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What Does an LLC Cost in South Carolina?

South Carolina is $110 once, then $0 a year in flat state charges for a typical small LLC. The confusion in other guides comes from corporation figures being pasted onto LLCs: a CL-1 and a license fee that a default LLC never pays. Here is the whole state bill, with the corporate-taxed exception kept separate.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

Year one: what you pay to exist

Year-one cost in South Carolina	Amount
Articles of Organization, Secretary of State	$110
EIN from the IRS	$0
Operating agreement (you write it, not filed)	$0
Agent for service of process (you or another eligible person or entity serves)	$0
Total state cost, year one	$110

That $110 is the complete required state charge to form a default LLC, and all of it goes to the Secretary of State. No CL-1 or license fee is added for a partnership-taxed or disregarded LLC. The extras are optional or conditional. A name reservation, if you choose one, is $25 for a nonrenewable 120-day period. The one conditional charge is for an LLC that elects corporate taxation: a one-time Form CL-1 with the $25 minimum license fee, paid to the Department of Revenue within 60 days after commencing business in South Carolina. Hiring a commercial agent service is a market purchase, separate from state charges, and naming an eligible individual costs nothing.

Every year after: the cost of staying alive

Recurring cost in South Carolina	Amount
Annual report, Secretary of State	$0. South Carolina does not have one for LLCs.
Form SC1065 partnership return, Department of Revenue	$0 filing fee, and no license fee
Annual report and license fee, partnership-taxed or disregarded LLC	$0. The Department of Revenue exemption list expressly excludes LLCs not taxed as corporations
License fee, corporate-taxed LLC only	$15 plus 0.1% of capital stock and paid-in surplus, $25 minimum, paid inside the corporate return
Typical recurring total	$0

A recurring total of $0 rests on a clear chain of reasoning, not on a missing line. The complete Secretary of State fee schedule in section 33-44-1204 has no annual report line for LLCs, Chapter 44 has no annual report provision, and the Department of Revenue's own exemption list states that an LLC not taxed as a corporation is not subject to the annual report or the license fee. Two income-based items on the SC1065 are not flat charges and are excluded from the total: 5% nonresident withholding on the South Carolina taxable income of nonresident partners, and the optional election to have active trade or business income taxed at the entity level at a flat 3%. Budget $0 a year, and protect that $0 by paying any fee, tax, or penalty that does arise on time, because nonpayment is the only administrative dissolution ground in Chapter 44.

What drives the South Carolina total, year one vs. later

South Carolina's total is driven by a split most guides get backwards. Year one is a single $110 filing fee for the Articles of Organization, paid in full to the Secretary of State, with no state add-ons required for a default LLC: no publication, no initial report, and no CL-1. Later years drop to $0 in flat state charges, and they stay there, because the Secretary of State requires no annual report from any LLC and the Department of Revenue requires no annual report and no license fee from an LLC that is not taxed as a corporation. The partnership return, Form SC1065, is a tax return, not a fee event. The money figures that appear in other South Carolina totals, a $25 yearly charge or a formation CL-1, belong to the corporate track: an LLC that elects corporate taxation files a one-time CL-1, then pays the annual license fee of $15 plus 0.1% of capital, with a $25 minimum, inside its SC1120 or SC1120S return, alongside the 5% corporate income tax. Elect the corporate track and the math changes. Stay on the default track and no year after year one costs more than year one, and most cost nothing at all.

The South Carolina charges that sit outside the standard total

These are real figures from the statutory fee schedule in section 33-44-1204 and the Department of Revenue, and each one applies only in its stated situation:

Charge	Figure	Who it applies to
Foreign LLC Application for a Certificate of Authority to Transact Business, Secretary of State	$110	An LLC formed in another state registering to do business in South Carolina, instead of the $110 domestic filing. A home-state certificate of existence is required with the application, not more than 30 days old.
Articles of Termination, Secretary of State	$10	A domestic LLC closing after dissolution and winding up. Section 33-44-805 states the name, the dissolution date, and the winding-up statement only, and states no Department of Revenue clearance precondition for the filing.
DBA or trade name registration	No filing	There is none. The Secretary of State's FAQ states the office does not register DBA or trade names, so there is no state DBA form, no fee, and no duration or renewal to track.
Statement of change of designated office or agent for service of process	$10	Only when the designated office or the agent changes.
Name reservation	$25	Optional. Reserves a name for a nonrenewable 120-day period. Transfer of a reserved name is $10.
Reinstatement after administrative dissolution	$25	Paid to the Secretary of State, within 2 years of dissolution, plus the Department of Revenue certificate that all taxes are paid, requested on Form C-268 for $60, plus the unpaid fee, tax, or penalty itself.
Form CL-1 and the annual corporate license fee	$25 minimum at the CL-1, then $15 plus 0.1% of capital, $25 minimum a year	LLCs that elect corporate taxation only. A default LLC pays none of it.

One tax note completes the picture. A partnership-taxed LLC pays no entity-level income tax; its partners are liable for income tax in their individual capacities on their distributive shares. A single-member LLC not taxed as a corporation is disregarded and has no entity-level return or charge of its own.

Run your own version, with an optional registered agent added, in the LLC cost calculator. Every state's year-one and recurring totals sit in one table on the national cost hub, and if a service would act as your agent, the registered agent price tracker follows what that costs at each tracked provider. If you would rather a service handled the filing, the services comparison prices that honestly, renewals included.