Tax residency rules, audits, and the severance record (2026)
2026.1 Edition · Revised 2026-07-25 · DomusDay Research
Moving out of South Carolina is easy. Stopping South Carolina taxes is a different act, and it happens on paper: South Carolina keeps treating you as a resident until the record shows otherwise.
On the burden of showing otherwise: Expressed intent is weighed against conduct: the SCDOR's domicile guide states that any expressed intent 'must be evaluated in the light of his conduct which is either consistent or inconsistent with such expressed intent'.
There is no day-count to get under. South Carolina has no statutory day-count test. SC Code §12-6-30 defines a resident individual as 'an individual domiciled in this State' and a nonresident as anyone else who is not a part-year resident — residency turns entirely on domicile. The SCDOR describes a resident as someone whose intention is to maintain South Carolina as the permanent home, for whom South Carolina is the center of financial, social, and family life, and who intends to return to South Carolina when away. That makes the evidence trail — where the pattern of an actual life points — the entire case. Everything on this page exists to answer one question: if SCDOR asks, does your record hold?
An owner-occupied legal residence is assessed at 4% of fair market value instead of 6%. The county assessor application certifies, under penalty of perjury, domicile at the property and no legal residence claim in any other jurisdiction — a dated filing that points wherever it is made.
Source ↗Act 110 of 2026 replaced the phase-down (6.2% for 2024, 6% for 2025) with two rates beginning in 2026: 1.99% on taxable income under $30,000 and 5.21% above, plus further reductions conditional on revenue projections.
Source ↗Under §12-8-580 the buyer withholds from a nonresident seller's proceeds — for individuals, the top marginal rate for the year of sale applied to the gain on the I-290 affidavit (amount realized without one). A prepayment credited on the return, not an added tax.
Source ↗South Carolina has no statutory day-count test. SC Code §12-6-30 defines a resident individual as 'an individual domiciled in this State' and a nonresident as anyone else who is not a part-year resident — residency turns entirely on domicile. The SCDOR describes a resident as someone whose intention is to maintain South Carolina as the permanent home, for whom South Carolina is the center of financial, social, and family life, and who intends to return to South Carolina when away. Days still matter — not as a threshold to duck under, but as evidence of where the year was actually lived, and as the trigger for the presumptions below.
Selling the apartment is not the test, and neither is the new driver's license. South Carolina presumes an established domicile continues until it is shown to have changed — domicile — 'the true test of domicile is the intent of the individual', evaluated against conduct. On the burden: Expressed intent is weighed against conduct: the SCDOR's domicile guide states that any expressed intent 'must be evaluated in the light of his conduct which is either consistent or inconsistent with such expressed intent.' Examiners weigh 3 primary factors — property, employment and finances, licenses and registrations — and they weigh what you did, not what you intended. The pattern of an actual life somewhere else is the evidence; everything else is secondary.
A clean exit does not end every South Carolina claim. These rules keep taxing specific situations after the move — each one is a way the state stays in your return.
AffectsLeavers who keep South Carolina work, business interests, or rental property.
AffectsFormer residents selling a retained South Carolina home or land after the move.
AffectsAnyone owning a South Carolina home on either side of a move.
South Carolina Department of Revenue (SCDOR) runs a low-intensity residency program. The SCDOR publishes no residency-specific audit program or statistics; its principal published residency guidance is the domicile guide, and domicile questions commonly surface through county assessors' 4% legal residence reviews. An examination is not an argument about intentions — it is a request for documents, and the request looks like this:
Every item on that list either exists in your records from the year of the move, or it does not. That is the whole game — and why the severance record below is the section that matters most.
An audit years from now is answered with documents generated in the months around the move. This is that inventory — grouped the way examiners think about a life, each item paired with the evidence it leaves behind.
South Carolina's domicile-only test makes the change date a facts question — there is no day count to fall back on, so dated registrations, the 4% ratio status of any retained home, and return addresses carry the year. The SCDOR lets a part-year mover file either as a full-year resident or as a nonresident on Schedule NR, and the two computations can differ; a post-move sale of retained real property adds buyer withholding under §12-8-580 at the top marginal rate for the year of sale.
