7 items, in order: articles of organization (llc); no annual report, trade name (dba): no state registration, employer identification number (ein), retail license (sales tax) and withholding account on mydorway, city or county business license and zoning approval and certificate of occupancy, and 1 more.
How to open a business in South Carolina
7 licenses, permits and registrations, in the order to get them, each with the agency, the fee and the official page.
What licenses do you need to open a business in South Carolina? 7, in the order to get them
These are the steps every business in South Carolina takes. A license specific to your kind of business comes from the agency that regulates it; if one of the twenty named businesses is close to yours, its page lists those too.
Every row checked against its agency’s page; the latest on Oct 21, 2026.
Step 1 of 4Set up the business. Now: Articles of organization (LLC); no annual report
0 of 7 items done. Each step opens when the one before it is complete. Progress stays on this device. Log in to save it to your account and pick it up anywhere.
Set up the business0 of 3
File online through the Secretary of State’s business filings system. The articles name a registered agent with a South Carolina street address, not a post office box. There is no annual report to the Secretary of State, so the main recurring state filing for most small LLCs is the Department of Revenue tax account.
- Fee
- Premium only
- Renewal
- Premium only
- Official page
- businessfilings.sc.gov
Checked Oct 21, 2026
Register for taxOpens after step 1
Approve the spaceOpens after step 2
Before the first hireOpens after step 3
Then pick the place
- The free location checkWho lives and works around an address, the businesses already there and the traffic on its road, from public records.
- The full reportWhether the rules allow a business at that address, the rent it supports, what has opened and closed nearby, and the questions to settle before signing.
Have an address in mind?
Check the address freeNo account. The business check reads public records at the address itself.
Sources and dates
Code of Laws 33-44-1204 (Secretary of State fees); Secretary of State business filings fee list; Department of Revenue guidance on LLC annual reports; Secretary of State business entity pages (the office does not register DBA or trade names, except an assumed name certificate for a limited partnership under Code of Laws 33-42-45); IRS EIN page; Department of Revenue sales tax and retail license pages; MyDORWAY business tax application; Code of Laws 6-1-400 and following (Act 176 of 2020); Municipal Association of South Carolina business license pages; Building Codes Council pages (Code of Laws 6-9, statewide building codes); municipal and county ordinances; Department of Employment and Workforce 2026 tax rate information and press release; newhire.sc.gov (Code of Laws 43-5-598); Workers’ Compensation Law, Code of Laws 42-1-360. Fees are as published by each agency on the date checked; cities add their own.