Wholesale sales are exempt from sales tax. A 5 percent use tax is levied on the use, consumption, or storage of personal property and certain services. Items subject to, or exempt from, the sales tax are not subject to use taxation. Counties have the ability to impose 1 percent sales tax in return for rolling back property taxes or infrastructure improvements. Exempt from sales and use taxes are materials for component parts, certain gasoline and motor fuels, containers, labels and wrapping materials, electricity used in the manufacturing of tangible personal property for sale, pollution-control equipment, certain ship supplies, and raw materials used to assemble missiles for the armed forces.
Businesses receive a discount for on-time payments of both sales and use taxes.
There are no state real or personal property taxes. No inventories or intangible personal property are taxed at the state or local level. The fair market value of manufacturers' machinery and equipment may be depreciated up to 90 percent of original cost. There is no state property tax, but the South Carolina Tax Commission has the responsibility for assessment, appraisal, and equalization of taxable values of real and personal property for manufacturing, corporate headquarters, corporate offices, and distribution facilities. Separate taxing provisions apply to mines, processors of primary forest products, public utilities, and airline companies.