South Carolina Payroll Instructions

South Carolina has state income tax withholding. Its payroll tax tables changed in 2023, with fewer steps and different rates. There have been 13 changes in the past 33 years.

For a long time, the South Carolina tables use subtraction rather than addition for each "step"-- one of only a few states to do so. In 2017 they added the option to use additions instead, so we switched to that for our tables. Both methods give the same results.

HINT: TurtleSoft provides free annual updates for US federal and South Carolina tax withholding rates.

South Carolina State Withholding Instructions

To enter withholding information for one of your employees, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Payroll tab on the left, and choose Employees.
  2. Use the browser control to see the employee record.
  3. Click the Payroll Setup button.
  4. Enter the employee's marital status into the Marital Status field (see note below).
  5. Choose a Tax Package for the employee (see note below).
  6. Enter the number of federal dependents into the Federal Exemptions field.
  7. Enter the number of dependents into the State Exemptions field.
  8. Enter a South Carolina Tax Package into the Tax Package field, based on the employee’s W4 form. Choose Old W4 for pre-2020 forms. Choose New W4 Step2- if they did not check the box in step 2 of the new form. Choose Step2+ if they did check it. HINT: If you don't see South Carolina packages in the list, you'll need to import 2022 tax info first.
  9. Click OK.

If an employee uses the 'zero deduction' option for state withholding, assign the Zero Deduction tax package to them in the Tax Package field of the Employee account. Otherwise use the standard state Tax Package, when you enter data into Goldenseal payroll software.

South Carolina State Unemployment Tax Instructions

In 2023 the South Carolina SUTA unemployment insurance tax is based on the first $14,000 in wages for each employee (unchanged from last year). The new company rate is 3.4%. After the first year the rate is calculated based on the employer's experience factor-- rates range from 1.24% to 6.10%, including a .6% contingency charge.

To enter the South Carolina SUTA tax rate for your business, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Payroll Setup from the Costs menu, and choose Tax Items.
  2. You'll see a list of Tax Items. Open the South Carolina SUTA item. HINT: If you don't see S Carolina SUTA in the list, you'll need to import your state's payroll info first.
  3. Enter the percentage rate for your business into the percentage field to the right of Calculation method.
  4. If the cutoff amount has changed, enter it into the dollar field to the right of First Adjustment.

South Carolina Marital Status

Enter any of the following values into the Marital Status popup field in each Employee account:

State Tax Contacts

Website

Official State Lawn Ornament

South of the Border sticker.