Feasibility Study Consultant in South Carolina

What sets a South Carolina feasibility study apart is how many of its lines the state Code fixes before any market evidence is read: the assessment ratio that turns a property's value into a tax bill, the reset a sale triggers under the 15 percent reassessment cap, the ceilings on the local taxes added to a room or a meal, and the staffing ratios, ounce limits and certificates that cap what a child care center, a brewery or a nursing home can sell [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The state counted 5,570,274 residents on July 1, 2025, 8.8% more than at the April 2020 estimates base [7], and sales tax returns reported $126,045,467,222 of net taxable sales in fiscal year 2025 [8]. Those totals describe the market. The Code decides how much of it a project keeps, and that is the part a lender reviewing a South Carolina file checks first. The sections below take the lender's questions first, then the demand base and its limits, the state's largest places and the USDA rural line, the seven metros whose counties lie wholly or partly in South Carolina, and the Code's rules family by family. Three worked models then show the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) moving with South Carolina ratios and rules, and the page closes with who prepares the study and what its file holds.

What do lenders expect a South Carolina feasibility study to show?

They expect every line the Code fixes to be stated with its section number and the date it applies, every market line to be argued from evidence, and DSCR to be computed only once both are in place. For the requirements every lender shares, see lender feasibility study requirements; for what lets a report pass credit review, see what makes a feasibility study bankable. Two federal rules sit beneath the state questions: a USDA Business and Industry guarantee above $1,000,000 to a new business needs an independent qualified consultant's study [9], and SOP 50 10 8.1, in force from October 1, 2026, lets SBA request one [10].

A reviewer reading a South Carolina file then asks five questions that a projection built for another state may never have had to answer.

• Which assessment ratio applies. Section 12-43-220 assesses real property not otherwise classified at 6% of fair market value, an owner-occupied legal residence at 4%, and the real and personal property a manufacturer or utility uses in its business at 10.5% [1]. Commercial rental property falls in the 6% class, so the same value carries an assessment 1.5 times larger when it is rented than when its owner lives in it [1][11]. A projection that never names its class has not yet computed its tax line.
• Whether the deal is a sale. Section 12-37-3140 holds the growth a countywide reassessment can add to a parcel's value to 15% over five years, but the limit does not apply to a transferred parcel's value in the year that value is first taxed, which is the tax year after the transfer, and a conveyance by deed is a transfer [2]. Property in the 6% class then has 25% of that transfer value exempt if the owner notifies the county assessor before January 31 [2]. A buyer's tax bill is therefore set by the purchase, not by the seller's capped value, and an acquisition study that carries the seller's bill overstates coverage.
• Which city the receipts are earned in. The Department of Revenue gives the statewide sales and use tax rate as 6%, and a county may add 1% local option tax if its voters approve it [12]; the statute builds that rate from a 5% tax and an additional 1% imposed from June 1, 2007 [13]. By the Department's municipal table, a sale in Greenville city carries 6% in total and one in Charleston 9% [14], and the table leaves out local taxes that counties and cities collect themselves [14], which is where local accommodations taxes of up to 3% and hospitality taxes of up to 2% sit [3].
• Whether a county fee replaces the property tax. An industry investing at least $2.5 million may negotiate a fee in lieu of property taxes with the county [15], at an assessment ratio of not less than 6%, or 4% for an enhanced investment, in place of 10.5% [16][15]. A manufacturer's projection is built on the ratio in the signed agreement, not on the statutory class.
• Which state approval comes before revenue. A new nursing home, added nursing home beds and certain nursing home capital expenditures need a Certificate of Need [6]; the parallel requirement for hospitals is repealed effective January 1, 2027 [6]. A restaurant serving liquor by the drink needs a license issued to a business engaged primarily and substantially in serving meals or furnishing lodging [17], and a new use of a coastal critical area needs a permit first [18]. Revenue that depends on any of these starts on the approval date, not the opening date.

Each of the five questions has a statutory answer, and each answer moves a line of the cash flow. When one of those answers changes, the DSCR and debt yield calculator recomputes coverage, and for an SBA loan the SBA DSCR calculator sets the SOP 50 10 8 test beside the SOP 50 10 8.1 test. A borrower still choosing a loan program can begin with the lender fit finder and then read the SBA, USDA or conventional page for the lender it lands on.

How big is South Carolina's demand base, and what does each measure tell a study?

South Carolina had 5,570,274 residents in 2,296,350 households in 2025 [7][19], and it added 79,958 people in the year to July 2025 [7], but those totals are the market's background, not a site's demand. Net domestic migration supplied 83.3% of that year's gain [7], which makes the state's growth a matter of where people choose to move, and Table 1 sets out what each statewide measure can do in a study.

Table 1. South Carolina residents, households and housing: statewide measures

Source: Vintage 2025 population estimates, state totals and age detail [7][20]; 2025 ACS 1-year tenure, income and rent tables [19][21][22]; 2025 building permits by state [23].

The yearly gain in 2025 was 19.7% smaller than in 2024 [7], and Table 2 shows which component moved.

Table 2. Components of South Carolina's yearly population change

Source: Vintage 2025 population estimates, state totals [7].

Domestic migration has stayed within a band of 66,367 to 83,341 a year since 2022, while international migration rose to 32,760 in 2024 and then fell 60.5% to 12,930 [7]. In 2021, net domestic migration of 68,406 was larger than the whole year's gain of 62,354 [7]. A study that projects demand from the 2023 or 2024 pace is therefore reading the peak, and a study for a project whose tenants or customers are recent arrivals from abroad reads the 2025 figure, not the average. The 21.1% share of residents aged 65 and older [20] is the base a senior housing or care study starts from, and only a county or trade area series can show whether its site sits above or below it.

Housing permits make the same point in a different way: 39,897 of the 45,862 units authorized in 2025 were single-unit, and 5,181 were in buildings of five or more units [23], so units in apartment buildings were 11.3% of the state's authorizations [23], and an apartment study measures its own pipeline in its own county. A 28.2% renter share and a $1,395 median gross rent [19][22] are statewide benchmarks; the metro figures in Table 6 run from 21.2% to 34.6% and from $1,238 to $1,855, and the study uses the metro or county figure.

The Department of Revenue's annual report adds what Census cannot: what was sold, and where the room tax was paid. Table 3 lists the statewide figures this page uses.

Table 3. What South Carolina agencies report on sales, room tax and parks

Source: Department of Revenue, Annual Report for fiscal year 2025 [8] and Accommodations page for the 2% rate [24]; Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, State Park Service and Facts and FAQs pages [25][26]. Implied receipts divide collections by the 2% rate, an FSC computation that ignores timing and audit adjustments [8][24].

