Valuation of property; depreciation allowances for manufacturer's machinery and equipment; department may permit adjustment in allowance.

S.C. Code Ann. § 12-37-930

in effect

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 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. 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."

Source: Open US Law by Vaquill AI (CC BY 4.0)URL: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t12c037.phpFetched: 10/17/2026