Travis Bunn
Founder, AppealDesk · Published March 1, 2026
How Much Can Property Taxes Increase in South Carolina? 2026 Complete Guide
Updated July 2026
Quick Answer
South Carolina limits both halves of the property tax equation. Act 388 of 2006 caps the increase in a property's taxable fair market value at 15% over each five-year countywide reassessment cycle, and South Carolina Code Section 6-1-320 caps annual operating millage increases for local governments at the prior year's CPI growth plus population growth. The assessment cap does not survive a sale: an assessable transfer of interest resets the value to the sale price.
Neither cap checks whether your assessed value is correct in the first place. If you want that reviewed, you file a written objection with your county assessor within 90 days of the assessment notice.
Most homeowners never challenge their assessment, usually because nobody tells them they can or shows them how. That gap is the whole reason AppealDesk exists: see what your county has your home on record at, free, and if the number looks wrong we build the case for $49.
How Much Can Property Taxes Go Up in a Year?
There is no single annual percentage in South Carolina, because the state does not cap value increases annually. It caps them per reassessment cycle. Counties reassess all real property every five years, and when that reassessment lands, Act 388 limits the increase in your taxable fair market value to 15% over the value carried from the prior cycle. In the four years between reassessments, your taxable value usually does not move at all unless something happens to the property itself.
The arithmetic is straightforward. A home carried at $300,000 in the last cycle cannot be carried above $345,000 in the new cycle on account of market appreciation alone, even if it would sell today for $420,000. That is the entire protection: 15% on top of the old number, once every five years, for inflation-driven and market-driven growth.
The second cap works on the tax rate rather than the value. Under Section 6-1-320, a local governing body may raise its operating millage each year by no more than the average of the twelve monthly consumer price indexes for the preceding calendar year plus the entity's population growth. A negative CPI or a population decline counts as zero rather than as a reduction. Unused capacity from the preceding three tax years can be carried forward and added to the current year's allowable increase, so a jurisdiction that held millage flat for a few years can raise it more in a later year. The cap can be suspended only by a two-thirds vote of the governing body and only for the narrow reasons the statute enumerates, such as the closure of a major taxpayer that cuts revenue by 10% or more, or an unfunded federal or state mandate. The South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office publishes the applicable millage limitation percentage each year, including for fiscal year 2026-27.
| Limit | What it caps | When it does not apply |
|---|---|---|
| Act 388 assessment cap | 15% growth in taxable fair market value per five-year reassessment cycle | An assessable transfer of interest, which resets value to the sale price |
| Section 6-1-320 millage cap | Annual operating millage increases, limited to CPI plus population growth | Three-year carryforward of unused capacity, and two-thirds-vote suspension for enumerated causes |
Do Property Taxes Go Up Every Year in South Carolina?
Not the way they do in states that revalue annually. Because reassessment is a five-year event, most South Carolina homeowners see the same taxable fair market value on their notice year after year, then one larger step when the county implements its new cycle. What can still move in a non-reassessment year is the millage. Each county, municipality, school district, and special purpose district sets its own millage, and each one can raise operating millage within the CPI-plus-population limit. Several bodies moving at once is why a bill can rise in a year when your value did not change at all.
Debt service millage is a separate matter from operating millage, and voter-approved bond debt is not what Section 6-1-320 governs. If your bill grew and your value did not, the millage sheet on your county auditor's site is the document that explains it.
What Is the Average Property Tax Rate in South Carolina for 2026?
There is no statewide rate to quote, because South Carolina builds every bill out of three local pieces: the assessed value, the assessment ratio, and the total millage levied by the taxing bodies that cover your parcel. An owner-occupied legal residence is assessed at 4% of fair market value, the lowest residential assessment ratio in the country. Other residential property, including second homes and rentals, is assessed at 6%.
So a $300,000 owner-occupied home carries $12,000 of assessed value, and the same house held as a second home carries $18,000. Millage is then applied to that assessed value, one mill being one dollar per thousand dollars of assessed value. On top of that, Act 388 exempts owner-occupied primary residences from school operating millage entirely, which strips out the single largest component of most bills. That exemption, combined with the 4% ratio, is why owner-occupied bills in South Carolina are among the lowest in the country and why any single statewide average rate is close to meaningless. Your county auditor publishes the actual millage for your district, and that is the number to work from.
