Changes to business license in South Carolina

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (WTOC) - There is a change that every South Carolina business owner needs to know about when it comes to business licenses, but the details can get complicated.

As of right now, if your South Carolina business makes money in different cities or towns, you have to file paperwork with every town individually, and they don’t all use the same system. Proponents of Act 176 say it will standardize the entire process, basically making everything to do with business licenses easier to figure out.

Here’s what will change. April 30 will become the statewide due date to apply for a license.

The business license tax year will be set as May 1 to April 30. There will be one payment portal and the tax rate classification system will be simplified.

Hilton Head town leaders says that change in tax rate affects nearly half of all businesses in the state. They point to a recent study that showed they town was missing a lot of money and they hope ironing out the license system will help that.

“It’s actually impacted about 40 percent of our businesses, so they are being shuffled into different classes and of course that study revealed we were going to have a shortfall of about $340,000 so in order to be revenue neutral we are going to have to raise our business license taxes across the entire classes 7.2 percent,” Hilton Head Revenue Services Supervisor April Akins said.

That tax does not apply to all businesses, it is just another standardization brought by this process.

“For the bookkeeper that is running the books of your business here’s what you need to know. It’s that instead of having to apply for multiple business licenses in multiple municipalities in a given year, you’re going to be able to go to one website and I calculate that in one simple way,” Horne said.

The chamber says this is a good thing.

“We’re very proud. Anytime that we can see a great piece of legislation like this cross the finish line where our municipality has been protected and our businesses have been simplified, as well as they’ve been able to make their life easier and they can go about doing what they do best in the community, it’s a good day.”

The town understands this can be a lot to understand, which is why they are holding two information sessions at the Town’s Council Chambers for business owners. The first is Tuesday morning at 9:30.