South Carolina’s LLC statute names a designated office and an agent for service of process — not a yearly Secretary of State report

What South Carolina actually requires

S.C. Code § 33-44-108 is the South Carolina office-and-agent statute. A limited liability company, and a foreign limited liability company authorized to do business here, shall designate and continuously maintain in this State an office, which need not be a place of business in this State, and an agent and street address of the agent for service of process on the company. The agent must be an individual resident of this State, a domestic corporation, another limited liability company, or a foreign corporation or foreign company authorized to do business in this State. That is the list. We print it. We do not invent a shorter one. The designated office and the agent street are two lines. The statute does not say they must be the same street. The change form treats them as separate boxes. We do not invent an identical-address rule.

S.C. Code § 33-44-203 is what the articles of organization must say. The articles must set forth the name of the company, the address of the initial designated office, the name and street address of the initial agent for service of process, the name and address of each organizer, whether the company is a term company, whether it is manager-managed, and whether any member is liable for debts under § 33-44-303(c). Leaving the designated office or the agent street off is a defect. S.C. Code § 33-44-202 says one or more persons may organize the company by delivering those articles to the Secretary of State for filing. The live Articles of Organization form, F0006, cites both sections. It asks for the initial agent’s name, that agent’s signature, and the street address in South Carolina for that agent. The downloadable forms list prices that paper at $110.00. S.C. Code § 33-44-1204 prices articles of organization at one hundred ten dollars. Bizee’s South Carolina page says $110 online and $135 paper. The live forms list we retrieved prints $110.00. We print both. We do not invent a third number that makes them agree. A foreign company files a certificate of authority under S.C. Code § 33-44-1002. That application also names an initial designated office and an initial agent with a street. The same fee statute prices that application at one hundred ten dollars.

The Notice of Change of Designated Office, Agent for Service of Process, or Address of Agent is the live change paper. Its face cites S.C. Code § 33-44-109. The form number is F0080. Some downloads also say F0086. The title uses designated office and agent for service of process. The street boxes then say current registered agent’s office and new South Carolina street address of the registered agent’s office. The new-agent box says, “I hereby consent to the appointment as registered agent.” Mail two copies. The checklist prints $10.00. S.C. Code § 33-44-1204 prices a statement of change of designated office or agent at ten dollars. Those two tens match. LegalZoom’s South Carolina article, updated September 18, 2025, calls the paper Form LLC-6. That is LegalZoom copy. The live Secretary of State form we opened is F0080. We print both names. We do not invent a third form.

S.C. Code § 33-44-109 is how the company changes the line. The company delivers a statement of change to the Secretary of State. The statement names the company, the street of the current designated office, the new designated-office street if that office is moving, the name and address of the current agent, and the new address or the name and street of the new agent. The statute does not add a written-consent sentence. The live form does. A manager, a member, an organizer, or a fiduciary must sign the company side under S.C. Code § 33-44-205. Listing a new name on a later tax paper does not do that job. There is no Secretary of State annual report that can carry the new line for a typical LLC.

S.C. Code § 33-44-110 is how an agent steps down. The agent delivers a statement of resignation to the Secretary of State. After filing, the Secretary of State mails a copy to the designated office and another copy to the principal office. The agency is terminated on the thirty-first day after the statement is filed. The live Resignation of Agent for Service of Process form, F0065 / F0066, repeats that 31st-day end and prints a $10.00 filing fee. File three copies. S.C. Code § 33-44-1204 does not list resignation as its own row. The catch-all for any other document required or authorized under the chapter is two dollars. The live form and the forms list print $10.00. We print the statute and the form. We do not invent a winner. ZenBusiness’s South Carolina page mixes in $3 and $5 resignation prices. Those dollars sit on the same forms list under corporation papers that cite § 33-5-103. They are not the LLC resignation row. We print the vendor line. We do not treat it as S.C. Code § 33-44-110.

