For the first time in more than a decade, the South Carolina Department of Revenue (the “Department”) has issued revenue ruling guidance on the South Carolina Abandoned Buildings Revitalization Act, S.C. Code Ann. §§ 12-67-10, et seq. (2024 & Supp. 2025) (“SCABRA” or the “Act”). South Carolina Revenue Ruling #26-1, issued January 6, 2025 (the “Ruling”), provides a number of new rules and interpretations worthy of review, but one of the most practical and consequential developments involves expanded filing requirements that materially affect project eligibility.

An Overview of the Act

SCABRA was enacted to incentivize the rehabilitation and productive reuse of abandoned or underutilized buildings by offering meaningful state income tax credits or local property tax abatements tied to qualifying redevelopment expenditures. The Act applies to eligible “abandoned buildings” and “abandoned building sites,” as those terms are defined in the statute, and is intended to encourage private investment in properties that have remained vacant or economically nonviable for extended periods of time.

The Act provides two mutually exclusive incentive structures. A taxpayer may elect either an income tax credit administered by the South Carolina Department of Revenue or, alternatively, a property tax credit administered by the local taxing jurisdiction in which the abandoned building site is located. In either case, the credit amount is generally based on a percentage, up to twenty-five percent (25%), of qualifying rehabilitation expenses incurred in connection with the redevelopment of the abandoned building or site, subject to statutory caps, timing requirements, estimation rules, and placement-in-service requirements.

Eligibility under the Act is highly procedural. Before incurring qualifying rehabilitation expenses, a taxpayer must file a Notice of Intent to Rehabilitate (a “Notice of Intent”) identifying the abandoned building site and outlining the proposed redevelopment. The statute imposes specific informational requirements for the Notice of Intent, and compliance with these requirements is a prerequisite to claiming either form of credit. Failure to properly file, or to timely file, the Notice of Intent can disqualify an otherwise eligible project.

Since its enactment, the Act has been widely used in redevelopment projects across South Carolina, particularly for mixed-use, industrial, and adaptive-reuse developments. Until recently, however, formal interpretive guidance from the Department has been limited, leaving many practical questions, especially around eligibility, demolition, and procedural compliance, to be resolved through informal practice. The Ruling represents the most comprehensive administrative guidance on the Act in more than a decade and materially affects how taxpayers should approach compliance going forward.

Additional Filing Requirements and Amendments

The Ruling reflects that the Department is now requiring additional information to be included in Notices of Intent beyond the items expressly enumerated in the Act. The Act requires that the taxpayer file a “Notice of Intent to Rehabilitate” (“Notice”), with the Department if seeking the income tax credit, or municipality where the site exists, if seeking the property tax credit, (1) indicating the taxpayer’s intent to rehabilitate, (2) the site location, (3) the amount of acreage involved, (4) the square footage of existing buildings involved, (5) the estimated expenses to be incurred in connection with rehabilitation, (6) which buildings the taxpayer intends to renovate, and (7) whether new construction is to be involved. The Department is now requiring that “all information showing why the taxpayer qualifies for the credit” be included in the Notice, “including but not limited to” (emphasis added), in addition to the above:

• the address of the purported abandoned building and the tax map number(s)
  on which it is located;
• the size of the abandoned building;
• the abandoned building’s previous owner (if the building is to be considered a state-owned building);
• photographs or other evidence showing the abandoned building can be clearly delineated from other buildings or structures;
• a description of the abandoned building’s business use or income producing purpose immediately prior to abandonment;
• the date of abandonment;
• the size of the part or portion of the building that was abandoned;
• whether the building or structure will be subdivided and if so, how it will be subdivided;
• a description of the building site including land and improvements other than the abandoned building to be included and how each is directly related to the abandoned building’s income producing use;
• the address and tax map numbers of all land and improvements to be included in the building site;
• the intended future use of the abandoned building and building site or phases or portions thereof and a description of the rehabilitation, demolition, renovation, or redevelopment of the building site; and
• if the building or structure has been listed on the National Register for Historic Places, and if so, what portion, if any, was used solely for storage or warehouse purposes.

The Ruling makes clear that, unless allowed by the Department, a Notice of Intent filed with the Department cannot be amended. That “unless allowed by the Department” exception is new. While the Ruling expressly permits amendments to Notices of Intent filed with the Department through June 1, 2026, for taxpayers that have not yet placed the qualifying building site in service, it does not indicate under what circumstances the Department might permit amendments outside that limited period. By contrast, with respect to Notices of Intent filed with a county or municipality in connection with the property tax credit, the Ruling expressly provides that a Notice of Intent may be amended prior to final approval by ordinance of the local governing body, provided the rules of the governing body allow amendment.

What the Department will not allow in any event is the filing of a “protective” Notice of Intent with both the Department and a county or municipality while a taxpayer decides whether to elect the income tax credit or the property tax credit. A taxpayer may, however, change the type of credit to be claimed by filing a new Notice of Intent with the appropriate governmental body and submitting written notice withdrawing the original Notice of Intent from the governmental body that received it. Qualified rehabilitation expenses incurred prior to the filing of the second Notice of Intent will not qualify for the credit.

Inclusion of Other Requirements

In light of the Department’s express statement that the required information is non-exclusive and that the Notice of Intent must include all information demonstrating eligibility, it may be advisable for taxpayers to include additional confirmations addressing other statutory threshold requirements. These may include confirmation that the project advances the purposes of the Act under S.C. Code Ann. § 12-67-110; identification of the population tier applicable to the county or municipality in which the abandoned building site is located; confirmation that estimated qualified rehabilitation expenses exceed the applicable statutory minimum based on the applicable population tier under S.C. Code Ann. § 12-67-130; and confirmation that neither the immediately preceding use nor the intended post-rehabilitation use of the building or site constitutes a single-family residence, as required by S.C. Code Ann. §§ 12-67-120(A) and -130(B).

Conclusion/Practical Takeaways

Revenue Ruling #26-1 materially reshapes how taxpayers should approach compliance under SCABRA, particularly at the Notice of Intent stage. What was once a relatively straightforward preliminary filing has become a much more comprehensive eligibility submission, with limited flexibility to correct or supplement information after the fact. Omissions or inaccuracies in a Notice of Intent may jeopardize an otherwise qualifying project.

In practice, this means that Notices of Intent should be prepared earlier, with greater care, and with a more complete record supporting eligibility than may have been customary under prior guidance. Projects currently in planning or early redevelopment phases should be reviewed promptly to assess whether existing or contemplated Notices of Intent align with the Ruling’s requirements, particularly in light of the temporary amendment window available through June 1, 2026. As with many South Carolina incentive programs, careful front-end compliance under expert guidance remains the most reliable way to preserve the benefit on the back end.