Doing Business in Another State

Doing Business in Another State › States › South Carolina

Doing business in South Carolina from another state

If your LLC does business in South Carolina as South Carolina defines it, you register with the South Carolina Secretary of State for $110.

Step 1: put these questions to South Carolina’s law

  1. An employee or contractor works from the state. Ask whether the statute counts work done by people located in the state, and whether employees and independent contractors are treated alike.
  2. You sell to customers there but have no one on the ground. Ask whether the statute treats sales from outside the state differently from activity inside it.
  3. The LLC owns or leases property there. Ask whether owning or leasing real estate is listed as an activity that does, or does not, count.
  4. You open an office, shop or warehouse. Ask whether a fixed place of business is named in the statute. Settle the answer before you sign a lease.
  5. You hold meetings or keep a bank account there. Ask whether the statute lists these ancillary activities, and whether they count by themselves.

The law, as listed in the state’s own sources: South Carolina Code, Title 33, Chapter 44.

Step 2: if the answer is yes

Form
Form F0008, Application for a Certificate of Authority by a Foreign Limited Liability Company
Fee
$110
Paper from your home state
Certificate of existence from the home-state Secretary of State, no older than 30 days
Agent
A agent for service of process in South Carolina

Best 3 Foreign Registration Services in South Carolina (2026)

Step 3: if you would rather not file it yourself.

#ServiceService feeSouth Carolina feeAgent
1Mainstay Filing$199$110Year one included, then $149/yr
2SC Registered Agent.org$199$110Year one included, then $99/yr
3South Carolina Registered Agent.co$199$110Year one included, then $99/yr

Service prices read from each provider’s South Carolina page on October 28, 2026. The state fee is the official figure below and is paid to the South Carolina Secretary of State.

South Carolina questions

When does an LLC from another state have to register in South Carolina?

When its activity in South Carolina meets South Carolina’s own definition of doing business. We do not paraphrase it; read it in the law linked below.

What does registering in South Carolina cost?

$110 to the South Carolina Secretary of State.

What is required after registering?

None with the Secretary of State (corporate license fee report to the SC Department of Revenue only if taxed as a corporation), no fee, and a agent for service of process in South Carolina.

Sources