South Carolina
South Carolina: Who Pays? 7th Edition
January 9, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
South Carolina Download PDF All figures and charts show 2024 tax law in South Carolina, presented at 2023 income levels. Senior taxpayers are excluded for reasons detailed in the methodology. Our analysis includes nearly all (99.8 percent) state and local tax revenue collected in South Carolina. These figures depict South Carolina’s top income tax rate […]
South Carolina: Who Pays? 6th Edition
October 17, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
SOUTH CAROLINA Read as PDF SOUTH CAROLINA STATE AND LOCAL TAXES Taxes as Share of Family Income Top 20% Income Group Lowest 20% Second 20% Middle 20% Fourth 20% Next 15% Next 4% Top 1% Income Range Less than $19,400 $19,400 to $30,800 $30,800 to $49,700 $49,700 to $83,800 $83,800 to $185,500 $185,500 to $416,000 […]
Twelve States Offer Profitable Tax Shelter to Private School Voucher Donors; IRS Proposal Could Fix This
October 2, 2018 • By Carl Davis
A proposed IRS regulation would eliminate a tax shelter for private school donors in twelve states by making a commonsense improvement to the federal tax deduction for charitable gifts. For years, some affluent taxpayers who donate to private K-12 school voucher programs have managed to turn a profit by claiming state tax credits and federal tax deductions that, taken together, are worth more than the amount donated. This practice could soon come to an end under the IRS’s broader goal of ending misuse of the charitable deduction by people seeking to dodge the federal SALT deduction cap.
Tax Cuts 2.0 – South Carolina
September 26, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
The $2 trillion 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) includes several provisions set to expire at the end of 2025. Now, GOP leaders have introduced a bill informally called “Tax Cuts 2.0” or “Tax Reform 2.0,” which would make the temporary provisions permanent. And they falsely claim that making these provisions permanent will benefit […]
Building on Momentum from Recent Years, 2018 Delivers Strengthened Tax Credits for Workers and Families
July 10, 2018 • By Aidan Davis
Despite some challenging tax policy debates, a number of which hinged on states’ responses to federal conformity, 2018 brought some positive developments for workers and their families. This post updates a mid-session trends piece on this very subject. Here’s what we have been following:
Gas Taxes Rise in Seven States, Including an Historic Increase in Oklahoma
June 26, 2018 • By Carl Davis
A rare sight is coming to Oklahoma. The last time the Sooner State raised its gas tax rate, the Berlin Wall was still standing, and Congress was debating whether to ban smoking on flights shorter than two hours. Fast forward 31 years, and Oklahoma is finally at it again. On Sunday, the state’s gas tax rate will rise by 3 cents and its diesel tax rate by 6 cents. Both taxes will now stand at 19 cents per gallon—still among the lowest in the country. But Oklahoma isn’t the only state where gas taxes will soon rise.
What’s at Stake in South Carolina’s Upcoming Tax Conformity Debate
June 22, 2018 • By Dylan Grundman O'Neill
South Carolina legislators will return next week to try to finalize a few issues before the end of their session and fiscal year on June 30th, including the question of how to respond to the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). That's a short timeframe with some important questions at stake, and some misinformation has been spread, so here's a quick guide to the facts, issues, and options.
Most States Have Raised Gas Taxes in Recent Years
May 22, 2018 • By Carl Davis
An updated version of this blog was published in April 2019. State tax policy can be a contentious topic, but in recent years there has been a remarkable level of agreement on one tax in particular: the gasoline tax. Increasingly, state lawmakers are deciding that outdated gas taxes need to be raised and reformed to fund infrastructure projects that are vital to their economies.
State Rundown 1/12: Tax Cut Tunnel Vision Threatens to Bore State Budget Holes Even Deeper
January 12, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
As states continue to sift through wreckage of the federal tax cut bill to try to determine how they will be affected, two things should be clear to everyone: the richest people in every state just got a massive federal tax cut, and federal funding for shared priorities like education and health care is certain to continue to decline. State leaders who care about those priorities should consider asking those wealthy beneficiaries of the federal cuts to pay more to the state in order to minimize the damage of the looming federal funding cuts, but so far policymakers in Idaho,…
How the Final GOP-Trump Tax Bill Would Affect South Carolina Residents’ Federal Taxes
December 16, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The final tax bill that Republicans in Congress are poised to approve would provide most of its benefits to high-income households and foreign investors while raising taxes on many low- and middle-income Americans. The bill would go into effect in 2018 but the provisions directly affecting families and individuals would all expire after 2025, with […]
Private Schools Donors Likely to Win Big from Expanded Loophole in Tax Bill
December 14, 2017 • By Carl Davis
For years, private schools around the country have been making an unusual pitch to prospective donors: give us your money, and you’ll get so many state and federal tax breaks in return that you may end up turning a profit. Under tax legislation being considered in Congress right now, that pitch is about to become even more persuasive.
