South Carolina LLC vs Ohio LLC (2026)
Written for owners based in South Carolina.
Verdict: for most owners, form where the business is based
Ohio undercuts South Carolina by $11 at $99 and, like South Carolina, requires no periodic report, so both sit at $0 recurring. The Commercial Activity Tax is the difference: 0.26% on taxable gross receipts above a $6 million annual exclusion, and crossing that line means reactivating a CAT account and filing quarterly, because annual CAT returns no longer exist. Ohio also allows a filing that does not name members, which South Carolina does not. Expedited service costs $100 to $300 above the $99 fee, and $110 registers an Ohio LLC here.
Based in Ohio? Read Ohio LLC vs South Carolina LLC →
Compare South Carolina LLC vs Ohio LLC on filing fees, taxes, privacy laws, and annual costs. Find out which state is actually better for your business.
By Edmond Hui · Last updated: September 23, 2026
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| Factor | South Carolina | Ohio |
|---|---|---|
| Filing Fee | $110 | $99 |
| Processing Time | Not published by the state | 3 to 7 business days (paper) |
| Annual Report Fee | None | None |
| Annual Report Due | None required | None required |
| State Income Tax | Yes | Yes |
| Anonymous LLC | No | Yes |
| Publication Requirement | No | No |
| Foreign LLC Cost (if forming out-of-state) | N/A, you're in your home state | $110 + registered agent ~$150/yr |
Full fee breakdown for either state: South Carolina LLC cost and Ohio LLC cost. Owner privacy options for either state: South Carolina anonymous LLC guide and Ohio anonymous LLC guide.
Business Climate: South Carolina vs Ohio
| Factor | South Carolina | Ohio |
|---|---|---|
| 5-year business survival rate | 55.9% (#2 of 51) | 54.4% (#8 of 51) |
| Business application growth (2026 YTD (Jan to Jul) vs 2025 YTD (same months)) | +14.7% YoY (#19 of 51 by volume) | +16.1% YoY (#8 of 51 by volume) |
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics · U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics (BFS)
Compare LLC Costs: South Carolina vs Ohio
South Carolina
Ohio
A figure shown as "from" is the least the state can charge, not a price. Tennessee's report is $300 for up to six members and $50 for each member above six, its franchise tax is the greater of $100 or 0.25% of Tennessee net worth, Wyoming's report is the greater of $60 or $.0002 per dollar of in-state assets, Kentucky's entity tax is $175 up to $3 million of gross receipts and graduated above it, and New York's annual filing fee is graduated on New York source gross income. A total that contains one of those is shown as "from" for the same reason. Costs include every mandatory state charge: the filing fee, the report fee (annualised where a state files biennially), any state entity-level tax shown in its own row above, a one-time publication cost where the state publishes a rate for it, and any one-time registration charge a state requires before the LLC may trade. Two exclusions follow from that wording. Arizona and Nebraska require publication and publish no rate, so no newspaper cost is carried for either and their totals are not the whole cost. Alaska's $50 annual state business licence is a separate charge from the Secretary of State fees and is not carried here either. Annualising makes the 1, 3 and 5 year rows a cost of ownership rather than a payment schedule: a biennial state charges its whole report fee in the years it falls due and nothing in between. Entity-level taxes that only apply after a corporate election, or above an owner or income threshold, are excluded and flagged on the state's own cost page. New York's publication cost is carried at a $250 floor, roughly $200 of newspaper cost in a low-cost county plus the $50 Certificate of Publication fee. No county-clerk-designated New York City newspaper publishes a rate card, so the four-figure NYC estimates in wide circulation cannot be traced to a primary source and are not asserted here; budget for materially more than the floor if you file in a NYC county. Every fee was verified against the state's own fee schedule, statute, or revenue authority on 29 July 2026. Excludes registered agent and legal fees. For informational purposes only, not legal or tax advice.
Filing Fees & Formation Costs
South Carolina charges $110 to form an LLC, while Ohio charges $99. Ohio is $11 cheaper upfront. The cost that usually gets overlooked: if you form in Ohio but operate in South Carolina, you must also register as a foreign LLC in South Carolina (a $110 filing) and maintain a registered agent in Ohio (typically around $150 per year). That puts the realistic first-year cost of the Ohio route at roughly $359, versus $110 for simply forming in South Carolina. Only one side of this comparison is knowable: Ohio publishes a standard turnaround (3 to 7 business days, paper), while South Carolina publishes no standard processing time, so the two can't be ranked against each other on speed.
Taxes: South Carolina vs Ohio
Both South Carolina and Ohio levy a personal income tax on pass-through business income, and your LLC's profits will be taxed where you live and operate. Forming in Ohio doesn't change what a South Carolina-based owner pays. Ohio levies a personal income tax, but the Business Income Deduction exempts the first $250,000 and taxes business income above it at a flat 3%. Ohio's Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) applies only to taxable gross receipts above $6 million (0.26%); smaller businesses owe no CAT.
Privacy & Asset Protection
Ohio allows anonymous LLC formation. Member and manager names don't appear on routine public filings. Ohio's Articles of Organization require only the organizer and statutory agent (no members/managers), and Ohio LLCs file no annual report. South Carolina doesn't offer that same privacy. South Carolina requires managers to be listed on the Articles of Organization when the LLC is manager-managed, a public record. Both states provide charging-order protection for LLC members, and for most small businesses the practical difference in asset protection between the two is minimal. One important caveat: if you register your Ohio LLC as a foreign LLC in South Carolina, that South Carolina registration is itself a public record, which can undercut much of the privacy benefit for a business that operates in South Carolina.
Annual Maintenance Costs
South Carolina LLCs file no annual report at all, and Ohio LLCs file no annual report at all. If you form in Ohio while operating in South Carolina, you maintain filings in both states, though neither state asks for a recurring report, and pay an Ohio registered agent roughly $150 per year. Counting report fees, the agent and any entity-level tax, that brings the Ohio route to roughly $150 a year, versus about $0 to keep a domestic South Carolina LLC in good standing. The tax inside those totals: Ohio's Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) applies only to taxable gross receipts above $6 million (0.26%); smaller businesses owe no CAT.
When Ohio Actually Makes Sense
Forming in Ohio makes sense in a few specific situations: you need anonymous ownership. South Carolina puts owner or manager information on public filings and Ohio doesn't (usually via a holding company, since operating in South Carolina still requires a public foreign registration there), your business genuinely operates in Ohio, with a real office, employees, or property there, or you're relocating to Ohio in the near future. For a typical small business based in South Carolina, none of these usually apply. Registering an Ohio LLC to do business back home means $110 in South Carolina foreign-registration fees, on top of Ohio's $99 formation fee, while South Carolina itself never asks for an annual report at all. When in doubt, form where you actually do business.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Start your LLC with ZenBusiness →Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no cost to you. MyStateLLC is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
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Sources
Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified sources, and each entry says what the document is. Some statutory text is read from an accurate mirror rather than from the state's own host, and those say so.
- sos.sc.gov/online-filings/business-entitiesSouth Carolina Secretary of State: business entity filings
- scstatehouse.gov/code/t33c044.phpSouth Carolina LLC filing fees
- ohiosos.gov/businesses/Ohio Secretary of State: business entity filings
- codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-111.16Ohio LLC filing fees
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.