North Charleston Community Overview

Dedicated to establishing an environment where businesses can flourish North Charleston is the place you want to be if you are a business owner. North Charleston, the 3rd largest city in South Carolina and is highly accessible and centralized. This town is known as the “Hub of the Lowcountry” continues to grow at an extraordinary rate.

It doesn’t matter whether you have an existing business and are looking to relocate, or are starting a new business from the ground up. North Charleston’s municipal government presents one of the most business-friendly environments in the state. It is also important to note that North Charleston has led the State in retail sales for the 21st consecutive year.

The whole community of North Charleston chips in to provide the resources to help businesses grow. The North Charleston Chamber of Commerce plays an important part with its diverse programs, affordable memberships, and programs that help businesses thrive.

Incentives

North Charleston offers many incentives for business considering moving here. One lucrative incentive is the Job Development Credit (JDC).

Eligible expenses associated with relocation or expansion within South Carolina are available to be returned to the companies through targeted rebates using state employee withholding.

Eligible expenses can include the acquisition of land, site preparation, public infrastructure, operating leases with terms of at least five years, some employee relocation expenses and employee training, but do not include removable assets such as machinery and equipment.

Another advantageous tax credit is the Jobs Tax Credit. This credit allows companies that create new jobs in the state to receive a tax credit against their South Carolina income tax liability!

To be eligible for jobs tax credits, a company must:

Establish or expand manufacturing, distribution, processing, warehousing, research and development, tourism, or technology intensive facility within the state.

In certain limited instances, service, and retail facilities may also be eligible.  Companies must create a monthly average of ten net new full-time jobs at the facility in a single taxable year. If a company has fewer than ninety-nine employees worldwide, it may be eligible for the jobs tax credit if it creates a monthly average of two or more net new full-time positions in a single taxable year.

If the jobs are maintained, the jobs tax credit is available for a five-year period beginning with year two (year one is used to establish the created job levels).

The amount of tax credit you get for each position is set up by the tier of your county. Charleston County is currently a Tier 1 County (developed) which allows a credit of $1,500 per year for each new job created (the credit is $750 per year for each new job for companies with less than ninety-nine employees).

Credits can be used to offset up to 50% of South Carolina income tax in a single year, and unused credits may be carried forward for 15 years.

Workforce Support

North Charleston has abundant programs to help your workers. ReadySC is an excellent service that leverages the South Carolina Technical College system across the state to provide recruiting, assessment, training development, management, and implementation services.

These services are state-funded and are offered at no cost to qualifying companies. To qualify an organization must be creating new jobs in South Carolina with competitive wages and benefits.

Do you need for your employees to learn new technical skills? Apprenticeship Carolina™, a division of the SC Technical College System, works to ensure all employers in South Carolina have access to the information and technical assistance they need to create demand-driven registered apprenticeship programs.

This program which operates at no cost to the employer, allows apprenticeship consultants to guide companies through the registered apprenticeship development process from initial information to full recognition in the National Registered Apprenticeship System.

A perk for businesses considering this program is the Apprenticeship Tax Credit. Eligible businesses can receive a South Carolina tax credit of $1,000 for each registered apprentice employed for at least seven months during each year of an apprentice’s program, for up to four years.

These aren’t the only great programs available for businesses in North Charleston. Also, be sure to join the North Charleston Chamber of Commerce so we can welcome you to the area and help your business thrive.