Property tax in Edgefield County, South Carolina

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

The bill comes from the Edgefield County Treasurer's Office. The value it is based on is set by a separate office, the Edgefield County Tax Assessor, 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.

Four 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, the Treasurer collects the bill, and the Tax Collector handles taxes that are past due. The Treasurer collects for the county, the school district, the hospital and the towns inside the county on the same bill, and the bill also carries a garbage fee and, in the towns of Edgefield and Johnston, a town public works fee. 2026 is a countywide reassessment year, so many owners will see a new value; state law limits the taxable increase from reassessment to 15% unless the home was sold or improved. Online payments go through the county's payment processor.

When are property taxes due in Edgefield County?

For the 2026 bill, Edgefield 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. The binding date is the penalty date printed on your tax notice; for 2024 taxes the Treasurer's notice gave close of business (5:00 p.m.) on January 16, 2025, so check the date on your 2026 notice. For a mailed payment, the U.S. postmark date counts as the payment date. The county's online payment system treats a payment made after 5:00 p.m. on a penalty date as made the next business day, and charges the penalty. The Treasurer does not accept partial payments and asks you to allow 10 to 14 business days for online and mailed payments to show as complete. 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. After that, unpaid taxes go to the county Tax Collector, which handles delinquent taxes and holds its tax sale on the first Monday in December.

From Edgefield County's published schedule, checked September 23, 2026. The county had not posted a calendar labeled for this cycle when we checked, so these dates come from state law and the county's standing schedule; the date on your bill is the one that binds you.

Estimate the property tax on a home in Edgefield County

Enter a home's market value for a ballpark at Edgefield County's average effective rate of 0.43% (Census). The real bill depends on the home's assessed value, the millage where it sits and any exemptions.

Property tax in Edgefield 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 Edgefield County compare in South Carolina?

Among South Carolina's 46 counties, Edgefield County has the 35th highest effective property-tax rate: 34 rank higher and 11 rank lower. That is on the lower side for South Carolina. Nationally, it ranks 2860th of 3135 US counties by effective rate. See every South Carolina county ranked.

How much do homeowners in Edgefield County actually pay?

The median is only the middle bill. Across Edgefield County's 7,824 owner-occupied homes, 5.4% pay $3,000 or more a year in property tax, 12.3% pay at least $2,000, and 44% pay under $800. Another 4.4% report paying no property tax at all, which usually means an exemption covers the whole bill.

Owners with a mortgage pay a median of $1,151 and owners without one pay $669. 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 Edgefield County property tax bill compare with local incomes?

The median property tax bill of $875 is about 1% of the median income of Edgefield County homeowner households, $86,784 a year. That compares two middles, so a retiree in a long-held home can pay a far larger share. 80.1% of Edgefield 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 Edgefield County?

Yes. The median bill went from $682 in 2015-2019 to $875 in 2020-2024, a 28.3% rise. Over the same span the median home value moved 56.8%, from $129,300 to $202,700. 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 Edgefield County

Edgefield County borders 6 counties, 2 of them across the state line.

How is a home assessed in Edgefield County?

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

Is there a homestead exemption in Edgefield 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 Edgefield County. South Carolina's exemptions and relief programs in full.

On top of the South Carolina programs, Edgefield County runs its own:

• Local Option Sales Tax credit: Edgefield County has a local option sales tax, and state law requires most of it to be returned as a credit against property tax, figured on the tax bill with nothing to apply for; the county says the 2026 bill depends on the millage rate and this sales tax credit factor, neither of which it had published by September 23, 2026.

How to appeal your Edgefield County property assessment

In Edgefield County you appeal to the Edgefield County Tax Assessor, then the Edgefield County Board of Assessment Appeals. The deadline: 2026 is a countywide reassessment year in Edgefield County. If you received an assessment notice, state law gives you 90 days after the date the notice was mailed to give the Assessor a written objection. The county's appeal form says it must be received by January 15 or within 90 days of the notice, whichever comes first; state law sets the 90-day rule and controls, and filing by the earlier of the two dates meets both. In a year with no notice, state law lets you appeal in writing at any time: an appeal filed on or before January 15 counts for that tax year, and a later one counts for the next year. If the Assessor's review 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 county 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. 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 Edgefield 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 Edgefield County

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