Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: a South Carolina for-profit corporation dissolves by filing Articles of Dissolution under S.C. Code § 33-14-103 for $10, and South Carolina does not gate the filing on a tax clearance certificate.
The filing, and what South Carolina calls it
South Carolina’s Articles of Dissolution are filed with the Secretary of State under S.C. Code §§ 33-14-102 (board recommendation plus two-thirds shareholder vote by default) and 33-14-103 (the filing statute).
The tax clearance question
South Carolina does not gate the Articles of Dissolution on a tax clearance certificate. The Department of Revenue’s own FAQ states plainly that a domestic corporation files Articles of Dissolution with the Secretary of State first, and only afterward files a final tax return; no DOR clearance certificate is a precondition to the SOS filing. (A separate Tax Compliance Certificate is required, but only for reinstatement after administrative dissolution, a different scenario than voluntary dissolution.) (SC Dept. of Revenue, Corporate FAQs) That does not erase the corporation’s final tax filings; it just means the Secretary of State’s office is not the one checking for them before accepting the paperwork.
Creditors and the claims window
South Carolina makes available, but does not require, a formal notice-to-known-and-unknown-creditors procedure, with a 120-day claims-bar window. Elective. Known claims (§ 33-14-106): at least 120 days to respond, barred if the deadline is missed or if enforcement isn’t commenced within 90 days of a rejection. Unknown claims (§ 33-14-107): optional publication, barred unless a proceeding commences within 5 years (10 years for a claimant who received no written notice). (S.C. Code §§ 33-14-106, 33-14-107)
What the filing costs
The Articles of Dissolution carries a $10 filing fee.
What this page does not answer
Dissolving the entity at the state level and closing it out with the IRS are two separate processes. A final federal return, IRS Form 966 in some circumstances, and canceling the EIN are governed by federal law, not by South Carolina’s corporation statute, and this cluster does not source them. We have the state-filing answer at primary and the federal-closeout answer not at all.
This page sells nothing and links to no filing service. Dissolving a corporation is a filing-desk task with a statutory answer, and the answer is either in the state’s code and the Secretary of State’s own instructions or it is not.
This page covers a for-profit business corporation. If you are closing an LLC in South Carolina instead, the filing, fee and statute are different: see dissolving an LLC in South Carolina.
Sources
Every citation on this page is statutory or the Secretary of State’s own official filing instructions. No formation service, no registered-agent marketing page and no aggregator is cited anywhere in this cluster; those are the only publishers of the competing versions.
- S.C. Code Title 33, Chapter 14: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t33c014.php
- SC Dept. of Revenue, Corporate FAQs: https://dor.sc.gov/business-income-taxes/corporate/corporate-faqs