Tax Bill Would Increase Abuse of Charitable Giving Deduction, with Private K-12 Schools as the Biggest Winners
December 14, 2017 • By Carl Davis
In its rush to pass a major rewrite of the tax code before year’s end, Congress appears likely to enact a “tax reform” that creates, or expands, a significant number of tax loopholes.[1] One such loophole would reward some of the nation’s wealthiest individuals with a strategy for padding their own bank accounts by “donating” to support private K-12 schools. While a similar loophole exists under current law, its size and scope would be dramatically expanded by the legislation working its way through Congress.[2]
How the House and Senate Tax Bills Would Affect South Carolina Residents’ Federal Taxes
December 6, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The House passed its “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” November 16th and the Senate passed its version December 2nd. Both bills would raise taxes on many low- and middle-income families in every state and provide the wealthiest Americans and foreign investors substantial tax cuts, while adding more than $1.4 trillion to the deficit over ten years. The graph below shows that both bills are skewed to the richest 1 percent of South Carolina residents.
How the Revised Senate Tax Bill Would Affect South Carolina Residents’ Federal Taxes
November 14, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Senate tax bill released last week would raise taxes on some families while bestowing immense benefits on wealthy Americans and foreign investors. In South Carolina, 51 percent of the federal tax cuts would go to the richest 5 percent of residents, and 11 percent of households would face a tax increase, once the bill is fully implemented.
How the House Tax Proposal Would Affect South Carolina Residents’ Federal Taxes
November 6, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was introduced on November 2 in the House of Representatives, includes some provisions that raise taxes and some that cut taxes, so the net effect for any particular family’s federal tax bill depends on their situation. Some of the provisions that benefit the middle class — like lower tax rates, an increased standard deduction, and a $300 tax credit for each adult in a household — are designed to expire or become less generous over time. Some of the provisions that benefit the wealthy, such as the reduction and eventual repeal of the estate…
GOP-Trump Tax Framework Would Provide Richest One Percent in South Carolina with 57.1 Percent of the State’s Tax Cuts
October 4, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The “tax reform framework” released by the Trump administration and congressional Republican leaders on September 27 would not benefit everyone in South Carolina equally. The richest one percent of South Carolina residents would receive 57.1 percent of the tax cuts within the state under the framework in 2018. These households are projected to have an income of at least $478,100 next year. The framework would provide them an average tax cut of $52,250 in 2018, which would increase their income by an average of 4.6 percent.
In South Carolina 25.8 Percent of Trump’s Proposed Tax Cuts Go to People Making More than $1 Million
August 17, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
A tiny fraction of the South Carolina population (0.2 percent) earns more than $1 million annually. But this elite group would receive 25.8 percent of the tax cuts that go to South Carolina residents under the tax proposals from the Trump administration. A much larger group, 49.4 percent of the state, earns less than $45,000, but would receive just 6.4 percent of the tax cuts.
Trump Tax Proposals Would Provide Richest One Percent in South Carolina with 49.5 Percent of the State’s Tax Cuts
July 20, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Earlier this year, the Trump administration released some broadly outlined proposals to overhaul the federal tax code. Households in South Carolina would not benefit equally from these proposals. The richest one percent of the state’s taxpayers are projected to make an average income of $1,134,000 in 2018.
State Rundown 7/11: Some Legislatures Get Long Holiday Weekends, Others Work Overtime
July 11, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Illinois and New Jersey made national news earlier this month after resolving their contentious budget stalemates. But they weren’t the only states working through (and in some cases after) the holiday weekend to resolve budget issues.
Investors and Corporations Would Profit from a Federal Private School Voucher Tax Credit
May 17, 2017 • By Carl Davis
A new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and AASA, the School Superintendents Association, details how tax subsidies that funnel money toward private schools are being used as profitable tax shelters by high-income taxpayers. By exploiting interactions between federal and state tax law, high-income taxpayers in nine states are currently able […]
Public Loss Private Gain: How School Voucher Tax Shelters Undermine Public Education
May 17, 2017 • By Carl Davis, Sasha Pudelski
One of the most important functions of government is to maintain a high-quality public education system. In many states, however, this objective is being undermined by tax policies that redirect public dollars for K-12 education toward private schools.
South Carolina’s Gas Tax Deal: Could Have Been Worse, Could Have Been Better
May 12, 2017 • By Dylan Grundman O'Neill
South Carolina lawmakers this week raised the state’s gas tax for the first time in 28 years, a time period that tied for the third-longest in the nation. While the increase was meaningful and hard-fought, the final result remains flawed in ways that could have been easily remedied or avoided. The biggest positive of the […]
CNBC: Pothole season brings little new funding to fix them
April 5, 2016 • By ITEP Staff
Other states, including Indiana, South Carolina and West Virginia, have considered similar moves. But so far, those measures haven’t gotten very far, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a tax research group. “Legislators in all three states embraced partial solutions or punted entirely, preferring short-term fixes at the expense of other […]
Slate: Don’t Fall for Back-to-School Tax Holidays
August 14, 2015 • By ITEP Staff
If shoppers are simply shifting their spending to save on taxes, that means the states are losing revenue. That’s certainly the position of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan think tank that estimates the popular break will cost the states offering it $300 million this year. “Revenues lost through sales tax holidays […]
CNBC: Is Your State a Gas Tax Winner–Or Loser?
July 22, 2015 • By ITEP Staff
As states from Connecticut to California scramble to find money to fix crumbling highways, Congress once again is expected this week to put a short-term patch on the nearly insolvent federal highway trust fund. To make up the shortfall, Congress has transferred more than $53 billion from other tax revenue over the past five years, […]