The gap between gross and net taxable sales is the first thing a South Carolina retail or restaurant study corrects for. Across all returns, net taxable sales were 37.4% of gross [8]. Gross sales include receipts that are not taxable, so a county's gross figure says as much about the kinds of businesses filing returns there as about what its residents and visitors buy. In the accommodation and food services sector the two figures nearly converge, with 90.9% of gross sales taxable [8], so the state's taxable sales series is a close measure of what hotels and restaurants take in. For retail trade the share is 39.9% [8], which is why a retail study reads net taxable sales or builds its own spending estimate rather than quoting gross sales.

The accommodations tax line is the clearest visitor measure in the state's own records. The Department lists rooms as subject to the 5% sales tax and a 2% accommodations tax [24], so dividing the $119,711,082 collected in fiscal year 2025 by 2% gives $5,985,554,100 of implied taxable room revenue [8][24]. Charleston and Horry counties together paid $62,253,972 of that tax, about 52% of the statewide total [8], and Table 7 shows the county split. The tourism estimate of $31 billion from the parks and tourism department carries no year [26], so it frames a study's introduction and never enters its projection.

County Business Patterns counts give a supply check, not a market size. Table 4 lists the counts for the asset types this page covers.

Table 4. South Carolina establishment counts for the asset types on this page

Source: County Business Patterns, 2023 state file [27].

The counts date from 2023 and cover the whole state [27]; a study uses them to sanity-check its own field census, never to size a market. The 54 RV parks and campgrounds sit beside 3,000 campsites in the state park system [27][25], which is why a South Carolina campground study counts the public sites inside its trade area before it counts the private ones.

Which South Carolina places have more than 50,000 residents, and what does the USDA rural test do with them?

Nine, by the July 2025 estimates, and Goose Creek and Greer reached the list only after the April 2020 base [28]. Table 5 gives each one's base, estimate and change.

Table 5. Places in South Carolina with more than 50,000 residents, July 2025

Source: Vintage 2025 subcounty population estimates, with the change computed by FSC [28].

Greer grew 41.0% since 2020, more than three times as fast as any other place on the list, while Goose Creek added 12.9% and North Charleston 12.5% [28]. At the other end, Rock Hill grew 2.1% and Summerville 4.6% [28], below the state's 8.8% [7]. A place's growth matters twice in a South Carolina study: once as demand, and again because a municipality's council adopts its own local accommodations and hospitality taxes by ordinance within the statute's ceilings, while a county may not levy more than 1.5% accommodations tax or 1% hospitality tax inside a municipality without the municipality's consent [3]. Crossing a city limit can change the local tax a hotel or restaurant collects, so the study names the jurisdiction as well as the trade area.

7 CFR 5001.3 draws USDA's rural line: an eligible area sits outside every city or town above 50,000 inhabitants and outside the urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to one, counted from the latest decennial census, and approval cannot hinge on passing the test later [29]. Because Table 5 uses estimates, a site near Greer or Goose Creek, both past the line since 2020, is checked on the Rural Development Property Eligibility Map or through a State Office determination [29]. This page finds no site eligible or ineligible.

What does each metro area with South Carolina counties mean for a study?

Each one is a different stack of county and city tax layers on top of its Census profile, so a South Carolina study reads its metro through the counties and municipalities inside it. Seven metro areas above a quarter million residents include a South Carolina county; five lie wholly inside the state, and Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia and Augusta-Richmond County cross into North Carolina and Georgia [30]. Their South Carolina counties held 4,283,996 residents on July 1, 2025, or 76.9% of the state [30][7]. Table 6 sets the seven side by side.

Table 6. The seven metro areas of more than a quarter million residents that include South Carolina counties

Source: Vintage 2025 metro estimates [30]; 2025 ACS 1-year income, tenure and rent tables [21][19][22]; change and renter share as computed in the Census data layer [30][19].

Census profiles separate the metros only so far. What separates them in a South Carolina projection is the record the Department of Revenue keeps for each county: how much was sold, and how much room tax was paid. Table 7 sets those records beside each core county's population.

Table 7. Taxable activity in metro core counties, fiscal year 2025

Source: Department of Revenue, Annual Report for fiscal year 2025, gross and net taxable sales by county and accommodations tax by county [8]; residents from the Census metro file [30]. Per resident figures divide fiscal year 2025 collections by July 1, 2025 residents, an FSC computation [8][30].

Charleston and Horry counties paid $31,019,674 and $31,234,298 of state accommodations tax, or $71.11 and $73.05 for every resident, while Greenville and Richland paid $13.31 and $12.27 per resident and the other core counties between $6.03 and $8.46 [8][30]. A hotel study on the coast and one inland are therefore working from different demand engines, and a study that borrows an occupancy or rate assumption from one for the other has crossed a gap of more than five to one in the state's own records [8]. Gross sales tell a different story: Lexington County reported 29.2% more gross sales than Richland County with fewer residents [8][30], which is why gross sales measure where accounts file rather than where a project's customers shop.

The last county layer is the rate a customer pays at the register or the front desk. Table 8 lists the Department's combined rates for the cities named in the metro sections below.

Table 8. Combined sales and accommodations tax rates collected by the Department of Revenue, selected municipalities

Source: Department of Revenue, ST-575, South Carolina Sales Tax Rate by Municipality, revised February 5, 2026, which excludes taxes counties and municipalities collect directly [14].

In every row the accommodations rate is one point above the general rate [14], which matches the Department's listing of rooms at the 5% sales tax plus the 2% accommodations tax [24]. None of these rates includes a local accommodations tax of up to 3% or a local hospitality tax of up to 2%, because counties and cities collect those themselves [3][14]. A South Carolina lodging or restaurant study therefore carries two rate sources for each site: the Department's municipal table and the county or city ordinance.

Greenville-Anderson-Greer: Greenville, Anderson, Pickens and Laurens counties

The largest metro wholly inside South Carolina had 1,014,101 residents on July 1, 2025, 9.3% more than at the 2020 base, and it added 14,474 in the latest year, 11,375 of them through net domestic migration [30]. Greenville County holds 583,125 of those residents, 57.5% of the metro, with Anderson at 219,930, Pickens at 139,198 and Laurens at 71,848 [30]. Greenville County itself grew 11.0% from its 2020 base, faster than Charleston County's 6.8% or Richland County's 4.5% [31]. The metro's median household income of $72,282 and median gross rent of $1,322 both sit below the Charleston and Columbia figures [21][22].

