Property tax in Beaufort County, South Carolina

Who sends the property tax bill in Beaufort County, and how do you pay it?

The bill comes from the Beaufort County Treasurer's Office. The value it is based on is set by a separate office, the Beaufort County Assessor's Office, which is who to ask if the value looks wrong. For how to look up and pay the bill, go to the county's own payment information.

Three county offices share the job: the Assessor values homes and land and handles the 4% legal residence rate, the Auditor calculates the tax and handles the homestead exemption, and the Treasurer sends the bill and collects it. Paying online by electronic check has no fee; paying by credit card adds 2.3%. Improved property inside the Town of Hilton Head Island also carries a county Uniform Service Fee for sheriff's services on the same bill, listed as HHPF; for a single-family home it is $178 a year, and no property is exempt from it. Vehicle and boat taxes follow a separate calendar, billed ahead of the month the registration expires.

When are property taxes due in Beaufort County?

For the 2026 bill, Beaufort County has one due date: January 15, 2027. South Carolina law makes property taxes payable from September 30 through January 15, and January 15, 2027 is a Friday. A mailed payment counts as on time only if its U.S. postmark is January 15 or earlier; the Treasurer warns that postmarks now often show the day the mail is processed rather than the day it was dropped off, so mail early, ask for a manual postmark at a post office counter, or pay online. State law does not let the Treasurer accept partial payments. The Treasurer also runs an optional installment program, with its own application; ask the office for the schedule. State law adds a 3% penalty to taxes not paid by January 15, another 7% to taxes still unpaid on February 2, and another 5% to taxes still unpaid on March 17, for 15% in all. Taxes still unpaid after that go to delinquent collection, which adds costs, and unpaid property can be sold at the county's delinquent tax sale.

From Beaufort County's published schedule, checked September 23, 2026. If a date falls on a weekend or holiday, the county's own rules on the next business day apply.

Estimate the property tax on a home in Beaufort County

Enter a home's market value for a ballpark at Beaufort County's average effective rate of 0.48% (Census). The real bill depends on the home's assessed value, the millage where it sits and any exemptions.

Property tax in Beaufort County at a glance

Effective rate = median real estate taxes paid divided by median home value. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

How does Beaufort County compare in South Carolina?

Among South Carolina's 46 counties, Beaufort County has the 27th highest effective property-tax rate: 26 rank higher and 19 rank lower. That is near the middle for South Carolina. Nationally, it ranks 2700th of 3135 US counties by effective rate. See every South Carolina county ranked.

How much do homeowners in Beaufort County actually pay?

The median is only the middle bill. Across Beaufort County's 62,527 owner-occupied homes, 34.2% pay $3,000 or more a year in property tax, 52% pay at least $2,000, and 11.7% pay under $800. Another 2.2% report paying no property tax at all, which usually means an exemption covers the whole bill.

Owners with a mortgage pay a median of $2,267 and owners without one pay $1,993. Owners who have paid off a home have usually held it longer, and in states that cap how fast an existing owner's assessment can rise, long-held homes carry lower assessed values. Census table B25103.

How does the Beaufort County property tax bill compare with local incomes?

The median property tax bill of $2,174 is about 2.2% of the median income of Beaufort County homeowner households, $100,661 a year. That compares two middles, so a retiree in a long-held home can pay a far larger share. 75.9% of Beaufort County's occupied homes are lived in by their owners; renters pay property tax too, just folded into rent.

Have property taxes gone up in Beaufort County?

Yes. The median bill went from $1,540 in 2015-2019 to $2,174 in 2020-2024, a 41.2% rise. Over the same span the median home value moved 52.8%, from $298,100 to $455,600. Bills rose more slowly than values, which is what assessment caps and falling millage rates do: the county is taxing a smaller share of each home's worth.

Two Census ACS 5-year periods with no survey years in common, in each period's own dollars. A change counts only if it exceeds the combined 90% margin of error.

Property tax in counties next to Beaufort County

Beaufort County borders 3 counties.

How is a home assessed in Beaufort County?

South Carolina assesses homes at 4% of market value in every county, Beaufort County included. How South Carolina assesses and reappraises homes.

Is there a homestead exemption in Beaufort County?

Not as a dollar amount. South Carolina owner-occupants get a 4% assessment ratio instead of 6% plus an exemption from school operating millage; apply for the 4% ratio with the county assessor. That is the South Carolina rule, and it applies in Beaufort County. South Carolina's exemptions and relief programs in full.

Beaufort County does not add relief programs of its own beyond the South Carolina ones (checked September 23, 2026).

How to appeal your Beaufort County property assessment

In Beaufort County you appeal to the Beaufort County Assessor's Office, then the Beaufort County Board of Assessment Appeals. The deadline: The Assessor mailed 2026 assessment notices at the end of August 2026. If you received one, give the Assessor a written objection within 90 days after the date the notice was mailed. In a year with no notice, state law lets you appeal in writing at any time: an appeal filed before the January 16 penalty date counts for that tax year, and a later one counts for the next year. The Assessor's page says an appeal filed on January 15 moves to the next year; state law counts it for the current year. If the conference with the Assessor does not settle it, you have 30 days after the conference to file a written protest, then 30 days after the Assessor's written response to appeal to the Board of Assessment Appeals, and 30 days after the Board's written decision to ask for a hearing before the South Carolina Administrative Law Court. If you do not attend the scheduled conference with the Assessor, the appeal is closed for that year. How to file. Checked September 23, 2026 against the official appeal rules.

How South Carolina's appeal process works, including the next level if the first one turns you down.

South Carolina rules from primary state sources, reviewed September 7, 2026; sources on the South Carolina page.

Work out your own numbers

• How much house can I afford?

  Your income, debts and down payment against the 28/36 rule lenders actually use, with Beaufort County's tax rate to hand.

• Mortgage calculator

  Monthly payment with principal, interest, tax and insurance, plus what an extra payment saves you.

• South Carolina income tax

  Brackets, standard deduction and what South Carolina actually taxes.

• Sales tax in Beaufort County

  The other local tax: combined state and local rate for this county.