S.C. Code § 33-44-111 is what happens if the agent is missing. The appointed agent is the company’s agent for any process, notice, or demand the law lets you serve on the company. If the company fails to appoint or maintain an agent, or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be found at the agent’s address, the Secretary of State is an agent of the company. Service on the Secretary of State is two copies, then a mailed copy to the designated office. The Secretary of State service-of-process page prices that request at $10.00. S.C. Code § 33-44-1204 collects ten dollars each time process is served on the Secretary of State under this chapter. Those two tens match. Bizee’s South Carolina page says the Secretary of State can take administrative action and that the company can lose good standing. S.C. Code § 33-44-809 is the administrative-dissolution ground we opened. The Secretary of State may start that proceeding if the company does not pay a fee, tax, or penalty within sixty days after it is due. That list does not name a missing agent. We print the vendor sentence. We do not invent a missing-agent dissolution clock. S.C. Code § 33-44-810 adds that an administrative dissolution does not terminate the authority of the agent for service of process.

The yearly paper many vendor pages still call an annual report is not a Secretary of State LLC filing. S.C. Code § 33-44-211 used to require an annual report to the Secretary of State. The 2004 archive of Chapter 44 marks that section Repealed by 2004 Act No. 221, Section 43, effective April 29, 2004. The live Chapter 44 we retrieved today has no § 33-44-211. Bizee’s South Carolina page says South Carolina LLCs aren’t required to file an annual report. That vendor sentence matches the repeal. The Secretary of State business-entities FAQ says a CL-1 is a Department of Revenue form filed with the Secretary of State along with the Articles of Incorporation for business corporations. The same FAQ says business corporations submit the names of directors on annual reports filed with the Department of Revenue. It does not tell a typical LLC to file a yearly Secretary of State report. The Department of Revenue corporate FAQ is plainer. A limited liability company not taxed as a corporation is not subject to the annual report or the license fee. An LLC must file Form CL-1 when it elects to be treated as a corporation for tax purposes. The live CL-1 says the same: LLCs should only complete the CL-1 if they’re taxed as a corporation. That paper’s title is Initial Annual Report of Corporations. It is a tax paper. It is not a Secretary of State annual report for a pass-through LLC. It cannot change the agent.

The public lookup sits at businessfilings.sc.gov. The File and Search Online page says the public may see registered agent and registered office information for entities on file, and may search by a particular registered agent. The service-of-process page repeats those same two labels. The LLC statute still says designated office and agent for service of process. We print both vocabularies. We do not pretend the search invented a new statute. Confirm the live line on the Business Entities Online search before you treat a marketing city as current. Headquarters is not the designated office. The Secretary of State’s Columbia contacts are not a vendor suite.

Paper filings go to the Secretary of State, Attn: Corporate Filings, 1205 Pendleton Street, Suite 525, Columbia, SC 29201. The forms list’s filing-question line is 803-734-2158. The service-of-process line is 803-734-1957. ZenBusiness’s South Carolina page prints 803-734-2170. That is a published office number on that vendor page. We print it. Those Columbia hours, if any, are the Secretary of State’s hours. They are not a designated-office clock. South Carolina does not post Florida-style 10–noon / 2–4 windows. We do not treat a company 9-to-5 line as the statute.

Cited prices, retrieved September 15, 2026

We print what the company’s official registered-agent page said on the retrieval date. No company publishes a different South Carolina registered-agent price from the national card, except where we note a South Carolina-page sentence. We do not invent a renewal.