How Often Is Property Reassessed in South Carolina?
Countywide reassessment happens every five years. Counties do not all run on the same schedule, so your neighbor across a county line may be revalued in a different year than you are. When your county implements, every parcel is repriced by a mass-appraisal model rather than by an individual inspection, and the 15% cap is applied afterward to hold the increase in taxable fair market value in check.
Between cycles, a value can still change for property-specific reasons. New construction, additions, subdivision, a change in use, or a sale all put the parcel back in front of the assessor outside the ordinary cycle. The 15% cap addresses market appreciation. It was never a cap on the consequences of changing the property or transferring it.
Caps and rate limits only control how fast your bill can grow. Nothing in them checks whether the number underneath is right. Assessors in South Carolina set values with mass-appraisal models that price thousands of homes at once, and nobody reviews yours unless you challenge it.
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Why Did My Property Taxes Go Up So Much?
Four causes explain most large jumps in South Carolina, and they are easy to tell apart once you compare last year's notice to this year's.
The most common is a purchase. When a property sells, the assessable transfer of interest removes the cap and the county reassesses at the sale price. A buyer does not inherit the seller's protected value, so a home that had been capped for years can reprice in a single step. The second is reassessment implementation, where the county rolls a five-year cycle into effect and your value takes its full permitted step at once. The third is millage: several taxing bodies each taking their allowed CPI-plus-population increase in the same year, possibly using carried-forward capacity from earlier years. The fourth is a change in classification or exemption status, most often a home that stops qualifying as an owner-occupied legal residence and moves from the 4% ratio to 6%, which also means losing the school operating millage exemption.
There is a fifth possibility that none of the caps address. The mass-appraisal model may simply have your house wrong: wrong square footage, wrong condition, wrong comparable neighborhood. The cap limits how fast an inaccurate number grows. It does not correct it.
Property Tax Rates on Second Homes and Rentals in South Carolina
The 6% assessment ratio on non-owner-occupied residential property is the sharpest line in South Carolina's system. A second home or rental is assessed at half again the ratio of a primary residence, and it does not receive the Act 388 exemption from school operating millage. Both effects run in the same direction, which is why coastal second-home bills can look like a different state's tax code compared to the primary residence next door.
The 15% five-year cap itself still applies to the taxable fair market value of these properties within the reassessment cycle. It is the ratio and the school millage exemption, not the cap, that separate owner-occupied from everything else. If you have moved into a property you previously rented out, filing for the legal residence classification with your county assessor is the single highest-value piece of paperwork available to you.
How Rates Vary by County: Charleston, Horry, Greenville
Because millage is set locally and reassessment cycles are staggered by county, two identical houses in Charleston, Horry, and Greenville counties can carry different bills and can see their values step up in different years. The statutory framework is identical statewide: the same 15% cap, the same 4% and 6% ratios, the same CPI-plus-population millage limit. What differs is the millage total assembled from your county, municipality, school district, and any special purpose districts, and the year your county implements its next reassessment.
Practically, that means comparisons to a friend's bill in another county tell you very little. The documents that matter are your own assessment notice, which shows the value, and your county auditor's millage sheet, which shows the rate. If the value looks wrong, no millage comparison will fix it.
Did Property Taxes Go Up in South Carolina in 2026?
The rules governing increases did not change. The Act 388 fifteen percent five-year assessment cap and the Section 6-1-320 millage cap both remain the operative regime, and the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office released the fiscal year 2026-27 millage limitation figures as routine annual administration rather than as new law. Whether your individual bill rose depends on your county's reassessment schedule and the millage votes taken by the bodies that tax your parcel.
What is genuinely in motion is relief legislation, all of it still pending. The current homestead exemption covers the first $50,000 of fair market value for homeowners who are 65 or older, disabled, or legally blind. Several bills in the 2025-2026 session would expand it: S. 768 would raise the exemption to $100,000 and lower the age threshold to 60, with a committee amendment adding a five-year South Carolina residency requirement beginning in tax year 2026-27, and H. 3419, H. 3424, and H. 4578 propose further changes including a $150,000 exemption and a debt service millage carve-out. As of this update, none of these is confirmed enacted. Treat all of them as proposals and confirm current exemption amounts with your county assessor before relying on them.
