South Carolina Corporation

The South Carolina Secretary of State requires an initial report. Initial returns are due upon filing the articles of incorporation, or on or before 60 days after commencing business in South Carolina, or using a portion of capital in this state or acquiring ownership of, commencing maintenance of or commencing operation of one or more establishments or plants in the state. The initial report will cost a minimum of $25.00, plus any interest or penalty fees.

The Department of Revenue will contact you regarding any state taxes due.

The South Carolina Corporate net income tax rate is 5%.

The South Carolina personal net income tax rates are:

The average South Carolina sales tax rate is 7.04%. The State has a 6% tax, but the average local tax is 1.04%, making a total of 7.04%.

To form a South Carolina Corporation, you file South Carolina articles of incorporation. The South Carolina articles of incorporation and initial report cost $135.00 with the South Carolina Secretary of State. These can be basic or complicated. We custom draft your South Carolina articles of incorporation and intitial report when you hire Northwest to form your South Carolina business. The basic requirements are:

• The South Carolina Corporation must have a corporate ending such as INC, Incorporated, Corporation or a different variety.
• The South Carolina corporation name must be different than already registered South Carolina corporations.
• The name, office address and signature of the registered agent in South Carolina.
• The stock information.
• Effective date of the corporation in South Carolina.
• Optional provisions.
• The name and address of each incorporator of the South Carolina Corporation.
• An attorney licensed to practice in the state of South Carolina must sign and date the articles of incorporation.
• The name, address and phone number of the attorney signing the form.
• An executed Initial Annual Report of Corporations form.

South Carolina requires original signatures on filings by mail or in person. The original will come back to the South Carolina Corporate agent or the attorney address on the form.

1. You file the articles of incorporation for a South Carolina Corporation with the South Carolina Secretary of State.
   South Carolina requires an initial report form be filed with the articles of incorporation. The registered agent must sign the articles of incorporation. An original and a copy of the articles of incorporation form are required for filings by mail or in person.
2. You obtain a federal tax ID number with the IRS after you have confirmation from South Carolina that the articles are completely filed.
3. You should be able to open a business banking account with these two items.
4. You register your South Carolina business with the South Carolina department of revenue if you're going to have employees or need to withhold sales tax.
5. You obtain a trade license if you actually need one. (Most businesses don't.)
6. You obtain a local City or County general license if you need one.
7. You obtain a local trade license if the City or County you're going to be working in requires it.
8. If you're going to have an office or shop you might need an approval from the City zoning for your type of business in that location.

NOW!! I always give out horrible advice at this point, and please don't take it as legal advice. It would be considered totally wrong and horrible legal advice. BUT… I always tell people, you could spend months worrying about getting your South Carolina business off the ground and registering with every South Carolina State agency you need to. At the end of the day, you need to pull the money in! That means, your idea, or your new service needs to get out there and get the sales, customers, or clients you need to get the money in the bank, and keep your business going. At the end of the day, Money in the bank trumps fines with some South Carolina government agency that you overlooked paying some silly fee to. The government is always going to be broke and always looking for the next way to make us pay a fee or tax. We unfortunately see South Carolina corporations every year that just shut down 6 to 7 months after they hired us to incorporate their South Carolina Corporation for them, because they never got the idea off the ground. I always say, pull the money in first, deal with a South Carolina State agency second. If you have to pay some late fees or fines, but you landed that first big client that gets your business off of the idea you have on that paper notebook, I say more power to you. Pay the late fee or fine with joy. You've done the REAL first step to starting your South Carolina business. Get out there and pull the money in! If some South Carolina State agency finds you're in some violation, they will send you a letter, and you can pay whatever they are asking for. It's a never-ending phone call or email I get hearing about all the effort someone's put into their website, into their letterhead, into their marketing, into their planning, and they haven't even figured out how they are realistically going to get and collect their first sale. Don't let over-planning stop your business from getting off the ground. Paying a South Carolina incorporation service like us to do the initial paperwork is a great way to keep your brain moving on the important items like pulling in the money and getting it into your new business bank account.

We pay taxes in South Carolina. We operate a corporation in South Carolina. We're not an incorporation website. We're an incorporation and registered agent South Carolina business. There's lots of websites out there that are just websites with generic domain names and smart programmers that can make them rank in Google.