The driver's license address is among the licenses-and-registrations factors in the SCDOR's domicile guide.
Source ↗Voter registration is an enumerated factor in the SCDOR's domicile analysis — and one of the four proofs assessors commonly request.
Source ↗Vehicle registration location is an enumerated factor; South Carolina registrations are also proof items on the 4% legal residence application.
Source ↗The 4% legal residence ratio certifies domicile at the property under penalty of perjury — a retained South Carolina home no longer occupied as the legal residence reverts to the 6% ratio, and a continuing 4% claim contradicts a claimed change of domicile.
Source ↗The location of residences and ownership of real property are enumerated factors in the SCDOR's domicile guide.
Source ↗A South Carolina home sold after the domicile change is a nonresident sale: the buyer withholds under SC Code §12-8-580 — for individuals, the top marginal rate for the year of sale applied to the gain stated on the seller's affidavit (Form I-290), credited on the South Carolina return.
Source ↗Bank account locations are enumerated factors in the domicile guide, alongside addresses on financial statements.
Source ↗Location of employment is an enumerated factor; personal service income earned in South Carolina remains reportable on Schedule NR after the move.
Source ↗Professional licenses and professional service providers are enumerated factors — where they sit after the move contributes to the pattern.
Source ↗Civic ties, religious affiliation, social memberships, and library cards are enumerated factors in the SCDOR's domicile guide.
Source ↗Residences of spouse and family members — and prior domicile claims — are enumerated factors weighed against the claimed change.
Source ↗Ownership and location of vehicles and boats are enumerated property factors in the domicile guide.
Source ↗Addresses on tax returns and the state where taxes are paid are enumerated factors — filed returns date the claimed change.
Source ↗The change year is filed on the SC1040 with Schedule NR; the SCDOR allows a mover to file the year either as a full-year resident or as a nonresident on Schedule NR, taxed only on income earned in South Carolina with prorated deductions.
Source ↗Every rule on this page traces to one of these. When a blog and a statute disagree, the statute wins — start here.
How these are chosen, what the automated gates catch, and what this site deliberately does not do: how these guides are made →
The year of the move is filed on SC1040 + Schedule NR, with income split between the resident and nonresident periods — and that return is itself evidence: it states your change date on a signed document. Buyers withhold on nonresident sellers of South Carolina real property under SC Code §12-8-580 — for individuals, the top marginal rate for the year of sale applied to the recognized gain (Form I-290).
No. SC Code §12-6-30 defines a resident as an individual domiciled in the state — there is no statutory day count. The SCDOR looks to intent evaluated against conduct: property, employment and finances, licenses and registrations, family, and affiliations.
The buyer withholds under SC Code §12-8-580: for individuals, the top marginal rate for the year of sale applied to the gain stated on the Form I-290 affidavit (the amount realized without one; 5% for corporations). The withholding is a prepayment credited on the seller's South Carolina return.
The SC1040. The SCDOR allows a part-year mover to file either as a full-year resident or as a nonresident with Schedule NR attached — taxed only on income earned in South Carolina, with deductions prorated. The two methods can produce different results.
Owner-occupied legal residences are assessed at 4% of fair market value versus 6% for other property — roughly halving the assessment. The application, filed with the county assessor, certifies under penalty of perjury that the owner is domiciled at the property and claims legal residence nowhere else, making it a dated domicile marker as well as a tax reduction.
Beginning with tax year 2026, H.4216 (Act 110 of 2026) sets two rates: 1.99% on taxable income under $30,000 and 5.21% above, with further top-rate reductions conditional on revenue projections. The top rate was 6% for 2025 and 6.2% for 2024 under the prior phase-down. A 44% deduction applies to net capital gain.
No. The SCDOR's Moving to SC guide states that South Carolina does not have an estate tax or a gift tax.
2026.1 Edition · Revised 2026-07-25 · DomusDay Research