- South Carolina15% per 5-year cycle
- California2% a year
- Florida3% homestead
- Texas10% homestead
Act 388 caps growth at 15% across each five-year reassessment cycle, not per year, and a sale resets the value.
A cap limits how fast the number grows. It does not check whether the number was right to begin with.
What you can do about it
What the Caps Do Not Check, and How to Appeal
Everything above governs the rate of change. None of it governs accuracy. A mass-appraisal model that put your home $60,000 too high will simply carry that error forward through the cycle, growing it by up to 15% at the next reassessment and multiplying it by whatever millage your districts levy. The only mechanism that corrects the underlying number is an appeal, and it runs on a hard clock.
You file a written objection with your county assessor within 90 days after the assessor mails your property tax assessment notice. Missing that window forfeits your appeal rights for that year, which is the single most expensive mistake homeowners make here. In a year when no assessment notice is issued, you may appeal at any point during the tax year up to January 15 of the following year. If the assessor's response does not resolve it, you have 30 days from that response to give written notice of intent to appeal to the County Board of Assessment Appeals. Deadlines and notice dates vary by county, so confirm yours with your county assessor.
An appeal is an evidence exercise, not an argument about whether taxes are too high. What moves an assessor is comparable sales showing the market value of your property, documentation of condition problems the model could not see, and corrections to the recorded characteristics of the house. Start by reading your own record.
A real AppealDesk order, Beaufort County
In May 2026, a homeowner in Beaufort County ran the check. The county had their home on record at $392,000, while recorded sales of comparable homes supported about $340,541: an over-assessment of $51,459, worth roughly $580 per year if corrected. Their packet laid out the comparable sales, the forms, and the filing steps. Nobody at the county was ever going to run that check for them.
Growth limits only help if the number they grow from is fair. If your assessment jumped after a purchase, new construction, or a revaluation, that new number is the one nobody has reviewed. Checking it is free and takes about a minute.
Check the number your bill is figured from
Enter your address to pull your county record free. If it looks too high, your $49 packet gives you everything to challenge it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much can my South Carolina property taxes increase this year?
Your taxable fair market value cannot rise more than 15% over a five-year reassessment cycle from market appreciation, and that increase generally arrives in the year your county implements reassessment rather than annually. Your bill can still rise in any year if the taxing bodies covering your parcel raise operating millage within the CPI-plus-population limit, or if you lose an exemption or classification.
Does the 15% cap reset when I buy a home?
Yes. An assessable transfer of interest removes the cap and the property is reassessed based on the sale price. Buyers do not inherit the prior owner's capped value, which is why the first bill after a purchase is often far higher than what the seller was paying.
How often is my property reassessed in South Carolina?
Countywide reassessment occurs every five years, on a schedule set by each county. Outside that cycle, a value can change for property-specific reasons such as new construction, a change in use, or a sale.
What is the deadline to appeal my assessment?
Ninety days from the date the assessor mails your assessment notice, filed in writing with the county assessor. If no notice was issued for the year, you may appeal any time during the tax year up to January 15 of the following year. If the assessor's decision does not satisfy you, you have 30 days from that response to notify the County Board of Assessment Appeals in writing.
Has the senior homestead exemption been increased?
Not as of this update. The exemption remains the first $50,000 of fair market value for homeowners 65 or older, disabled, or legally blind. Bills in the 2025-2026 session, including S. 768, would raise it and lower the age threshold, but none is confirmed enacted. Confirm the current amount with your county assessor.
Related Resources
If your assessment looks too high, the next step is the process itself: How to Appeal Property Taxes in South Carolina walks through the filing path from written objection to the County Board of Assessment Appeals. If you are still deciding whether it is worth your time, Is It Worth Appealing Property Taxes? covers how to weigh the potential reduction against the effort. And before you file anything, read What Evidence Do I Need for an Appeal?, because comparable sales and documented condition issues are what actually move an assessor.
This article provides general information about South Carolina property tax law as of July 2026. Pending legislation is identified as pending and is not current law. Tax laws change and county practice varies. Consult your county assessor or a tax professional for advice specific to your situation.