Greenville County reported $27,728,539,220 of gross sales in fiscal year 2025, the largest of the county rows in Table 7, but its net taxable sales were about 39% of that gross, against about 51% in Charleston County [8]. A retail study in the county therefore works from net taxable sales or its own spending estimate. Its accommodations tax was $7,762,405, or $13.31 per resident [8][30], a figure that tells a hotel study its demand cannot be borrowed from the coastal leisure counties. Greenville city lists no local tax in the Department's table, so a sale there carries 6% and a room 7% before any locally collected tax [14]; a site a few miles away in another jurisdiction can carry a different rate, which is why the study states the municipality.

Air and freight evidence for the metro is unusually rich. Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport counted 3,043,621 passengers in 2025, up 5.70% on 2024 and 16.5% above the 2,612,236 of 2019, and it handled 64,593 tons of cargo, up 11.6% [32]. The airport cites an economic impact of $4 billion in 2023, against $2.90 billion in 2018 [33], a modeled figure that belongs in a study's narrative, not its revenue lines. Inland Port Greer handled a fiscal year record of 205,523 rail moves in fiscal year 2025 [34], but rail moves at the Greer and Dillon inland ports together fell to 149,651 in the first nine months of 2026, from 193,864 a year earlier [35]. An industrial or distribution study near Greer cites the year it relies on, because the record and the decline are both current. Greer city itself grew 41.0% since 2020, to 50,007 residents [28], and Clemson University lists 24,368 undergraduate and 5,000 graduate students without dating the headcount [36], which a student housing study confirms with the university before relying on it.

For the asset families active here, the lines that matter are the 10.5% manufacturer ratio and any fee in lieu for industrial projects [1][15], the 6% city rate for retail and restaurant pricing [14], and a renter share of 30.2% for apartments [19].

Charleston-North Charleston: Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties

The Charleston metro had 889,263 residents on July 1, 2025, 11.2% more than at the 2020 base, and gained 15,175 in the latest year, with net domestic migration of 9,911 [30]. Charleston County holds 436,200 residents, 49.1% of the metro, Berkeley 274,666 and Dorchester 178,397 [30]. The regional council of governments headlines Berkeley County as the county projected to drive the region's population growth through 2030, without figures on the page [37], so a study cites it as a regional planning view and takes its numbers from Census. The metro's median household income of $93,054 and median gross rent of $1,855 are the highest of the seven metros, with a renter share of 32.8% [21][22][19]. Charleston city had 159,423 residents and North Charleston 129,245, up 5.8% and 12.5% since 2020 [28].

Charleston County paid $31,019,674 of state accommodations tax in fiscal year 2025, 25.9% of the statewide total and $71.11 per resident [8][30], while Berkeley County paid $1,687,756 [8]. The county's gross sales were $23,269,992,523, of which about 51% was net taxable [8]. In the Charleston County part of Charleston city a sale carries 9% and a room 10% in the Department's table, with education capital improvement, transportation and local option taxes listed, while unincorporated Dorchester County carries 7% and 8% [14]. A room in Charleston therefore starts three points above one in Greenville before any locally collected tax [14], and the projection has to show whether its room rate is quoted before or after that tax.

The ports authority's volumes cover all of its facilities, not the metro alone, but they set the direction for Charleston's freight demand. It reported 2.6M total TEUs in fiscal year 2025 [34]; for calendar 2026 through September it reports 1,794,157, 8.74% below the 1,965,887 of the same period in 2025, with pier containers down to 993,597 from 1,079,157 [35]. Charleston's 2025 loaded imports of 1,246,552 TEUs were about 2.1 times its 594,290 loaded export TEUs; machinery parts led imports at 228,988 TEUs, 18% of the total, and chemicals led exports at 170,131 TEUs, 29% [38]. The ports authority cites 2,000+ reefer slots and available cold storage capacity in Charleston [39], and an annual economic impact of $87 billion, its own estimate [34]. A cold storage or warehouse study reads these volumes for their direction and mix, not as its own throughput, and states which period it uses, because the fiscal year 2025 total and the 2026 decline point different ways.

Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester are all coastal zone counties under Section 48-39-10 [18], so a marina, dock or waterfront project in any of them begins with the critical area permit discussed under recreation below. This page's sources hold no passenger counts for the Charleston airport, so a lodging study gathers them directly from the airport before it sizes air-driven demand.

Columbia: Richland, Lexington and four other counties

The Columbia metro had 879,918 residents on July 1, 2025, 6.1% more than at the 2020 base, and it added 8,889 in the latest year, 5,818 through net domestic migration [30]. Richland County's 434,956 and Lexington County's 317,588 residents make up 85.5% of the metro, with Kershaw at 73,166, Fairfield at 20,340, Saluda at 19,680 and Calhoun at 14,188 [30]. Richland grew 4.5% from its 2020 base [31], and Columbia city 7.5%, to 147,035 [28]. The metro's median household income is $76,375, its renter share 29.9% and its median gross rent $1,357 [21][19][22].

Fort Jackson gives the Columbia metro a demand stream of its own. The post states it trains in excess of 45,000 basic training and 12,000 additional advanced training soldiers every year, roughly 50 percent of all soldiers entering the Army [40]. Columbia Metropolitan Airport reports that approximately 11,587 future soldiers traveled through it between Memorial Day and late summer 2026 on the way to basic training [41]. Customs and Border Protection at the airport handled roughly 505 international arrivals between 2024 and May 2026, and a new customs facility of roughly 8,000 square feet was dedicated there on July 31, 2026 [42]. The University of South Carolina reports Fall 2025 systemwide enrollment of 58,906 and cites a $4.2 billion annual economic impact in the Columbia region, its own estimate [43]. Systemwide enrollment counts every campus in the system, so a student housing study near the Columbia campus confirms that campus's own count before it sizes demand.

Richland County paid $5,337,414 of state accommodations tax in fiscal year 2025, $12.27 per resident, and Lexington $1,942,703 [8][30]. Lexington's gross sales of $19,554,502,729 exceeded Richland's $15,130,437,187 [8], a reminder that the gross column measures filing accounts. In the Richland County part of Columbia a sale carries 8% and a room 9%, with transportation and local option taxes listed [14]. For a hotel near the post or the university, the study ties demand to the institution's published volumes and its calendar, and shows the room rate net of the 9% rate the Department collects and any city or county accommodations tax [14][3].

Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach: Horry County

Horry County is a metro of one county and the fastest growing of the seven: 427,551 residents on July 1, 2025, 21.8% more than at the 2020 base, about two and a half times the state's 8.8% [30][7]. Net domestic migration of 14,222 in the latest year was larger than the metro's whole gain of 13,244 [30]. The renter share of 21.2% is the lowest of the seven metros, the median household income of $71,086 is the second lowest, and the median gross rent of $1,441 is the third highest [19][21][22].

