Best LLC Formation Services in South Carolina

There is no franchise tax here. Your only recurring state duty is your income tax return. Once the company exists, the Secretary of State asks nothing more.

Privacy here is better than most guides say. One field decides it. The Secretary of State says plainly that business entities need not disclose the names of directors, officers or members. What the Articles of Organization ask for is the name, address and signature of each organizer, plus the agent's name and South Carolina street address. The organizer is whoever files the paperwork. The state's own form says the organizer may be an owner but does not have to be. So a service that organizes for you keeps your name off the one field that would carry it. Members are named only if you opt into member liability under Section 33-44-303(c).

You can reserve a name before you file. The state tells you not to bother. Its own FAQ says you do not need to reserve a name if you are ready to organize your entity. Skip it and file.

South Carolina has no statewide business license. Your city or county almost certainly has one. Since the Business License Tax Standardization Act the rules are the same everywhere. Section 6-1-400 sets one license year for the whole state, May 1 to April 30. Every license renews before May 1 or the jurisdiction can add a penalty. The fee is not flat. It is charged on your gross income from the year before, or on projected income if you have traded less than a year. Pay a license tax to another South Carolina city or county and the gross income counted here drops by that amount. The same dollars are not taxed twice. Every jurisdiction has to accept the same standard application.

1. Get your EIN from the IRS (free, same day). You need this to open a business bank account and hire employees. Apply directly at irs.gov.
2. Appoint a registered agent with a South Carolina physical address. Your agent must be an individual who lives in South Carolina or a business entity authorized to operate here. A P.O. Box does not qualify.
3. Draft an operating agreement. The state does not require one. Banks will ask anyway. Put ownership percentages, profit splits and management duties in writing.
4. Check your local business license. Almost every South Carolina city and county issues one, and the Secretary of State does not. The license year runs May 1 to April 30 across the whole state, so apply when you start trading rather than waiting for a renewal date.
5. Get a Retail License if you sell anything. The state taxes retail sales at 6%. Counties and cities can add more on top. A Retail License is required for retail sales, online sales included, and you need one per outlet. Apply through MyDORWAY.
6. Skip the BOI report. FinCEN exempted every company formed in the United States in March 2025, so a domestic South Carolina LLC files nothing. A final rule made that permanent on August 14, 2026. Only companies formed abroad still report. A letter asking for a fee to file one is a scam, and FinCEN says so.

South Carolina rewrote its income tax this year. Most pages have not caught up. Governor McMaster signed H. 4216 on March 30, 2026. From tax year 2026 the rate is 1.99% on income under $30,000, and 5.21% minus $966 above that. The old schedule topping out at 6.5% is gone. Federal adjusted gross income is now the starting point. A new state deduction replaces the federal standard one, $15,000 single, $22,500 head of household, $30,000 married filing jointly. LLC profit still passes to your personal return, so this is the rate most owners pay. There is no franchise tax. The top rate can fall again. H. 4216 has the Board of Economic Advisors decide that by February 15 each year.

• Reinstatement has a two year door and it closes - An LLC dissolved by administrative action gets two years to apply for reinstatement. Miss it and the company is gone. If the dissolution came from a missed tax return, the Department of Revenue must issue a Certificate of Tax Compliance first, and it has to arrive with your application.
• The local business license scales with your revenue - It is not a flat fee. Section 6-1-400 charges it on your gross income, so it grows as you do. Plan for that. A business trading under a year is billed on projected income instead. The license year runs May 1 to April 30 everywhere in the state, so your first one may cover only part of a year.
• Certificate of Existence is $10, and people get charged hundreds - South Carolina calls the good standing document a Certificate of Existence. The fee is $10, set by statute. The Secretary of State runs a scam alert about mailings that charge hundreds for this one document. Order it from the state.
• No published filing speed - The state publishes no processing time and sells no expedited option. Any turnaround you see quoted is a guess. File early if a start date matters.