Senate Amendment 38
H 3309 - Session 126 (2025-2026)
Electrical Utilities

Senator Massey proposes the following amendment (LC-3309.HA0103S):

Amend the bill, as and if amended, by striking SECTION 45A and inserting:

SECTION 45.A. Section 12-36-2120(65) of the S.C. Code is amended to read:

 (65)(a) computer equipment, as defined in subitem (c) of this item, used in connection with a technology intensive facility as defined in Section 12-6-3360(M)(14)(b), where:

   (i) the taxpayer invests at least three hundred million dollars in real or personal property or both comprising or located at the facility over a five-year period;

   (ii) the taxpayer creates at least one hundred new full-time jobs at the facility during that five-year period, and the average cash compensation of at least one hundred of the new full-time jobs is one hundred fifty percent of the per capita income of the State according to the most recently published data available at the time the facility's construction starts; and

   (iii) at least sixty percent of the three hundred million dollars minimum investment consists of computer equipment; and

   (iv) the taxpayer enters into a fee in lieu agreement on or before May 30, 2025, and any subsequent renewal of that agreement.

  (b) computer equipment, as defined in subitem (c) of this item, used in connection with a manufacturing facility, where:

   (i) the taxpayer invests at least seven hundred fifty million dollars in real or personal property or both comprising or located at the facility over a seven-year period; and

   (ii) the taxpayer creates at least three thousand eight hundred full-time new jobs at the facility during that seven-year period.

  As used in this subitem, "taxpayer" includes a person who bears a relationship to the taxpayer as described in Section 267(b) of the Internal Revenue Code.

  (c) For the purposes of this item, "computer equipment" means original or replacement servers, routers, switches, power units, network devices, hard drives, processors, memory modules, motherboards, racks, other computer hardware and components, cabling, cooling apparatus, and related or ancillary equipment, machinery, and components, the primary purpose of which is to store, retrieve, aggregate, search, organize, process, analyze, or transfer data or any combination of these, or to support related computer engineering or computer science research.

  (d) These exemptions apply from the start of the investment in or construction of the technology intensive facility or the manufacturing facility. The taxpayer shall notify the Department of Revenue of its use of the exemption provided in this item on or before the first sales tax return filed with the department after the first such use. Upon receipt of the notification, the department shall issue an appropriate exemption certificate to the taxpayer to be used for qualifying purposes under this item. Within six months after the fifth anniversary of the taxpayer's first use of this exemption, the taxpayer shall notify the department in writing that it has or has not met the investment and job requirements of this item by the end of that five-year period. Once the department certifies that the taxpayer has met the investment and job requirements, all subsequent purchases of or investments in computer equipment, including to replace originally deployed computer equipment or to implement future expansions, likewise shall qualify for the exemption described above, regardless of when the taxpayer makes the investments.

Sections to conform.

Amend title to conform.