax year when the estimated tax, income tax less credits, is $100⁷ or more.

An S corporation files SC1120S by the 15th day of the third month after the end of the business year. The rate on income taxed at the S corporation is 5%. It still pays the same yearly license fee as a C corporation: 0.1 percent of capital and paid-in surplus, plus 15 dollars, and at least 25 dollars. Nonresident shareholders: withhold 5%, on SC1120S-WH, due the 15th day of the third month, with no extension for that form⁸.

A partnership, including SC1065 for a multiple-member LLC that is not taxed as a corporation, withholds 5% on nonresident partners. Withholding is not required if the nonresident gives an affidavit, is on a composite return, or is tax exempt under IRC 501(a). The payment is due the 15th day of the third month after the year ends, for the withholding paid with the return. An extension to file does not extend the withholding payment. A single-member LLC that is disregarded for federal tax is also disregarded for South Carolina tax. A qualifying partnership, including an LLC taxed as a partnership, can elect to have its active trade or business income taxed at the entity level instead of the partner level⁹. Whether that election helps depends on your numbers. Ask a CPA. This page does not pick it for you.

What you get back

An EIN from the IRS, a retail license if you sell taxable goods, a withholding account if you have employees, and a Department of Employment and Workforce account once you are liable. Write down the sales tax rate for the county where the sale happens. The table changes when a local tax starts or ends.