Moving from Ohio
to Myrtle Beach.

The short answer

Ohio and South Carolina, side by side

The state rates look close. The differences live in the local taxes, the car, and retirement income. Each line is explained below.

Rates are the 2026 tax year. Property figures are the most recent federal survey data. The calculator on our cost of living page runs the full comparison against your income.

Side by side

What you pay in taxes now, and what you would pay here

It opens on a real example. Change any line to your own numbers and press Calculate. It estimates the income tax, the local income tax where your town charges one, and the property tax on both ends, and what the price of the house puts back in your pocket. Estimates, not facts. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

An estimate, not a fact. Rates, brackets and retirement rules come from each state's own department of revenue and statutes for 2026, and the Myrtle Beach property tax uses Horry County's 2025 certified millage for an owner-occupied home outside the city limits, with the 4 percent residential ratio, the school operating exemption and the 65 and older homestead exemption. Left out on both sides: federal tax, car taxes, insurance, and any credit that depends on your own return. Where a state rule is too detailed to model we leave it out, and almost every one of those left out would RAISE the bill in the state you are leaving, not lower it: Connecticut's tax recapture, New York's supplemental tax, and the exemption phase-outs in Maryland and Ohio. Two run the other way and we would rather name them: Pennsylvania's tax forgiveness and the Massachusetts senior circuit breaker are low-income credits we do not apply, so if you qualify for one, your bill up north is lower than we show. Insurance is its own question on this coast and usually costs more here than up north; the coastal insurance page has the real numbers. Your accountant has the last word, and we will sit down and go through it with you.

Income tax

You stop paying city income tax

Ohio's state rate is one of the lowest in the country. What most Ohio households actually feel is the layer under it: city income taxes, commonly 1 to 3 percent of wages, and in some places a school district income tax on top of that.

South Carolina has no local income tax anywhere. No city rate, no district rate. For a working household this is the largest single income-tax change in the whole comparison, and it is bigger than the difference between the two state rates.

Retirees

Retirement income: the clearest win of any state we compare

Ohio taxes pensions, 401(k) and IRA withdrawals at its flat rate. The relief is a retirement credit that tops out at $200 a year, one per return, and ends entirely at $100,000 of income, plus a $50 credit at 65.

South Carolina works from deductions instead: up to $3,000 of retirement income before 65 and up to $10,000 from 65, per person, plus a separate age-65 deduction of up to $15,000 against any income. Social Security is untaxed in both states. For most retirees the same pension is simply taxed less here, and the property tax on the house drops at the same time.

The other direction

Two things cost more here, and Devin hit both

South Carolina taxes your car every year

Ohio charges a flat registration of roughly $36 plus small local fees, and nothing based on the car's value. Here every vehicle is taxed yearly on its value: a $30,000 car runs roughly $360 outside the city limits and closer to $460 inside Myrtle Beach, plus a $50 road fee, and the county bill must be paid before the plate renews. Arriving adds a one-time $250 fee per vehicle, with 45 days to register. A two-car household should plan on roughly $500 to $1,000 a year that did not exist in Ohio. The bill for boats and campers works the same way. Devin, who wrote this page, arrived from Ohio three years ago, and this tax was the item that caught him: his first county bill was $325 for the car, plus the one-time $250 fee and the $50 road fee. The steps, in order, are on the new resident checklist.

Houses and sales tax

A typical home here costs about $342,000 against about $254,000 in the Cleveland area, so the purchase itself is a step up for many Ohio buyers even though the tax rate on it is far lower. The figure is the Myrtle Beach metro; the towns around it price differently. If you are coming from a small town, you do not have to land in a resort city: Conway, Longs, Aynor and Little River all sit within a short drive of the beach, and we are glad to show them next to the beachfront so you can compare. The which town page compares all of them properly. Sales tax runs 8 percent in the county and 9 percent in the city, against about 7.3 percent combined in Ohio. Groceries are untaxed in both.

If you keep a foot in Ohio

Ohio has a residency test with real teeth

Ohio presumes you are still a resident until you show otherwise, and its test is specific. You cannot hold an Ohio driver's license at any point in a year you claim to be gone. Your days back in Ohio are counted, and at 213 or more the presumption becomes very hard to beat. And the non-residency statement has a hard deadline: filed by October 15 of the following year, it makes your non-resident status final; missed, Ohio presumes you never left.

If the plan is a clean move, surrender the license early and the rest follows. If the plan is a winter here and a summer there, bring in a CPA before you set up the year, not after.

First hand

What surprised Devin after the move

Devin moved here from Pleasant City, a village of about 400 people in Guernsey County, Ohio. Three years in, three things stand out to him. The county vehicle bill, which Ohio never sends; the numbers are further up this page. Needing sunglasses: he never owned a pair that mattered in Ohio and reaches for them daily here in summer. And the work: coming from a village of 400, the range of jobs here felt like a big city's.

His own bills are quoted, labelled as one household's, on the cost of living page, and his first-45-days mistakes are the reason the checklist exists.

Common questions

Ohio to Myrtle Beach FAQ

Sources: Ohio income tax statute, Ohio BMV fees, Ohio residency statute, South Carolina 2026 income tax, Horry County vehicle tax. We are not tax advisers; rates change and your situation decides the answer. Verify with a professional before you plan around any of it.