South Carolina LLC Annual Requirements (2026): No Annual Report
Does a South Carolina LLC file an annual report? No. A standard South Carolina LLC files no annual report with the Secretary of State and pays that office nothing from one year to the next. This is not a loophole or a recent change; the S.C. Uniform Limited Liability Company Act (S.C. Code Title 33, Chapter 44) simply contains no annual report requirement for LLCs. If a compliance-service email is warning you about a looming South Carolina LLC annual report deadline, it is describing an obligation the statute never created.
The One Real Exception: Electing Corporate Taxation
There is a specific situation where an "annual report" enters the picture, and precision matters here. An LLC that elects corporate tax classification files corporate returns with the South Carolina Department of Revenue, and the state's annual report rides inside those returns: it is Schedule D of Form SC1120 for a C corporation election or Form SC1120S for an S corporation election. Such an LLC also files Form CL-1, the Initial Annual Report of Corporations, one time at registration.
Two things keep this in perspective. First, it is a tax filing with the Department of Revenue, tied entirely to an optional election, not a Secretary of State report. Second, an LLC that keeps its default classification, taxed as a partnership or disregarded entity, never files any of it.
What You Do Owe the State: an Agent and a Designated Office
The continuing Secretary of State obligation for a South Carolina LLC is structural rather than annual. Under S.C. Code § 33-44-108, the company must continuously maintain two things:
- a designated office in South Carolina, which does not need to be a place where the company conducts business, and
- a registered agent for service of process with a street address in the state.
When either changes, you file the Notice of Change of Designated Office, Agent or Address of Registered Agent with the Secretary of State, a $10 filing under § 33-44-109, submitted on paper or through Business Entities Online. South Carolina's forms carry no numbers, so the notice is identified by that name alone.
Let the agent or office lapse and the LLC's ability to receive lawsuits and official notices breaks down, which is exactly the failure mode the statute exists to prevent.
Taxes Still Happen
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Get StartedNo Secretary of State report does not mean no filings anywhere:
- Single-member LLCs report federally on Schedule C; multi-member LLCs file Form 1065.
- Members generally owe self-employment tax on their share of earnings, with quarterly estimates once the amounts are meaningful.
- State income tax filings follow the LLC's federal classification.
- Employers handle withholding and payroll filings.
Where We Fit
Our registered agent service, $99 per year and included for the first year with our $199 formation, keeps the one standing Secretary of State requirement continuously satisfied: a staffed South Carolina street address, immediate scanning of anything served on the company, and reminders for the tax-side deadlines that do still exist.