New South Carolina Law Authorizes Tax Amnesty Program

The new South Carolina law authorizes the South Carolina Department of Revenue (“Department”) to designate an amnesty period which has a beginning and ending date as determined by the Department. 

During the amnesty period, the Department  can waive potentially 100% of all interest and penalties if the taxpayer complies with the program.  Amnesty will be granted to taxpayers that request an amnesty form and voluntarily file all delinquent tax returns and pay in full all taxes due; voluntarily file an amended tax return to correct an incorrect or insufficient original return and pay all taxes due; or voluntarily pay in full all previously assessed tax liabilities due within an extended amnesty period as determined by the department. The department may set up installment agreements so long as all taxes are paid within this period.

A taxpayer who has an appeal pending with respect to an assessment is eligible to participate in the amnesty program if the taxpayer pays all taxes owed. However, amnesty will not be granted to a taxpayer who is the subject of a state tax-related criminal investigation or criminal prosecution.

South Carolina Needs To Change Its Tax Climate - Tax Rankings Released

South Carolina is standing in the shadow of North Carolina (as well as the rest of the country) and needs to take the necessary steps to make the State more tax competitive to draw business as well as individuals.  Currently South Carolina received the following rankings from the Tax Foundation's 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index.  http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/docs/TaxFoundation_2015_SBTCI.pdf

South Carolina Overall Rank - 37th

Corporate Tax Rank - 13th

Individual Income Tax Rank - 41st 

Sale Tax Rank - 18th 

Unemployment Insurance Tax Rank - 40th

Property Tax Rank - 21st 

From these rankings its clear there needs to be substantial changes to the individual income tax and unemployment insurance tax regimes in South Carolina. North Carolina made the single largest annual jump in the history of the rankings to No. 16 from No. 44 by lowering its corporate and individual income tax and its sales taxes.  South Carolina should take the cue as there is no reason for us to be in the bottom percentile.