2013 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 12 - Taxation
CHAPTER 37 - ASSESSMENT OF PROPERTY TAXES
SECTION 12-37-930. Valuation of property; depreciation allowances for manufacturer's machinery and equipment; department may permit adjustment in allowance.
All property must be valued for taxation at its true value in money which in all cases is the price which the property would bring following reasonable exposure to the market, where both the seller and the buyer are willing, are not acting under compulsion, and are reasonably well informed of the uses and purposes for which it is adapted and for which it is capable of being used. The fair market value for vehicles, watercraft, and aircraft must be based on values derived from a nationally recognized publication of vehicle valuations, except that the value may not exceed ninety-five percent of the prior year's value. However, acreage allotments or marketing quota allotments for a commodity established under a program of the United States Department of Agriculture is classified as incorporeal hereditaments and the market value of real property to which they are attached may not include the value, if any, of the acreage allotment or marketing quota. Fair market value of manufacturer's machinery and equipment used in the conduct of the manufacturing business, excluding vehicles, watercraft, and aircraft required to be registered or licensed by a state or federal agency, must be determined by reducing the original cost by an annual allowance for depreciation as stated in the following schedule.
SCHEDULE
1. Aerospace Industry 15%
Includes the manufacture of aircraft, spacecraft, rockets, missiles and
component parts.
2. Apparel and Fabricated Textile Products 14%
Includes the manufacture of apparel, for garments, and fabricated textile
products except knitwear, knit products and rubber and leather apparel.
3. Cement Manufacture 6%
Includes the manufacture of cement.
Excludes the manufacture of concrete and concrete
products.
4. Chemicals and Allied Products 11%
Includes the manufacture of basic chemicals such as acids, alkalis, salts,
and organic and inorganic chemicals; chemical products to be used in
further manufacture, such as synthetic fibers and plastics materials;
and finished chemical products such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics,
soaps, fertilizers, paints and varnishes, explosives, and compressed and
liquefied gases.
Excludes the manufacture of finished rubber and plastic products.
5. Cold Storage and Icemaking Equipment 6%
6. Electrical Equipment
(a) Electrical Equipment 11%
Includes the manufacture of electric household
appliances, electronic equipment, batteries,
ignition systems, and machinery used in the
generation and utilization of electrical energy.
(b) Electronic Equipment 15%
Includes the manufacture of electronic communication,
detection, guidance, control, radiation,
computation, test and navigation equipment and
components thereof.
Excludes manufacturers engaged only in the purchase
and assembly of components.
(c) Electronic Interconnection 30%
Component Assembly Devices
for Computers and Computer
Peripherals; semiconductors
and semiconductor devices;
substrates; flat panel
displays; and liquid crystal
displays
Includes the manufacture of interconnection component
assemblies and devices, semiconductors and
semiconductor devices, flat panel displays, and
liquid crystal displays which are incorporated in
computers or computer peripherals, or other
electronic control applications, and
telecommunications devices. Computer peripherals
include tape drives, compact disk read-only memory
systems, hard disks, drivers, tape streamers,
monitors, printers, routers, servers, and power
supplies.
7. Fabricated Metal Products 11%
Includes the manufacture of fabricated metal products such as cans,
tinware, hardware, metal structural products, stampings and a variety of
metal and wire products.
8. Food and Kindred Products Except Grain and Grain 11%
Mill Products, Sugar and Sugar Products, and
Vegetable Oil Products
Includes the manufacture of foods and beverages, such as meat and dairy
products; baked goods; canned, frozen and preserved products;
confectionery and related products; and soft drinks and alcoholic
beverages. Excludes the manufacture of grain and grain mill products,
sugar and sugar products, and vegetable oils and vegetable oil products.
9. Glass and Glass Products 9%
Includes the manufacture of flat, blown, or pressed glass products, such
as plate, safety and window glass, glass containers, glassware and
fiberglass.
10. Grain and Grain Mill Products 7% Includes the manufacture of blended and
prepared flours, cereals, feeds and other grain and grain mill products.
11. Knitwear and Knit Products 17%
Includes the manufacture of knitwear and knit
products.
12. Leather and Leather Products 11%
Includes the manufacture of finished leather products, the tanning,
currying and finishing of hides and skins, and the processing of fur
pelts.
13. Logging and Sawmilling Includes the cutting of timber and the sawing of
dimensional stock from logs.
(a) Logging 20%
Includes logging machinery and equipment and road
building equipment used by logging and sawmill
operators on their own account.
(b) Sawmills 12%
Includes permanent or
well-established sawmills.
(c) Portable Sawmills 20%
Includes sawmills characterized by temporary
foundations, and a lack or minimum amount of
lumber-handling; drying, and residue-disposal
equipment and facilities.
