Checks or money orders made payable to Charleston County Treasurer can be mailed to:
Charleston County Treasurer, P.O. Box 878, Charleston, SC 29402-0878
The Treasurer's Office does accept cash, checks and money orders at all
Treasurer's office locations. We do not accept credit card payments over the
phone or in person. However, you can pay online with your Visa or MasterCard by clicking here. There is a surcharge involved with paying by credit card.
After your payment is processed, we will mail your receipt to the mailing address listed on the tax bill. If you filled out the change of address information attached to the remittance, we will send the receipt to the new address indicated on the form.
Taxes on motor vehicles and recreational vehicles must be paid before your license plate tags can be renewed. These taxes are due by the last day of the month in which your tag expires.
Q: How do I receive my renewal sticker for my vehicle?
If you pay your vehicle taxes on time, you will receive your registration renewal sticker in the mail (usually within 10 days of payment). Please make sure that your address is correct and that your insurance certification is provided when required. The registration renewal fee charged by the S.C. Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) appears on your tax bill every other year. If you pay your vehicle taxes after the expiration of your license tag, you will need to go to a local DMV office to show your paid tax receipt. Then, a new sticker will be issued to you in person. If this occurs in a year when you were charged a renewal fee on your tax bill, the DMV will charge you a late renewal fee at that time.
When you purchase a vehicle from a dealership, their personnel are allowed to pick up your registration and license tags without paying the local property taxes. The tax you paid to the dealership at the time of purchase was the South Carolina state sales tax.
The state of South Carolina has a stalking law which prohibits a search by tag or VIN number. Therefore, no one can find out your name or address simply by recording your vehicle information and accessing this site.
Taxes on real and other personal property (not motor vehicles) are due by January 15 of the following year without penalty. For example, a real estate property tax bill dated October 2000 is payable by January 15, 2001, without penalty.
The penalty structure on real estate and other personal property (not motor vehicles for 2007 tax bills) is as follows:
- 3 percent penalty due if paid after January 15
- additional 7 percent due, or 10 percent total, if paid after February 1
- additional 5 percent due, or 15 percent total, if paid after March 17, and the bill is sent to the Delinquent Tax Department.
Q: I refinanced my home mortgage and the mortgage code on my tax bill does not reflect the current information. How can I correct the information, and how do I have my tax bill paid from the current mortgage escrow account?
We receive mortgage information from several different companies prior to the mailing of real estate property tax bills. Therefore, the code listed on the tax bill is the latest information provided to us. Please forward a copy of the tax bill to your current mortgage holder so that your taxes can be paid from your current escrow account.
Real Estate, Mobile Homes, Personal Property and Motor Vehicle accounts can be paid online. However, if there is a delinquent tax amount due on the property, the account cannot be paid online.
Payments may be entered up until 10:00 p.m. The system is shut
down overnight for batch processing and is available the following morning at 8:00 a.m. Refer to the main Tax Web Site page for scheduled system availability.
After your payment is posted, you will get a confirmation page for your records. Print the confirmation page as instructed. You also will receive a confirmation by e-mail. This is one reason your e-mail address is required for the online payment. A regular tax payment receipt will be mailed to you within three business days of the transaction.
There is a charge to the taxpayer for this service. The surcharge will be displayed before the transaction is completed so that you may opt out if you so choose.
It will be noted on your confirmation page that a problem occurred. Additionally, the Treasurer's Office and
the Webmaster will receive an e-mail describing the nature of the problem. The Treasurer's Office will see that your payment processing is completed and notify you.
Yes. Charleston County's secure payment server was certified as using the strongest available 128-bit encryption through a national service called VeriSign. Each payment transaction is authenticated and verified by this national service through a security check.
Charleston County Tax Payment website uses "cookies" to hold user information such as Name, EMail etc. Listed below are the procedures for enabling cookies on different browsers.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+
Select "Internet Options" from the Tools menu.
Click on the "Privacy" tab.
Click the "Default" button (or manually slide the bar down to "Medium") under "Settings".
Click "OK".
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x
Select "Internet Options" from the Tools menu.
Click on the "Security" tab.
Click the "Custom Level" button.
Scroll down to the "Cookies" section.
Set "Allow cookies that are stored on your computer" to "Enable".
Set "Allow per-session cookies" to "Enable".
Click "OK".
Netscape Communicator 4.x
Select "Preferences" from the Edit menu.
Find the "Cookies" section in the "Advanced" category.
Select "Accept all cookies" (or "Enable all cookies").