Horry County paid $31,234,298 of state accommodations tax in fiscal year 2025, the largest county figure in Table 7, 26.1% of the statewide total and $73.05 per resident [8][30]. The same report lists $44,018,425 collected for Myrtle Beach under the municipal Tourism Development Tax [8], which may be imposed only by a municipality in a county where state accommodations tax revenue reaches at least $14 million in a fiscal year [8]; the Department lists Myrtle Beach as authorized from August 1, 2019 [44]. In the Department's table Myrtle Beach carries 9% on a sale and 10% on a room, with the tourism development code listed, while North Myrtle Beach, without it, carries 8% and 9% [14]. Two beachfront hotels in the same county can therefore quote rates against different tax totals, and the study shows which one applies.

Myrtle Beach International Airport's consultation materials give fiscal year 2024 traffic as 1.823MM enplaned passengers, 42.3% above fiscal year 2019, and propose keeping the passenger facility charge at $4.50 per eligible enplaned passenger to fund a concourse expansion, with an estimated expiration of August 1, 2032 [45]. The airport reported opening six new gates in a $93.5 million terminal expansion in December 2025 [46]. A Horry County lodging or campground study states how much of its demand it expects to arrive by air and how much by road, and supports each share with its own evidence rather than with the county's room tax total. Horry is a coastal zone county [18], and campground spaces pay the same 7% state rate as hotel rooms [13], so a campground or RV park here competes with hotels for the same visitor on a level state tax line.

Spartanburg: Spartanburg and Union counties

The Spartanburg metro had 407,656 residents on July 1, 2025, 14.8% more than at the 2020 base, and it added 10,928 in the latest year, 9,388 of them through net domestic migration [30]. Spartanburg County holds 380,857 of those residents, 93.4%, and Union County 26,799 [30]. Its median household income of $67,670 and median gross rent of $1,238 are the lowest of the seven metros, with a renter share of 29.0% [21][22][19].

Spartanburg County reported $14,315,581,888 of gross sales and paid $2,297,264 of state accommodations tax in fiscal year 2025, $6.03 per resident [8][30]. Spartanburg city carries 7% on a sale and 8% on a room, with a capital projects tax listed [14]. The SBA's South Carolina District Office keeps one of its three offices in Spartanburg [47]. Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, named for both metros, counted 3,043,621 passengers in 2025 [32]. For an industrial, distribution or flex project, the study's tax line turns on the 10.5% manufacturer ratio or a negotiated fee [1][15]; for workforce housing, it turns on the lowest median rent among the seven metros [22].

Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC: York, Lancaster and Chester counties

On July 1, 2025 the Charlotte metro counted 2,938,830 residents, up 10.5% on its 2020 base, after adding 54,122 in the latest year [30]. Three of its counties are in South Carolina, holding 454,184 residents, or 15.5% of the metro: York County with 306,887, Lancaster with 114,296 and Chester with 33,001 [30]. The metro's median household income of $89,067, renter share of 34.6% and median gross rent of $1,641 are metro-wide figures [21][19][22], weighted toward the North Carolina counties, so a South Carolina site uses county or tract data before it borrows them.

York County reported $9,517,402,291 of gross sales and paid $2,252,097 of state accommodations tax in fiscal year 2025, $7.34 per resident [8][30]. Rock Hill, in York County, carries 7% on a sale and 8% on a room [14], and it had 75,911 residents in July 2025, up 2.1% since 2020 [28]. A trade area that crosses the state line is two tax regimes: the South Carolina half follows the assessment ratios, the sale reset and the local tax ceilings on this page [1][2][3], and the North Carolina half follows that state's rules, so a projection carries each site's tax lines under the state where it sits.

Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC: Aiken and Edgefield counties

The Augusta metro had 641,231 residents on July 1, 2025, 4.9% more than at the 2020 base, the slowest growth of the seven [30]. Aiken and Edgefield counties hold 211,323 of those residents, 33.0% of the metro, with Aiken at 181,515 and Edgefield at 29,808 [30]. Metro-wide, the median household income is $71,159, the renter share 30.5% and the median gross rent $1,383 [21][19][22].

Aiken County reported $4,460,842,124 of gross sales and paid $1,535,831 of state accommodations tax in fiscal year 2025, $8.46 per resident [8][30]. Aiken city carries 8% on a sale and 9% on a room, with capital projects and education capital improvement taxes listed [14], and the Department notes that from May 1, 2026 Aiken County is reimposing its Capital Projects Tax with the combined rate remaining 8% [44]. A capital projects tax is imposed for specific purposes and a limited time [48], so a study whose projection runs past a local tax's end date states whether it assumes renewal. As with Charlotte, the Georgia side of the metro follows Georgia's rules, and a South Carolina study carries South Carolina's lines only for its South Carolina site.

Which South Carolina rules move the figures for each asset family?

Rules on room and meal taxes, alcohol licenses, fuel tanks, tenancies, storage liens, care licensing, charters, coastal permits and industrial incentives do, and each one changes a revenue, cost or timing line in a projection before the market is consulted. They come from the Code of Laws, the Code of Regulations and the Department of Revenue, and they apply statewide unless a local ordinance adds a layer, which the study then gathers from the county or city.

Lodging, short-term rentals and campgrounds: a 7% state rate with local layers on top

Section 12-36-920(A) imposes a 7% state tax on rooms, campground spaces and lodgings furnished to transients, and Section 12-36-2630 splits that 7% into three component taxes [13]; the Department lists the result as the 5% sales tax plus a 2% accommodations tax [24]. Charges added to a guest's bill, such as room service, laundering, in-room movies, telephone service and meeting room rentals, carry a separate 5% tax under Section 12-36-920(B) [13]. The rate a guest pays then grows by any local accommodations tax, which a county or city may impose by ordinance up to 3% [3], with proceeds directed to tourism-related projects [24]. Table 9 lists the lines a lodging study builds from.

Table 9. Taxes and rules on a South Carolina room night

Source: Sections 12-36-920 and 12-36-2630 [13]; Sections 6-1-520 and 6-1-530 [3]; Department of Revenue Accommodations and Local Sales Taxes pages [24][44]; Annual Report for fiscal year 2025 for the $14 million test [8].