• Northwest Registered Agent: official page: “$125 Per Year.” Same price in year two on the national card. Five or more states is $100 a year per state. Retrieved September 15, 2026 from northwestregisteredagent.com/registered-agent and the South Carolina product page. First year free only if you form through them; we do not treat that bundle as the standalone price. The South Carolina page says they accept and scan all South Carolina clients’ documents from their office in Charleston, SC. The same page says a street address is required, not a P.O. Box, and that they also sell five free scans of regular business mail a year, with extra scans at $15 a document. Those extras are a different product. We do not grade those extras as the agent job.
• Bizee: official registered-agent page: free first year with formation; standalone $149/year; year two $149/year. Retrieved September 15, 2026 from bizee.com/business-management/registered-agent. A bizee.com/llc/south-carolina-registered-agent URL returned 404 the same day. The live South Carolina page is bizee.com/llc/south-carolina/registered-agent. That page names a $110 online / $135 paper Articles of Organization fee and says South Carolina LLCs aren’t required to file an annual report. The live forms list we retrieved is $110.00. The $135 paper line is Bizee copy. The same page talks about a registered office and regular business hours. Those are Bizee words. The statute we retrieved says designated office and a street for the agent. After a free first year with formation, the official card says the agent service is $149 a year. We print those vendor sentences. We do not invent a South Carolina-only price from a missing hyphenated URL.
• LegalZoom: official overview retrieved September 15, 2026: “Get registered agent services for $249/year.” Product card: $249/year. Retrieved from legalzoom.com/…/registered-agent-overview.html. The live South Carolina article is legalzoom.com/articles/south-carolina-registered-agent, updated September 18, 2025. That article says LegalZoom’s services are $249/year and that LegalZoom’s Charleston office meets the state’s requirements. No street is published. A legalzoom.com/articles/registered-agent-in-south-carolina URL returned 404 the same day. The article says P.O. boxes are not sufficient and talks about typically 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. That clock is LegalZoom copy. The same article prices LLC articles at $110 and corporation articles at $135, and names Form LLC-6 for an LLC change. The live LLC change form we opened is F0080 and $10.00. The $135 corporation line matches the SOS corporation paper that also carries a CL-1. We print those vendor sentences. We do not invent a suite or a higher year-two number.
• ZenBusiness: official South Carolina page: first-year and renewal dollars are the national card. The national page says $99 + state fees for the first year and renews at $199/yr, subject to change. The South Carolina page, last updated August 27, 2025, talks about $100 to a few hundred dollars a year as a market range. That range is not a ZenBusiness price. We keep the national card. A zenbusiness.com/south-carolina-resident-agent/ URL returned 404 the same day. The live South Carolina page is /south-carolina-registered-agent/. That page prices the change at $10, prints a 31-day resignation, and then quotes $3 and $5 corporation resignation prices. The live LLC resignation form prints $10.00. The national page says they currently do not offer registered-agent service to PLLCs or nonprofits. That is their national exclusion, not a South Carolina statute. Retrieved September 15, 2026 from zenbusiness.com/registered-agent and the South Carolina registered-agent page.

A change of designated office or agent is a separate Secretary of State filing. An LLC cannot put the new line on a Secretary of State annual report, because a typical LLC files no such report with that office. Form CL-1 is a Department of Revenue paper for an LLC taxed as a corporation. It is not that change. We cite S.C. Code § 33-44-109, the $10 live form, and S.C. Code § 33-44-1204.

Who publishes a South Carolina street

A city is not a designated office. We print only the streets the companies publish for registered-agent use. We do not invent the rest. Confirm the live name and street on the Business Entities Online search before you file. Headquarters is not the designated office. The Secretary of State’s Columbia contacts are not vendor suites.

• Northwest. The South Carolina product page says they accept and scan documents from their office in Charleston, SC. The office-locations page lists Charleston, SC 29406 Charleston County, and says they leave the street off this list. No street is published. The two city lines match on Charleston. We have not been to a Charleston office. Northwest also sells extra mail scans from that location. Those extras are a different product.
• Bizee. Claims owned offices in all 50 states. The official registered-agent page names no South Carolina street. The live South Carolina product page names no South Carolina street. The hyphenated South Carolina URL we tried returned 404 on September 15, 2026. The contact page lists 17350 State Highway 249, Suite 220, Houston, TX 77064 as headquarters. That address is not a South Carolina agent street.
• LegalZoom. The official registered-agent overview does not publish a South Carolina street. The live South Carolina article names a Charleston office and no street. The second South Carolina article URL we tried returned 404 the same day. We do not invent a suite. We do not treat a LegalZoom virtual-mail street as the agent street.
• ZenBusiness. The South Carolina registered-agent page publishes no ZenBusiness street or city. It prints Secretary of State contacts at 1205 Pendleton Street, Suite 525, Columbia, SC 29201, and telephone 803-734-2170. Those lines are the Secretary of State, not ZenBusiness. We do not treat that Columbia suite as their office.

