South Carolina Corporation Annual Report
By Edmond Hui · Facts verified July 29, 2026 against primary state sources
Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC
Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.
What South Carolina requires
Annual Report — Schedule D of Form SC1120
| Frequency | every year |
| Due | Filed with the SC Department of Revenue as Schedule D of the corporate income tax return, not with the Secretary of State. Form SC1120 (C corporations) is due the 15th day of the 4th month after the end of the tax year; Form SC1120S (S corporations) is due the 15th day of the 3rd month. It must be filed even if the corporation had no income or activity. |
| Fee | $0 |
| Form | Annual Report — Schedule D of Form SC1120 (C corporations) / Form SC1120S (S corporations) |
South Carolina is one of 41 states on an annual corporate reporting cycle. Nationally, 41 states require an annual corporate report, 7 require one every two years, and 2 require none.
What the filings cost over five years
State filing charges only — incorporation plus five years of reporting, annualized. Corporate income tax and franchise tax are excluded, because both depend on income or net worth.
| Period | State filing charges |
|---|---|
| Incorporation | $135 |
| Each year after (report, annualized) | $0 |
| Five-year equivalent (annualized) | $135 |
That ranks South Carolina 7th cheapest of 49 states on five-year corporate filing charges.
South Carolina corporation vs South Carolina LLC
State filing charges only. Corporate income tax and franchise tax are excluded because both depend on income or net worth, so no flat figure exists for either entity.
| Corporation | LLC | |
|---|---|---|
| Formation filing fee | $135 | $110 |
| Report cadence | Every year | Not required |
| Report fee | $0 | No report required |
| Entity-level tax on the LLC side | — | Corporate License Fee (only if the LLC is taxed as a corporation) |
An LLC is $25 cheaper to file here. That is a one-off charge, so it should not decide the entity type on its own.
Full South Carolina LLC cost breakdown · LLC vs C-corp explained · LLC vs S-corp explained
State taxes a South Carolina corporation pays
Corporate income tax
| Applies | Yes |
| Rate | 5% of South Carolina taxable income (flat). |
Franchise or gross-receipts tax
Corporate license fee (South Carolina's franchise-type tax): $15 plus 0.1% of capital stock and paid-in or capital surplus (i.e. $1 per $1,000), with a minimum of $25 per year. It is reported and paid with the SC1120/SC1120S at the same time as the return or extension request. A separate one-time initial license fee of $25 is due on Form CL-1, submitted with the Articles of Incorporation at formation.
What these totals leave out: the filing-charge figures on this page are what you pay the business filing office. They exclude corporate income tax and any franchise or gross-receipts tax, because both depend on income, net worth or receipts. The section above sets out what South Carolinalevies — or that it levies neither. Where a state's franchise tax carries a flat minimum, that minimum is an unavoidable annual cost these totals do not include, and over five years it can be the larger number.
C-corp return: Form SC1120 (C Corporation Income Tax Return)
Frequently Asked Questions
Where these numbers come from
This page covers the recurring report a for-profit corporation files with South Carolina. Every figure was checked against South Carolina's own published sources on July 29, 2026— the state business filing agency's fee schedule, the governing statute, and where a state tax applies, the state Department of Revenue. Commercial formation-service pages were used as leads only and are never cited. Anything the review could not confirm from an official source is left blank on this page rather than filled with an estimate.
Corporate income tax and franchise tax are quoted as the state publishes them, as rate schedules and thresholds, and are excluded from every dollar total here. They depend on income or net worth, so there is no flat figure that would be true for every corporation.
Primary sources:
- https://businessfilings.sc.gov/BusinessFiling/Home/DownloadForms?pdfCategoryId=1
- https://businessfilings.sc.gov/BusinessFiling/Entity/DownloadForm?formName=F0001&entityType=1&filingType=Articles+of+Incorporation
- https://dor.sc.gov/business-income-taxes/corporate/c-corporation
- https://dor.sc.gov/business-income-taxes/corporate/s-corporation
- https://dor.sc.gov/sites/dor/files/forms/CL1.pdf