Anyone could throw up a website, hire sales people to answer the phones with scripts, and pay a document filer $10.00 an hour to file the South Carolina articles of incorporation with the State for you. If you've found this page by searching online, most the other sites you'll find don't operate in South Carolina, don't pay taxes in South Carolina, and generally speaking, don't have any idea what it's like in South Carolina. The only people here helping you form a South Carolina corporation are the owner, our in-house, non-practicing attorney, and our paralegal. This is all we do, and when you hire us and pay us $100.00 to form a South Carolina Corporation, the owner pays South Carolina tax at the end of the year off that $100.00, and the $125.00 South Carolina registered agent corporation service fees.

When we form a South Carolina Corporation, we'll be your South Carolina corporation agent. That means our South Carolina office is in Columbia, South Carolina, and we have a physical presence in South Carolina, so we have to pay income tax off the money we derive from doing business in South Carolina. It's called "Nexus." If you're shopping around for a South Carolina incorporation service, we would challenge you to call one of our competitors and ask the person that answers the phone if they have nexus in South Carolina. If they don't, or don't have any idea what that word even means, that would be kind of like hiring a real estate agent in Jacksonville, Florida, to sell your home in Charleston, South Carolina. Just doesn't sound right does it? If they do have nexus in South Carolina, then that's Great… At least you're then comparing us with another company that should know what they are doing, and you've ultimately done yourself a favor. While you're on the phone comparing apples to apples, you should ask the company what the name and address will be of the registered agent in South Carolina, and how much the renewal bill will be. If they can't tell you the name, the town the office will be in, and if it's not their own name, it means you're ultimately signing up with someone you don't know.

We've seen other sites with packages that include South Carolina Corporation agent service, or offer it free for 6 months or a year, or it's just built into a "Package." But you're paying a website, and they then list another company as your agent. Then you get a bill at the end of the 6 months or year from some random company you've never heard of for a lot of money. Our South Carolina registered agent corporation service is $125.00 a year, has no hidden weird fees, and the first year is included in our service to incorporate your South Carolina Corporation.

• 1 year of service from the time of hire.
• Annual report reminders.
• Annual report calendar in your online account to track your due dates.
• Online account for contact info, corporate documents, documents we receive on your behalf, annual report dates, calendar, and end of service dates.
• Any lawsuits or service of process are uploaded to your account immediately, in full, for your viewing. We can notify your attorney at the same time if you would like. We can notify up to 5 different people and your attorney of your lawsuit instantly.
• Added privacy and identity protection.
• All junk mail is shredded
• Same day complete scan of received documents. (Other registered agents forward items received locally to their National headquarters by mail, and then scan them. You get everything the same day with us.)
• No cancellation fees
• No forwarding fees
• We don't keep your credit card on file and automatically charge you for anything.

The requirements of a registered agent are being open during normal business hours for someone (A process server or Sheriff) to walk in and hand deliver a document or notification to you. Assigning someone, or a website you don't know to this role means that if you get a notification by mail or someone delivers a letter or a lawsuit to that person or business, its legal proof that you've been notified, regardless of if it actually gets to you. There are only 5 national registered agents, and there's thousands of South Carolina incorporating websites, so the odds are that if you pay one of the thousands of South Carolina incorporation websites, they've got a discounted referral fee plan to dump you on one of the national agents to collect a referral fee, and you'll be taking a big chance that the agent they list will get the documents they receive for you to the incorporation website, and then the incorporation website you hire will get it to you. Worse yet is if you're continually being billed from a national incorporation website you signed up with and they aren't the actual business or person that is listed as your registered agent. With us, you know who you're counting on from day one. As far as we know we are the only service that uploads complete documents instantly, from our local location to your account.

We will form a South Carolina corporation for you right away. No weird South Carolina corporation expedite packages. No weird tables with checkmarks showing what's included and what you're missing. Our sign up form is one page. After filling it out, our owner, our non-practicing attorney, or our paralegal will call you right away, go over everything with you, and we'll get your new South Carolina Company formed right away. We'll be listed as your South Carolina registered agent, not some random company you don't know. Most States have a change of agent fee, so not only could you be connected with a company you don't really know, it will cost you to get rid of them after you get a crazy renewal bill you weren't expecting. We make our living by keeping your business in compliance with South Carolina, year after year. Not off weird misleading one time package fees and up-sells.

Shouldn't you trust a South Carolina business that actually operates and pays taxes in South Carolina instead of a website with a 500 filing backlog that you have to upgrade a package with to get some quick attention?

If you want to form a South Carolina corporation yourself, you can just hire us as your South Carolina registered agent, and you'll instantly have the South Carolina forms to file and filing instructions on the quickest, cheapest, and most efficient way to incorporate a South Carolina Corporation. We also will look over your filing for free if you would like us to. You'll get the ongoing support of our online tools, reminders and the support of a professional South Carolina Corporation Agent service.