Two rows change the revenue line of particular projects. The 90-day rule matters for any property that mixes nightly and long-stay guests: accommodations supplied to the same person for 90 continuous days are not rentals to transients [13], and the Department applies its accommodations tax to stays of less than 90 consecutive days [24], so an extended-stay hotel or an RV park with monthly guests models which share of its nights passes that line. The small property exemption reads differently in the two texts: the statute exempts fewer than six sleeping rooms used as the individual's place of abode [13], while the Department exempts six or fewer bedrooms where the owner lives on the premises and uses no rental agency or online travel company [24]. A six-bedroom inn sits exactly on the difference, so its study states which reading it relies on and shows the room revenue both ways.

For short-term rentals and campgrounds, the Department counts rooms in campgrounds and mobile home parks among the lodgings the tax reaches [24], and the state park system offers 155 cabins, 80 motel rooms and 3,000 campsites [25] that a cabin, glamping or campground study counts as competing supply. The 1,131 hotels and motels and 54 RV parks and campgrounds in County Business Patterns [27] are the private side of the same count. Because the tax lines are set by statute and local ordinance rather than by the market, a South Carolina lodging study builds the guest's all-in price from them first and only then compares it with competitors' rates.

Food and beverage: a local hospitality tax, a two-year license cycle and a 48-ounce tour limit

A county or city may impose a local hospitality tax of up to 2% on charges for food and beverages [3], defined as a tax on prepared meals and beverages sold in establishments, including those licensed to serve alcohol on the premises [3]. A county may not exceed 1% inside a municipality without its consent [3], and none of these locally collected taxes appears in the Department's municipal rate table [14]. The sector's state-reported sales are large and almost wholly taxable: accommodation and food services returns showed $17,672,820,404 of net taxable sales in fiscal year 2025, 90.9% of the sector's gross [8], across an industry that counted 10,924 food service and drinking places in 2023 [27].

Alcohol is where the Code sets the most lines. The Department describes a three-tier structure that separates manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing, and licenses that usually renew every two years on a schedule set by county [49]. Table 10 lists the rules a restaurant, brewery, distillery or winery study works from.

Table 10. South Carolina alcohol rules that change a projection

Source: Sections 61-6-1120, 61-6-1610, 61-6-1810 and 61-6-1820 [17]; Sections 61-4-730 and 61-4-1515 [5]; Department of Revenue Alcohol Beverage Licensing, Beer & Wine Licensing, Liquor Licensing and Manufacturers pages [49][50][51][52].

The taproom rule is the clearest case of the Code writing a revenue line, and it has two routes. Under Section 61-4-1515(A), a permitted brewery sells beer on its premises in conjunction with a tour and up to 48 ounces to a consumer in a 24-hour period, of which no more than 16 ounces may be beer above 8% alcohol by weight [5]; at a 16-ounce pour that is a ceiling of 3 pours per visitor a day [5]. Under subsection (B), a brewery may also sell beer for on-premises consumption within an area approved under the Department of Agriculture's rules for food service establishments, and subsection (D) lifts the tour and ounce limits for those sales [5]. A brewery projection that assumes more on-site volume per guest than the tour route allows, or that books on-site sales without a tour program, therefore needs the approved food service area in its plan and budget, and the study shows which route each sales line relies on; the brewpub permit is a further path under the Department's licensing rules [50]. For restaurants, the liquor-by-the-drink hours end at 2 a.m. and exclude Sunday [17], so a late-night or Sunday revenue line is a licensing question before it is a market question.

Fuel and auto: tank registration, the SUPERB account and a $500 tax cap

The owner or operator of an underground storage tank holding a regulated substance must register the tank with the department and display the registration certificate at the facility [53]. Section 44-2-60 adds an environmental impact fee of one-half cent a gallon, collected with the one-fourth cent a gallon inspection fee [53], and a fuel margin model shows where those per-gallon fees sit in its costs. The Superb Account pays usual, customary and reasonable costs of site rehabilitation for releases from petroleum tanks [53], but a site whose tank was not in substantial compliance with the tank regulations when a release was reported after July 1, 1994 is not eligible for compensation from it [53]. Where federal financial responsibility is required, the owner keeps it in the lesser of the federal amount or $25,000 for site rehabilitation and third-party compensation [53].

For a gas station, convenience store or truck stop acquisition, the compliance record is therefore a financial line, not a formality: it decides whether a past release falls on the state account or on the borrower. The study lists each tank's registration, its compliance history and any release report before it projects fuel margin. County Business Patterns counted 2,351 gasoline stations with convenience stores and 288 car washes in 2023 [27], a statewide check on a field survey. For vehicle, boat and aircraft dealers, Section 12-36-2110(A) caps the sales tax at $500 per sale after June 30, 2017, up from $300, and only for items not subject to the fee under Section 56-3-627 [13], so above the price at which the cap binds, the tax no longer grows with the price, and a dealership study prices against that ceiling rather than a percentage.

Housing: rented at 6%, owned at 4%, and 30 days to account for a deposit

A rental home is assessed at 6% of fair market value under the class for real property not otherwise classified, while an owner-occupied legal residence is assessed at 4% [1], a special ratio the owner applies for through the county assessor [11]. A build-to-rent or single-family rental study therefore carries the 6% ratio from the first year, and a for-sale community's buyers carry 4% only once they qualify their homes as legal residences [11]. The same house moves between the two classes as it moves between owner and tenant, so a study of a conversion in either direction re-bases the tax line.

The Residential Landlord and Tenant Act and the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act set the timing rules an operating projection relies on. Table 11 lists them.

Table 11. South Carolina landlord and park tenancy rules

Source: Residential Landlord and Tenant Act [54]; Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act [55].

For a manufactured housing community, the 30-day notice before a rent change takes effect [55] sets the earliest month a new rent can appear in the projection, and the five-day nonpayment ground [55] shapes the collection assumptions. For apartments, the rent increase rule for properties with more than four adjoining units [54] means a uniform increase across a rent roll is the defensible path. The statewide renter share of 28.2% and median gross rent of $1,395 [19][22] frame the market, and 5,181 units authorized in buildings of five or more units in 2025 [23] frame the new supply.

Storage: a 50-day lien clock and a warehouse ratio

The Self-Service Storage Facility Act gives an operator a lien it can enforce without a court, but only on a fixed clock and only with a written rental agreement in hand. Table 12 sets out the steps.

Table 12. Self-storage default and lien steps under South Carolina law

Source: Self-Service Storage Facility Act [56].

The clock sets the bad debt and auction assumptions: a unit in default cannot be sold until 50 days of continuous default have passed, and two weekly newspaper advertisements are a fixed cost of every sale [56]. A self-storage study that assumes faster turnover of delinquent units, or that has no written rental agreement on file for each unit, is out of step with the Act. County Business Patterns counted 320 lessors of miniwarehouses and self-storage units and 413 warehousing and storage establishments in 2023 [27].

