NEWS RELEASE
SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
Public Affairs Office
Contact: Danny Brazell
Phone: (803) 898-5464 Fax: (803) 898-5446
Email: brazeld@sctax.org
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 26, 2004
South Carolina ranked at top in tax administration
South Carolina is ranked as one of the top states in the nation in its “fair, efficient and customer-focused” tax administration, says a national tax-watchdog group that ranks the states in those categories. Making that achievement even more impressive is that South Carolina was listed near the bottom in the same ranking just four years ago.
South Carolina is tied with Arizona, Kansas and Missouri at the top of the national ranking as states that administer the most fair and equitable income tax program, said the Council on State Taxation (COST) in their 2004 ranking. In 2000, COST ranked South Carolina 40th in the same listing.
COST, a Washington, D.C.-based tax watchdog group made up of corporate executives, ranks states each year for their tax administration proficiency, looking at elements such as a state’s ability to attract industry with their corporate tax programs, their fairness and balance in the tax appeals
process and the state’s overall tax administration performance by their revenue department.
“Our rapid rise to the top of this ranking in just four years reflects our General Assembly’s efforts to make South Carolina an attractive business and corporate location and the Department of Revenue’s initiatives to improve overall customer service,” said Department of Revenue Director, Burnie Maybank. “The fact that we were able to reach the top of the ranking in the midst of four years of very difficult economic and budget hardships is, in fact, quite an achievement and reflects the hard work of the state’s tax officials and the state employees responsible for administering South Carolina’s tax program.”
COST calls their annual ranking, based on a point system, the “Best and Worst of State Tax Administration.” In their review of the states’ tax programs, the council also looks at the way states administer tax deadline extensions, their working relationship with the Internal Revenue Service and their treatment of taxpayers in an audit.
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