On April 9, Gov. Nikki Haley signed into law R.14, S.261, the Annual State-Federal Income Tax Conformity Act. Thank you to all of our members who expended efforts to encourage passage of this important bill.  

Following are highlights of the legislation:

1. The bill updates the SC conformity to the Internal Revenue Code to Jan. 2, 2013. The January date was required instead of the normal Dec. 31 date due to delay to Jan. 2 for the President’s signature on the federal bill. The code sections to which SC has conformed are the same sections as last year with the exception of:
2. The conformity bill removes the transition provision from last year that would have allowed automatic conformity for certain late-passing provisions last year. The provision was specific to one year and was no longer needed.
3. The conformity bill decoupled from the federal change that will limit the itemized deductions of certain taxpayers in 2013 and later. This provision has no impact on 2012 returns being prepared now. The SC DOR has also not announced how this additional SC deduction for 2013 and later will be presented on the returns.