For warehouses, the Department's manufacturing property schedule lists a manufacturing warehouse at 6% for real property and 10.5% for personal property [57]. Business personal property returns are due four months after the close of the business's accounting period, and depreciation follows the state income tax rate up to a 90% maximum allowance [58], so racking, refrigeration and handling equipment keep at least a 10% residual on the tax roll. A cold storage study near Charleston can point to the ports authority's 2,000+ reefer slots [39] for the direction of demand, and then carries both ratios for its own real and personal property.

Care: certificates of need for nursing homes, licensed residential care and child care ratios

Section 44-7-160(A) requires a Certificate of Need before a new nursing home is established, before nursing home beds are added or reclassified, and for certain nursing home capital expenditures and services [6]. Subsection (B), which requires one for a new hospital or added hospital beds, is repealed effective January 1, 2027 under subsection (C) [6], so a hospital project states which side of that date it falls on; separately, the article does not apply to a new hospital of up to 50 beds in a county currently without a hospital [6]. A nursing home study, by contrast, keeps the certificate as a dated precondition of revenue.

Assisted living in South Carolina is licensed as a community residential care facility. The statute defines one as offering room and board and a degree of personal assistance for two or more persons eighteen or older [6], and Regulation 60-84 adds that such facilities may be referred to as assisted living [59]. Section 44-7-260(A) requires a license for facilities caring for two or more unrelated persons, including nursing homes, community residential care facilities and adult day care [6], and the annual license fee is $10.00 per licensed bed or $75.00, whichever is greater [59]. The certificate of need text in this page's sources names nursing homes and hospitals, so an assisted living study confirms its own facility's review status with the Department before it dates its opening. The 21.1% statewide share of residents aged 65 and older [20] and the 195 assisted living facilities for the elderly counted in 2023 [27] are statewide context; the trade area's own age profile and supply decide the case.

Child care is the clearest case of a regulation fixing capacity and payroll. A childcare center is a facility that regularly receives 13 or more children, and childcare means care on a regular basis for more than four hours but less than twenty-four hours a day [60]. Regulation 114-504 sets the staff to child ratios in Table 13.

Table 13. Staff to child ratios in South Carolina child care centers

Source: Regulation 114-504, child care center ratios; nap time ratios apply when at least one other staff person is readily available [4].

Regulation 114-507 adds two space rules: at least 35 square feet of indoor play space per child, measured wall to wall, and at least 75 square feet of outdoor play space per child [4]. Space caps how many children a room can hold, and the ratio decides how many staff that number needs, so a South Carolina child care study derives its licensed capacity from the floor plan before it projects enrollment. The step from 1:12 for three-year-olds to 1:17 for four-year-olds [4] is the largest in the table, and Illustrative model C below shows what it does to coverage.

Education: ten-year charters, monthly funding and first refusal on surplus schools

A South Carolina charter is approved or renewed for ten school years [61], which gives a charter school facility study a known term to set against its lease or loan. Authorizers include the South Carolina Public Charter School District Board of Trustees, local school boards, and registered public or independent institutions of higher learning or their affiliated nonprofits [61], and an applicant files a letter of intent at least ninety days before its application, with a copy to the Department of Education [61]. For a school authorized by a local board, Section 59-40-140(A) builds per-student funding from the previous year's audited general fund revenues divided by weighted students, adjusted by the Education Finance Act inflation factor, and requires the district to pass state and local funds to the school monthly [61].

Two of these rules shape the facility case directly. The funding arrives monthly [61], so the cash flow is modeled month by month rather than on an annual draw, and debt service dates are set against it. When a district declares a building surplus and chooses to sell or lease it, a charter school or charter committee in that district has first refusal on the same or better terms [61], which can put an existing school building on the site list, and a study comparing sites tests that path first. For student housing, the enrollment figures in the Columbia and Greenville metro sections are the starting points [43][36].

Recreation, venues and marinas: an admissions tax and the coastal critical area permit

The Department applies an admissions tax of 5% of paid admissions at places of amusement, under a license that carries no charge [62]. A venue, attraction or event facility that sells tickets therefore prices against the admissions tax as well as any local tax, and a wedding or event venue study states whether its packages include a paid admission.

On the coast, Section 48-39-10 defines a critical area as coastal waters, tidelands, beaches and the beach and dune system, and lists the coastal zone counties as Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Horry, Jasper and Georgetown [18]. No one may use a critical area for a use other than its use on July 1, 1977 without first obtaining a permit from the department [18]. For marinas and commercial docks, Section 48-39-145(B) says permit applicants are not required to demonstrate a need for the facilities [18]. The permit therefore says nothing about demand, and the market case for slips or a dock rests entirely on the study. Boat sales carry the same $500 sales tax cap as vehicles, for items not subject to the fee under Section 56-3-627 [13], which matters to a marina that sells boats.

Inland, the Agritourism Activity Liability chapter defines an agritourism activity as one on a farm or ranch that lets the public take part in rural activities for recreation, entertainment or education [63], and limits a professional's liability for injury or death from an inherent risk of the activity, subject to listed exceptions [63]. A farm venue or pick-your-own study notes whether the operation fits the definition, because the liability position bears on its risk and insurance assumptions. The state's estimate of tourism as a $31 billion industry carries no year [26], and the 49 operational parks and six historic properties of the state park system [25] are both visitor draws and public competitors.

Industrial and data center: the 10.5% ratio, fees in lieu and Commerce credits

Manufacturers' real and personal property used in the business is assessed at 10.5% of fair market value [1], the highest of the three ratios on this page, and the Code lets a county trade it for a negotiated fee. The Fee in Lieu of Tax Simplification Act defines a minimum investment of at least two and one-half million dollars within the investment period, with a lower threshold in counties the Department designates [16], and sets the fee on an assessment ratio of not less than 6%, or 4% for an enhanced investment [16]. A project of at least forty-five million dollars may use an alternative payment method that yields the net present value of the fee schedule [16], a single property may stay under the fee for up to 40 years and a whole project up to 50 years with the county's consent [15], and Commerce describes a Super FILOT that can go lower than a standard agreement [64]. Table 14 lists the state incentives in this page's sources and the condition each one carries.

Table 14. South Carolina incentives and their conditions

Source: Fee in Lieu of Tax Simplification Act [16]; Department of Revenue, Fee in Lieu of Taxes [15]; Department of Commerce, Investment, Job Creation, Site Development and Opportunity Zones pages [65][66][64][67]; Sections 12-36-2120(17) and (19) [13]; Textiles Communities Revitalization Act [68]; Enterprise Zone Act of 1995 [69]; Tax Increment Financing Law [70].