If you are your own agent, the street on the public record is often your home. If you hire a commercial agent, the agent line is that organization’s name. Northwest names Charleston on the product page and Charleston, SC 29406 Charleston County on the office list, and no street on either. LegalZoom names Charleston and no street. Bizee publishes no South Carolina street. ZenBusiness publishes the Secretary of State’s Pendleton Street suite. We label every published city vendor-claimed. Use Business Entities Online.

In-state office, two statute names, and the missing annual report

South Carolina wants a designated office in this state. That office need not be a place of business. It also wants an agent for service of process with a street address in this state. The Secretary of State’s search still says registered agent and registered office. The live change form uses both names. Change the line on the Notice of Change of Designated Office, Agent for Service of Process, or Address of Agent. The live form prints $10.00. A new agent signs a consent box on that form. Resignation ends on the 31st day after filing. The live resignation form prints $10.00. The fee statute’s other-document row is $2. A typical LLC files no annual report with the Secretary of State. Form CL-1 is a Department of Revenue paper for an LLC taxed as a corporation. That paper cannot change the agent. Stay without an agent and S.C. Code § 33-44-111 names the Secretary of State as the company’s agent. S.C. Code § 33-44-809 names unpaid fees, taxes, and penalties, not a missing agent. South Carolina does not post a Florida-style 10–noon / 2–4 clock, and it does not run a Nevada-style ten-company commercial-agent register. Northwest claims Charleston, ZIP 29406, Charleston County. LegalZoom names Charleston. ZenBusiness publishes 1205 Pendleton Street — the Secretary of State. Bizee names no South Carolina street. Process Score has not been to those offices. We do not treat a company 9-to-5 line as S.C. Code § 33-44-108.

Service of process, not marketing mail

We grade scan-and-forward of service of process and official notices:

• Bizee: notifications by text and email; court papers mailed via FedEx with tracking; portal upload by employees. The South Carolina page talks about a physical street during regular business hours. That is Bizee copy. Contact-page support hours are Monday–Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST. Those are support hours, not designated-office hours.
• Northwest: “We scan every document you receive right where you receive it—in our office.” The South Carolina page adds Charleston scans. Their extra mail-scan product is a different product. We do not grade those extras as a mailbox.
• LegalZoom: upload, email, and a postcard for urgent legal mail; they say they shred junk mail. The live South Carolina article names a Charleston office and a typical 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. line. Junk-mail shredding is not the job we score. That clock is not the statute.
• ZenBusiness: scan and upload to a dashboard; email; overnight the original for urgent legal notices. Their own FAQ says you cannot use the agent address as your business address. Their national product currently excludes PLLCs and nonprofits; that is their exclusion, not a South Carolina statute. The South Carolina page prints Secretary of State contacts at 1205 Pendleton Street, Suite 525. That suite is office copy for the Secretary of State. It is not S.C. Code § 33-44-108.

Home-address privacy

A commercial agent is how most South Carolina owners keep a home off the agent line. The Secretary of State still publishes whatever other addresses you put on a formation filing. Privacy of the agent line is not privacy of every field. A South Carolina LLC must name an agent. It cannot leave that line blank. Confirm the live line on Business Entities Online.

