Formation fee
$110
last verified 2026-07-17
record 40 of 51 · /llc/south-carolina/
South Carolina LLC
South Carolina leaves trading names off its books
South Carolina wants neither an annual report nor a recurring entity tax from an LLC: the report fee, its due date and the tax line are all verified absences here, each checked against the state. The office likewise publishes neither a speed tier nor a standard timeline. Formation papers go to the Secretary of State.
the rest of this note
Trading names are the other gap: no state office registers them, a name used locally never reaches the state's records, and nothing screens it for conflicts. The LLC is barred from holding its own agent seat, a researched refusal, and the statute requires an individual agent to be a resident of the state. Both findings print with their citations.
every claim above is a line below
Annual report
none
This state files no LLC annual report. The absence is verified, not missing data.
verified absent 2026-07-17
Franchise tax
none
No recurring state-level tax on an LLC here. The absence is verified against the state, not missing data.
verified absent 2026-08-09
Anonymous LLC
no
Member or organizer names reach the public formation record here.
dataset revision 2026-08-10
derived from the definition, no statute read
Processing time
none published
This state publishes no standard processing time, which is not the same as filing instantly. This state sells no expedited service.
verified absent 2026-08-06
no source in the snapshot
Name designators
Must contain "limited liability company" or "limited company," or the abbreviation "L.L.C.," "LLC," "L.C.," or "LC." "Limited" may be abbreviated as "Ltd." and "company" as "Co."
Statute: S.C. Code § 33-44-105.
last verified 2026-07-17
Name reservation
$25
Optional filing that holds the name for 120 days (non-renewable) before you form.
last verified 2026-07-17
DBA
none
No statewide DBA filing exists in this state.
verified absent 2026-07-17
An individual as the agent
allowed
Whether a person may hold the seat, so nobody has to be hired. The terms South Carolina attaches, and the entity question, sit in the registered agent section.
last verified 2026-08-09
field 05 carries the date it was observed, not a promise: of the two halves beside it, only the expedited tiers are prices the state commits to
What are the South Carolina trade name rules?
South Carolina runs no statewide register for a name a business trades under, and the absence is verified rather than unread. What follows is what that means in practice.
- Where an LLC files
-
No state office. A trading name is registered locally, usually when the business licenses with its city or county.
- What the filing protects
-
no exclusive right
With no statewide registration, trading under another name creates no state record and no rights in the name. Nothing is checked for conflicts, and the name never enters the state index.
- Where to search existing names
-
none published
No statewide index of trading names exists. Business Entities Online lists entities only, so a name in daily local use can look clear in the state search.
- How long it lasts nothing is filed, so nothing runs out
- Newspaper publication there is no filing to publish notice of
one record, verified 2026-07-17 · S.C. Code Title 33 (no DBA registration statute exists)
What does it take to register an out-of-state LLC in South Carolina?
Registering an LLC formed elsewhere is its own filing in South Carolina. The registration costs $110. That price belongs to a separate filing event, so it enters no cost total on this site.
- Registration fee
-
$110
Flat statutory filing fee of $110.00 for the application for a certificate of authority.
- The official form
-
Application for Certificate of Authority
- Filed with
-
South Carolina Secretary of State
- After registration
-
Designate and continuously maintain a designated office and an agent for service of process in South Carolina.
one record, verified 2026-08-08
The same fee for every other jurisdiction sits on one page: foreign qualification fees for every jurisdiction.
Who may serve as the registered agent in South Carolina?
Who may serve as an LLC's registered agent is its own rule in South Carolina. South Carolina lets a natural person serve, so no commercial agent is required. The LLC itself may not hold the seat, which is a separate question.
- An individual as the agent
-
Allowed
in the state's words An agent must be an individual resident of this State
- The LLC as its own agent
-
Not allowed
- A mailbox service as the address
-
not read at this pin
- Address rule
-
A limited liability company and a foreign limited liability company authorized to do business in this State shall designate and continuously maintain in this State: (1) an office, which need not be a place of business in this State; and (2) an agent and street address of the agent for service of process on the company.
one record, verified 2026-08-09
The same four answers for every other jurisdiction sit on one page: registered agent rules for every jurisdiction.
Where do these figures come from?
Every figure on this sheet renders from the pinned dataset snapshot, and each card links the page its own figure came from. This list collects those pages in one place, with the duplicates removed and the agency named.
- Formation and annual report figures https://businessfilings.sc.gov/BusinessFiling/Home/DownloadForms?pdfCategoryId=1
- Recurring state tax https://dor.sc.gov/business-income-taxes/corporate
- Naming statute https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t33c044.php
- Name reservation https://sos.sc.gov/online-filings/business-entities
- Business entity search https://businessfilings.sc.gov/BusinessFiling/Entity/Search
The rule behind every figure here, and what a card does when one cannot be verified, sits on how a figure gets verified.