Commerce's pages describe programs; the statutes govern them, and most of these incentives are negotiated, discretionary or limited to designated places [66][16]. A study therefore models each incentive only once there is a signed agreement, a determination or a designation in the file, and shows coverage without it as the downside case. The tax increment law treats an improved area as blighted when a combination of five or more listed factors, such as age, dilapidation, obsolescence and deterioration, is present [70], and the Economic Impact Zone act adds an investment tax credit for qualified manufacturing and productive equipment [71]; both are place tests the study confirms with the municipality or the Department.

A data center study in South Carolina tests the large-project exemption that Commerce describes for technology-intensive equipment [64], since this page's sources describe no exemption specific to data centers, and it carries the 10.5% ratio or the negotiated fee on its equipment [1][16]. The Rural Infrastructure Fund, which Commerce describes as grant funding to eligible local governments in rural areas [64], reaches a project only through its local government, so a study shows it as a public contribution to the site, not as project income.

How do South Carolina assessment ratios, fees and tax layers move DSCR?

They move it mainly through the property tax line, because the Code fixes the ratio that turns value into an assessment, the limit on how fast that value can grow, and the events that lift the limit, while local governments administer and collect the tax itself [1][2][72]. Table 15 lists the steps from a property's value to its tax line.

Table 15. How a South Carolina property tax line is built

Source: Sections 12-43-217 and 12-43-220 [1]; Sections 12-37-3135, 12-37-3140 and 12-37-3150 [2]; Sections 12-60-2510 to 12-60-2540 [73]; Department of Revenue Property, Manufacturing Property Tax and Business Personal Property pages [72][57][58].

Three of those steps carry most of the risk to coverage. The class decides the ratio, and the ratio differs by a factor of 2.6 between a legal residence and a manufacturer's property [1]. The transfer rule decides whether a buyer inherits the seller's capped value or starts from the price [2]. And the appeal clock is short: an owner who misses the 90-day objection window after a notice [73] carries the new value into the projection whether or not the study thinks it is right. Each model below starts from South Carolina rules, cited where they enter. Inputs not drawn from a cited rule are FSC assumptions and are marked as such in each table; every coverage ratio is the result of arithmetic on them, not a reading of any real property or market.

Illustrative model A: an acquisition that lifts the 15% limit. The model takes an assumed self-storage facility, assessed in the 6% class for real property not otherwise classified [1], whose current taxable value, held down by the five-year limit, is an assumed $5,400,000 [2]. A buyer pays an assumed $9,000,000, and because a conveyance by deed is an assessable transfer of interest, the limit does not apply to the value set as of December 31 of the year of the sale when it is first taxed, in the following tax year [2]; the model assumes the assessor then values the parcel at the price. Because the parcel is in the 6% class, Section 12-37-3135 exempts 25% of that transfer value if the owner notifies the county assessor before January 31 for the first tax year it claims, provided the result is not below the current value [2], so the table shows the sale with and without the exemption. The combined local levy is an assumed 0.320 per dollar of assessed value, net operating income (NOI) before property tax an assumed $820,000, and annual debt service an assumed $540,000 [1]. A middle column shows what the next reassessment could have done without a sale: growth of 15%, the most the limit allows [2].

Table 16. Illustrative model A: the seller's capped value against the buyer's reset value

Source: ratio from Section 12-43-220 [1]; growth limit, transfer exception, deed rule and the 25% transfer exemption from Sections 12-37-3135, 12-37-3140 and 12-37-3150 [2]. The value, levy, NOI and debt service inputs are FSC's own assumptions, and each remaining figure is calculated from them.

With the 25% exemption claimed, the sale raises the tax line by $25,920 a year, 25.0% above the seller's bill, and coverage falls from 1.33 to 1.28; without the notice, the reset to the full price raises it by $69,120 a year, 66.7%, and coverage falls to 1.20, on the same building and the same operations [1][2]. Without a sale, even the full 15% step at the next reassessment costs only $15,552 and leaves coverage at 1.30 [2]. The lesson for any South Carolina acquisition is that the seller's tax bill is not evidence of the buyer's: the study recomputes the tax at the expected post-sale value, the purchase price is the starting point for that value, not the seller's assessment, and the file shows whether the January 31 exemption notice has been filed [2]. Section 12-60-2510 then gives the buyer 90 days after the notice to object [73], which belongs on the closing calendar.

Illustrative model B: a manufacturing plant at 10.5% against a fee in lieu at 6% or 4%. The model takes an assumed new plant with $40,000,000 of real and personal property, well above the $2.5 million minimum investment for a fee in lieu [16][15]. Without an agreement, the property is assessed at 10.5% [1]; with one, the fee is set on a ratio of not less than 6%, or 4% if the project qualifies as an enhanced investment [16]. The model applies the same assumed 0.320 levy to every column, assumes $6,000,000 of cash flow before property tax and debt service, and $3,900,000 of annual debt service [1][16]. Millage terms in a fee agreement and the enhanced investment definition are outside this page's sources, so the 4% column shows scale only [16].

Table 17. Illustrative model B: statutory ratio against a negotiated fee, first year

Source: manufacturer ratio from Section 12-43-220(a)(1) [1]; fee ratios and minimum investment from Sections 12-44-30 and 12-44-50 [16] and the Department of Revenue [15]. FSC assumed the investment, levy, cash flow and debt service; everything else in the table follows from those inputs and the two ratios.

The 6% fee saves $576,000 a year against the statutory ratio and lifts coverage from 1.19 to 1.34; the 4% fee, if the project qualifies, saves $832,000 and lifts it to 1.41 [1][16]. A single property can stay under the fee for up to 40 years with the county's consent [15], so the agreement governs the whole loan term, not just the opening years. The model is deliberately narrow: it leaves out personal property depreciation, which the Department allows up to 90% [58], the five-year exemption from county operating taxes that Commerce describes [65], and any special source credit [16], each of which a real study adds only from a signed document. What it shows is the order of magnitude: in a South Carolina industrial study the property tax line is a negotiated number, and coverage without the agreement is the downside case.

Illustrative model C: a child care center sized by its floor plan. The model takes an assumed center with 3,360 square feet of indoor play space in five rooms and applies the 35-square-foot rule to set each room's capacity and the Regulation 114-504 ratios to set its staff [4]. The rooms are assumed at 350 square feet for infants, 420 for one-year-olds, 560 for two-year-olds, 840 for three-year-olds and 1,190 for four-year-olds [4]. Weekly tuition is assumed at $300, $280, $255, $235 and $220 for those groups, over 52 weeks at an assumed 90% average enrollment [4]. Staff cost is assumed at $58,000 a year for each position in ratio, enough to cover the whole operating day, with $310,000 of administration and other operating costs and $165,000 of debt service [4]. The alternative changes one thing: the 1,190-square-foot room enrolls three-year-olds instead of four-year-olds [4].