14. Lumber, Wood Products, and Furniture 12%
Includes the manufacture of lumber, plywood, veneers, furniture, flooring
and other wood products.
Excludes logging and sawmilling and the manufacture of pulp and paper.
15. Machinery Except Electrical Machinery, 11%
Metalworking Machinery, and Transportation
Equipment
Includes the manufacture of machinery such as engines and turbines; farm
machinery; construction and mining machinery; food products machinery;
textile machinery; wood-working machinery; paper industries machinery;
compressors; pumps; ball and roller bearings; blowers; industrial
patterns; process furnaces and ovens; office machines; and service
industry machines and equipment.
Excludes the manufacture of electrical machinery, metalworking machinery,
and transportation equipment.
16. Metalworking Machinery 11%
Includes the manufacture of metal cutting and forming machines and
associated jigs, dyes, fixtures and accessories.
17. Mining 12%
Includes the mining and quarrying of metallic and nonmetallic minerals and
the milling, beneficiation and other primary preparation of such
materials.
Excludes the extraction and refining of petroleum and natural gas and the
smelting and refining of other minerals.
18. Motor Vehicles and Parts 11%
Includes the manufacture of automobiles, trucks and buses and their
component parts.
Excludes the manufacture of glass, tires and stampings.
19. Paper and Allied Products
(a) Pulp and Paper 10%
Includes the manufacture of pulp from wood, rags, and
other fibers and the manufacture of paper and
paperboard from pulp.
Excludes paper finishing and conversion into cartons,
bags, envelopes, and similar products.
(b) Paper Finishing and Converting 11%
Includes paper finishing and conversion into cartons,
bags, envelopes and similar products.
20. Petroleum and Natural Gas
(a) Drilling, Geophysical and 20%
Field Services
Includes the drilling of oil and gas wells on a
contract, fee or other basis and the provisions of
geophysical and other exploration services. Includes
oil and gas field services, such as chemically
treating, plugging and abandoning wells and
cementing or perforating well casings.
Excludes integrated petroleum and natural gas
producers which perform these services for their own
account.
(b) Exploration, Drilling and 9%
Production
Includes the exploration, drilling, maintenance and
production activities of petroleum and natural gas
producers. Includes gathering pipelines and related
storage facilities of such producers. Excludes
gathering pipelines and related storage facilities
of pipeline companies.
(c) Petroleum Refining 8%
Includes the distillation, fractionation, and
catalytic cracking of crude petroleum into gasoline
and its other components.
(d) Marketing 8%
Includes the marketing of petroleum and petroleum
products. Includes related storage facilities and
complete service stations. Excludes petroleum and
natural gas trunk pipelines and related storage
facilities.
Excludes natural gas distribution facilities.
21. Plastics Products 11%
Includes the manufacture of processed, fabricated and finished plastics
products.
Excludes the manufacture of basic plastics materials.
22. Primary Metals
Includes the smelting, reducing, refining and alloying of ferrous and
nonferrous metals from ore, pig or scrap and the manufacture of
castings, forgings and other basic ferrous and nonferrous metals
products.
(a) Ferrous Metals 8%
(b) Nonferrous Metals 9%
23. Printing and Publishing 11%
Includes printing, publishing, lithographing and printing services such as
bookbinding, typesetting, photoengraving, and electrotyping.
24. Professional, Scientific, and Controlling 11%
Instruments: Photographic and Optical Equipment;
Watches and Clocks
Includes the manufacture of mechanical measuring, engineering, laboratory
and scientific research instruments; optical instruments and lenses;
surgical, medical and dental instruments and equipment, ophthalmic
equipment; photographic equipment; and watches and clocks.
25. Railroad Transportation Equipment 11%
Includes the building and rebuilding of railroad locomotives, railroad
cars, and street cars.
26. Rubber Products 15%
Includes the manufacture of finished rubber products and the recapping,
retreading and rebuilding of tires.
27. Ship and Boat Building 11%
Includes the building, repairing and conversion of
ships and boats.
28. Stone and Clay Products Except Cement 8%
Includes the manufacture of structural clay products such as brick, tile
and pipe; pottery and related products, such as vitreous-china, plumbing
fixtures, earthenware and ceramic insulating materials; concrete;
asphalt building materials; concrete, gypsum and plaster products; cut
and finished stone; and abrasive, asbestos and miscellaneous nonmetallic
mineral products.
Excludes the manufacture of cement.
29. Sugar and Sugar Products 7%
Includes the manufacture of raw sugar, syrup or finished sugar from sugar
cane or sugar beets.
30. Textile Mill Products Except Knitwear
(a) Textile Mill Products, 11%
Excluding Finishing and
Dyeing
Includes the manufacture of spun, woven or processed
yarns and fabrics from natural or synthetic fibers.
Excludes finishing and dyeing.
(b) Finishing and Dyeing 14%
Includes textile finishing and dyeing.
