South Carolina H 5252: Abandoned Buildings Tax Credit

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 5252 Text of Previous Version (Feb. 24, 2026) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 5252

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A bill

TO AMEND THE 
SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY AMENDING SECTION 12-67-120, RELATING TO THE 
ABANDONED BUILDINGS REVITALIZATION ACT DEFINITIONS, SO AS TO CLARIFY THAT THE 
EXISTENCE OF AN INCOME-PRODUCING USE PRIOR TO THE PERIOD OF ABANDONMENT IS NOT 
A REQUIREMENT FOR ELIGIBILITY; BY AMENDING SECTION 12-67-130, RELATING TO 
APPLICABILITY, SO AS TO MAKE A CONFORMING CHANGE; BY AMENDING SECTION 
12-67-140, RELATING TO ELIGIBILITY FOR THE CREDIT, SO AS TO CLARIFY CERTAIN 
TIMING CONSIDERATIONS RELATED TO THE FILING OF A NOTICE OF INTENT TO 
REHABILITATE AN ABANDONED BUILDING AND TO CLARIFY THAT ABANDONED BUILDING TAX 
CREDITS MAY NOT SERVE AS COLLATERAL FOR ANY DEBT; AND BY AMENDING SECTION 
12-67-160, RELATING TO THE CERTIFICATION OF ABANDONED BUILDING SITES, SO AS TO 
REMOVE A REQUIREMENT FOR CERTAIN CERTIFICATIONS OF STATE-OWNED ABANDONED 
BUILDING SITES.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Section 12-67-120 (1), (2), 
(6), and (8) of the S.C. Code is amended to read:

 (1) "Abandoned building" means a building or structure, which clearly 
may be delineated from other buildings or structures, at least sixty-six 
percent of the space in which has been closed unoccupied continuously to business 
or otherwise nonoperational for income producing purposes for 
a period of at least five years immediately preceding the date on which the 
taxpayer files a "Notice of Intent to Rehabilitate". For purposes of this item, 
a building or structure that otherwise qualifies as an "abandoned building" may 
be subdivided into separate units or parcels, which units or parcels may be 
owned by the same taxpayer or different taxpayers, and each unit or parcel is 
deemed to be an abandoned building site for purposes of determining whether 
each subdivided parcel is considered to be abandoned. For purposes of this 
item, an abandoned building is not a building or structure with an immediate 
preceding use as a single-family residence. For purposes of this item, use of 
any portion of a building or structure listed on the National Register for 
Historic Places when used solely for storage or warehouse purposes is 
considered nonoperational for income producing purposes; 
provided, however, that the credit provided under Section 12-67-140(B) is 
further limited by disqualifying for credit purposes the portion of the 
building or structure that was operational and used as a for storage or warehouse for income 
producing purposes. This limitation is calculated based on the actual 
percentage of the space which has been closed unoccupied continuously to business or 
otherwise nonoperational for income producing purposes 
for a period of at least five years immediately preceding the date on which the 
taxpayer files a "Notice of Intent to Rehabilitate" divided by one hundred 
percent.

 (2) "Building site" means the 
abandoned building together with the parcel of land upon which it is located 
and other improvements located on the parcel. However, the area of the building 
site is limited to the land upon which the abandoned building is located and 
the land immediately surrounding such building used for parking and other 
similar purposes directly related to the building's income 
producing use.

 (6) "Rehabilitation expenses" means 
the expenses or capital expenditures incurred in the rehabilitation, 
demolition, renovation, or redevelopment of the building site, including 
without limitations, the renovation or redevelopment of existing buildings, environmental 
remediation, site improvements, and the construction of new buildings and other 
improvements on the building site, but excluding the cost of acquiring the 
building site or the cost of personal property located at the building site. 
For expenses associated with a building site to qualify for the tax credit, the 
abandoned buildings on the building site must be either renovated or 
redeveloped. Rehabilitation expenses associated with a building site that 
increases the amount of square footage on the building site in excess of two 
hundred percent of the amount of square footage of the buildings that existed 
on the building site as of the filing of the Notice of Intent to Rehabilitate 
shall not be considered a rehabilitation expense for purposes of calculating 
the amount of the credit. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, 
demolition expenses shall not be considered a rehabilitation expense for 
purposes of calculating the amount of the credit if the 
abandoned building is demolished and the building being demolished is on 
the National Register for Historic Places.

 (8) "State-owned 
abandon