Table 18. Illustrative model C: room plan under the space and ratio rules

Source: space and ratio rules from Regulations 114-504 and 114-507 [4]. Room sizes and tuition rates are assumed by FSC; capacities and positions follow from the two rules.

Table 19. Illustrative model C: coverage with fours and with threes in the largest room

Source: Regulations 114-504 and 114-507 [4]. Tuition, enrollment, staff cost, other cost and debt service are FSC assumptions, and the remaining lines are calculated from them.

The building, the enrollment and the debt are the same in both columns, yet coverage drops from 1.29 to 1.08 when the largest room holds three-year-olds, because 34 children need two positions at 1:17 but three at 1:12 [4]. The higher tuition for threes adds $510 a week at full enrollment, which does not pay for the extra position [4]. The playground line matters too: the model sizes the outdoor area at 75 square feet for every child in the plan, the reading that needs the most land, and how the Department applies the rule to groups that rotate outdoors is outside this page's sources [4]. A South Carolina child care study therefore shows the floor plan, each room's capacity under the space rule, the age it will serve and its ratio count, and only then a coverage ratio. A project's own figures can be dropped into any of the three models with the DSCR and debt yield calculator.

Which FSC guides apply to a South Carolina project?

The national asset guides listed below apply, read alongside this page, because no FSC page covers a single asset type in South Carolina: each asset's method sits in its national guide, and the ratios, tax layers and approvals specific to this state sit here. The RV park model study in South Carolina shows how an SBA 7(a) file is laid out for a project in this state. The national guides below follow the families used above, each paired with the South Carolina rule that most often changes its figures:

• Rooms, sites and slips: guides to hotels, RV parks, glamping, marinas and wedding venues, each paired here with the state room tax, the long-stay rule, the admissions tax or the critical area permit.
• Kitchens and taprooms: the restaurant and brewery guides, paired with the hospitality tax ceiling, the liquor-by-the-drink hours and the taproom tour limit with its food service exception.
• Pumps and bays: the gas station, truck stop and car wash guides, paired with tank registration and the SUPERB account.
• Homes, lots and storefronts: the retail, mixed-use, multifamily and manufactured housing community guides, paired with the residence and rental assessment classes, the sale reset and the tenancy acts.
• Units, racks and lines: the data center, industrial, cold storage, self-storage and RV and boat storage guides, paired with the lien clock, the warehouse schedule and the fee in lieu.
• Beds, rooms and classrooms: the skilled nursing, assisted living, senior housing, medical office, daycare and charter school guides, paired with the certificate of need, the residential care license, the center ratios and the ten-year charter.

Where the loan type is still undecided, SBA vs conventional feasibility studies explains where an SBA review and a bank's own review part ways.

Who prepares a South Carolina feasibility study, and who sets the dates and rates it relies on?

A consultant independent of the borrower prepares the study; an appraisal, if the lender wants one, is a different engagement governed by Title 40, Chapter 60. Section 40-60-20 defines an appraisal assignment as one in which an appraiser acts, or would be perceived as acting, as a disinterested third party estimating the value of real estate, and it defines analysis separately as a study of real estate other than one estimating value [74]. Section 40-60-30 makes it unlawful to engage in real estate appraisal activity or to advertise as an appraiser without a license from the department, and an administrative law judge may fine a violator up to $10,000 per violation [74]. A feasibility study states no opinion of value. It asks whether the project's income can service its debt, and a lender that also wants a value orders it from a licensed appraiser. The line between the two reports is drawn in feasibility study vs appraisal, and the line between a market study and a feasibility study in feasibility study vs market study.

SBA covers all of South Carolina through one district office, staffed in Columbia, Charleston and Spartanburg [47]. USDA rural status questions go to the Rural Development State Office, which 7 CFR 5001.3 names [29]. What each program's file must hold is on FSC's SBA feasibility study and USDA feasibility study pages. Table 20 names the bodies whose decisions turn into dates and rates in a South Carolina projection.

Table 20. Bodies whose decisions set dates and rates in a South Carolina study

Source: Code of Laws chapters as cited in the sections above [1][2][3][48][16][73][69][6][61][53][18][74]; Regulations 60-84 and 114 [59][4]; Department of Revenue [12][14][49][62][58][44]; Department of Commerce [66]; SBA [47]; 7 CFR 5001.3 [29].

What belongs in a South Carolina feasibility study file?

It holds the documents that date and source each line the Code fixes: the property's class and assessment, the deed or contract that decides whether the 15% limit survives [2], the municipal rate and any local ordinance taxes, any fee agreement, and each license, certificate or permit with its status. Table 21 pairs each document with the South Carolina rule that makes it necessary. To turn the table into a list for one loan, start from FSC's document checklist and then run the SBA or USDA checklist generator.

Table 21. The South Carolina file: documents and what each one proves

Source: the citations in each row, drawn from the Code of Laws [1][73][2][3][16][5][17][6][61][53][18][56][54][55]; Regulations [59][4]; Department of Revenue [11][14][15][58][49]; SBA [47]; GovInfo [29].

What makes a South Carolina feasibility study cost more or take longer?

The count of Code-set lines and local layers the study must document sets both, and this page gives no fee or week figure. General pricing is covered in feasibility study cost in 2026; a range for a specific project comes from the cost estimator; and whether to begin with a market study is a question for the market vs feasibility decision tree. Five South Carolina conditions add scope.

• An acquisition rather than a refinance. A sale lifts the 15% limit for its year [2], so the study rebuilds the buyer's tax line from the expected post-sale value and documents the transfer.
• More than one taxing jurisdiction. Each county and city may add local accommodations and hospitality taxes that the Department's municipal table leaves out [3][14], so a trade area spanning two municipalities is two sets of ordinances to collect.
• A negotiated tax position. A fee in lieu, a special source credit or a Commerce credit needs the agreement or determination behind it [16][66], and the study models with and without it.
• An approval with its own clock. A nursing home certificate of need, alcohol licenses on the county's two-year cycle, a charter letter of intent ninety days before the application, or a critical area permit each adds a dated step [6][49][61][18].
• Local records the state does not publish. County and city budgets, financial reports, ordinances and permit records come from each government directly, and none of them is among this page's sources, so the study gathers the ones its site needs.