31. Tobacco and Tobacco Products 8%
32. Vegetable Oil Products 7%
Includes the manufacture of vegetable oils and vegetable oil products.
33. Other Manufacturing 11%
Includes the manufacture of products not covered 10%
by other guideline classes, such as the
manufacture of fountain pens and jewelry.
Furniture & Office Equipment of Manufacturers
34. Use of Clean Rooms 15%
A manufacturer who uses a Class 100 or better clean room, as that term is
defined in Federal Standard 209E, in manufacturing its product may elect
an annual allowance for depreciation for property tax purposes of
fifteen percent on clean room modules and associated mechanical systems,
and on process piping, wiring environmental systems, and water
purification systems associated with the clean room instead of a
depreciation allowance for which the manufacturer otherwise is entitled.
Included are waffle flooring, wall and ceiling panels, foundation
improvements that isolate the clean room to control vibrations, clean
air handling and filtration systems, piping systems for fluids and gases
used in the manufacturing process and in the clean room that touch the
product during the process, flat panel displays, and liquid crystal
displays, process equipment energy control systems, ultra pure water
processing and wastewater recycling systems, and safety alarm and
monitoring systems.
35. Life sciences and 20%
renewable energy
manufacturing
Includes machinery and equipment used directly in the manufacturing
process by a life sciences or renewable energy manufacturing facility.
For purposes of this item, a qualifying facility means a business
engaged in pharmaceutical, medicine, and related laboratory instrument
manufacturing, processing, or research and development, or that
manufactures qualifying machinery and equipment for use by solar and
wind turbine energy producers, as well as manufacturers of qualifying
batteries for alternative energy motor vehicles, that invests a minimum
of one hundred million dollars in the project, as defined in Section
12-10-30(8), and creates at least two hundred new full-time jobs at the
project with an average cash compensation level of at least one hundred
fifty percent of the annual per capita income in this State or the
county in which the facility is located, whichever is less. Per capita
income must be determined using the most recent per capita income data
available as of the end of the taxable year in which the jobs are
filled. Included in this definition are the following North American
Industrial Classification Systems, NAICS Codes published by the Office
of Management and Budget of the federal government:
(i) 3254 Pharmaceutical and
Medical Manufacturing;
(ii) 334516 Analytical Laboratory
Instrument Manufacturing.
In no event may the original cost be reduced by more than as provided in Section 12-37-935, except this limit is ninety percent for (1) custom molds and dies used in the conduct of manufacturing electronic interconnection component assembly devices for computers and computer peripherals; and (2) equipment used in the manufacture of tires by manufacturers who employ more than five thousand employees in this State and have over one billion dollars in capital investment in this State. Capital investment will be based upon the gross cost of assets in South Carolina as shown on the manufacturer's property tax and fee-in-lieu of property tax filings. In the year of acquisition, depreciation is allowed as if the property were owned for the full year. The term "original cost" means gross capitalized cost, including property on which the taxpayer made the election allowed pursuant to Section 179 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as shown by the taxpayer's records for income tax purposes. For purposes of this paragraph, custom molds and dies used in the conduct of manufacturing electronic interconnection component assembly devices for computers and computer peripherals are molds and dies designed, produced, and conditioned to the special order of a manufacturer.
Notwithstanding the percentage allowance stated in the schedule above, the department, after examination of the relevant facts, may permit an adjustment in the percentage allowance, with the total allowance not to exceed twenty-five percent, on account of extraordinary obsolescence. The department may set forth a depreciation allowance, instead of the depreciation allowance provided in this section, not to exceed twenty-five percent where the taxpayer can provide relevant data concerning a useful life of the machinery and equipment which is different from the period shown in this section.
HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 65-1648; 1952 Code Section 65-1648; 1942 Code Section 2696; 1932 Code Section 2696; Civ. C. '22 Section 431; Civ. C. '12 Section 379; Civ. C. '02 Section 337; G. S. 219; R. S. 270; 1881 (17) 1006; 1926 (34) 981; 1964 (53) 2395; 1967 (55) 933; 1972 (57) 2467; 1975 (59) 248; 1977 Act No. 38; 1979 Act No. 116 Section 1; 1981 Act No. 62 Section 1; 1993 Act No. 164, Part II, Section 81; 1994 Act No. 516, Section 31; 1995 Act No. 32, Sections 6A and B; 1995 Act No. 69, Section 2A; 1996 Act No. 231, Sections 12A and B; 1996 Act No. 431, Section 22; 1996 Act No. 458, Part II, Section 8B; 1999 Act No. 93, Section 15(C), (D); 2000 Act No. 399, Section 3(Q)(2), eff August 17, 2000; 2004 Act No. 187, Section 2.A, eff March 17, 2004; 2010 Act No. 290, Section 28, eff June 23, 2010.
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