Each year, the Municipal Association of SC Annual Meeting provides a time for elected officials from around the state to share ideas and best practices. This year’s conference, taking place July 16 – 20 on Hilton Head Island, will address a wide range of municipal issues, including the business licensing updates that all those cities and towns with business licensing must enact.
The Business License Tax Standardization Act of 2020, or Act 176, established ongoing steps that cities and towns in South Carolina must undertake to keep their business licensing practices compliant with state law.
Legislators intended for Act 176 to streamline business licensing, making it uniform and consistent for businesses operating in multiple jurisdictions across South Carolina. The requirements of the law therefore aim to ensure the licensing process will work the same for the business, no matter the jurisdiction involved.
One of the ongoing requirements involves cities updating their class schedules every odd-numbered year to comply with the most recent statistical profitability data from the Internal Revenue Service.
Updating the class schedule
A standard class schedule for categorizing businesses accurately helps ensure that businesses are placed in the appropriate class. A standardized class schedule promotes clarity by providing businesses with an understanding of their licensing requirements based on their specific business activity.
To make updating the class schedule as simple a process as possible, the Municipal Association of SC developed an amendment to the model business license ordinance that includes the updated standard class schedule.
The ordinance to adopt the new class schedule and the schedule can be found online.
Municipalities must adopt this class schedule by ordinance by December 31, 2025. This class schedule will be used for the business licensing year running from May 1, 2026, to April 30, 2027, as well as the license year running from May 1, 2027, to April 30, 2028.
Before January 1, 2026, cities should not use this updated class schedule, and should instead continue using their current class schedule.
The Municipal Association of SC provides a sample ordinance for every update. Municipalities must adopt this class schedule by ordinance every two years, with the next update required by December 31, 2027.
Find more information on the 2025 Annual Meeting agenda online. Read about registration deadlines for the Annual Meeting on page 4.