Scorecards

What this page does not do

• It does not rank mailbox networks or virtual offices.
• It does not publish combined star ratings or a fake 4.8.
• It does not treat a company 9-to-5 line as S.C. Code § 33-44-108.
• It does not treat Form CL-1 as a Secretary of State annual report. A typical LLC files no annual report with the Secretary of State.
• It does not treat a Houston headquarters as a South Carolina street.
• It does not treat 1205 Pendleton Street as a vendor suite. Those contacts are the Secretary of State.
• It does not invent a South Carolina-only price a company did not print.
• It does not invent a LegalZoom South Carolina street the live Charleston sentence did not print.
• It does not invent an identical-address rule. The statute lists a designated office and a separate agent street.
• It does not invent a ten-company commercial-agent bar. South Carolina does not run that register.
• It does not pretend a South Carolina LLC may skip the agent. S.C. Code § 33-44-108 says the company shall continuously maintain one.
• It does not invent a missing-agent dissolution clock. S.C. Code § 33-44-809 names unpaid fees, taxes, and penalties.
• It does not invent a winner between the fee statute’s $2 other-document row and the live $10 resignation form.
• It does not invent a winner between Bizee’s $135 paper line and the live $110 articles row.
• It does not force the words Statement of Information. South Carolina does not use that paper.
• It does not treat Department of Revenue license fees as the agent job.
• It does not treat Northwest’s extra mail-scan product as the agent job.

Choosing among being the agent yourself, asking a lawyer, or hiring a commercial agent: DIY vs lawyer vs commercial. California’s scorecard is a different statute: California scorecard. Texas keeps the written consent with the company: Texas scorecard. Florida files the acceptance and posts a 10–noon / 2–4 clock: Florida scorecard. Delaware bans a virtual-only agent and sets the commercial bar above 50: Delaware scorecard. New York starts with the Secretary of State already on the agent line: New York scorecard. Nevada makes a commercial agent register at ten companies: Nevada scorecard. Wyoming bans UPS stores and virtual addresses as the registered office: Wyoming scorecard. Arizona makes the statutory-agent appointment wait on a signed acceptance: Arizona scorecard. Illinois gives you 60 days after your agent resigns, then you are not in good standing: Illinois scorecard. Ohio cancels the articles if you miss the 30-day statutory-agent notice: Ohio scorecard. Georgia wants the registered office at the same street as the agent: Georgia scorecard. Pennsylvania files a registered office, not a registered agent: Pennsylvania scorecard. New Jersey wants a street for your registered agent and will not take a P.O. Box alone: New Jersey scorecard. Colorado will not take a commercial mailbox or a P.O. Box as the registered-agent street: Colorado scorecard. North Carolina’s LLC annual report is $200 paper or $203 online by April 15. That filing is not the registered-agent job: North Carolina scorecard. Virginia’s LLC pays a $50 annual registration fee and files no annual report: Virginia scorecard. Washington files the agent’s prior consent and will not take a P.O. Box or a PMB as the street: Washington scorecard. Michigan’s statute names a resident agent and sends the filing to LARA: Michigan scorecard. Indiana’s live statute names a registered agent. Older Indiana law called the same job resident agent: Indiana scorecard. Massachusetts’s LLC statute names a resident agent. The $500 annual report cannot change that line: Massachusetts scorecard. Maryland’s statute names a resident agent and sends the filing to SDAT, not the Secretary of State: Maryland scorecard. Tennessee wants a registered office and a registered agent at the same street. The $300 LLC annual report is not that job: Tennessee scorecard. Minnesota wants a registered office. A Minnesota-formed company may name an agent. The free December 31 renewal is not that job: Minnesota scorecard. Wisconsin files the agent at DFI, not the Secretary of State. A P.O. Box, a mailbox service, or a telephone answering service is not the office: Wisconsin scorecard. Oregon’s street cannot be a commercial mail receiving agency, a mail-forwarding shop, or a virtual office. The $100 anniversary renewal is not the registered-agent job: Oregon scorecard. Missouri LLCs file no annual report with the Secretary of State. They still must keep a registered office and a registered agent: Missouri scorecard. Alabama’s street cannot be solely a mailbox service or a telephone answering service. The Business Privilege Tax return is a Department of Revenue paper: Alabama scorecard.