South Carolina Code of Laws
Chapter 37 - Assessment Of Property Taxes
Section 12-37-930. Valuation of property; depreciation allowances for manufacturer's machinery and equipment; department may permit adjustment in allowance.

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

Editor's Note
2004 Act No. 187, Section 2.B, provides as follows:
"In the case of machinery and equipment otherwise eligible for the depreciation allowed pursuant to Section 12-37-930 of the 1976 Code, as amended in subsection A of this section, if the project with which the machinery and equipment is associated is the subject of an inducement agreement between the project sponsor and the county, the initial inducement agreement must have been entered into between these parties after September 1, 2003."

Structure South Carolina Code of Laws