{"data":{"id":"us-sc/s.c.-code-ann.-33-31-1501","jurisdiction":"us-sc","citation":"S.C. Code Ann. § 33-31-1501","heading":"Authority to transact business required.","body":"(a) A foreign corporation may not transact business in this State until it obtains a certificate of authority from the Secretary of State.\n(b) The following activities, among others, do not constitute transacting business within the meaning of subsection (a):\n(1) maintaining, defending, or settling any proceeding;\n(2) holding meetings of the board of directors or members or carrying on other activities concerning internal corporate affairs;\n(3) maintaining bank accounts;\n(4) maintaining offices or agencies for the transfer, exchange, and registration of memberships or securities or maintaining trustees or depositaries with respect to those securities;\n(5) selling through independent contractors;\n(6) soliciting or obtaining orders, whether by mail or through employees or agents or otherwise, if the orders require acceptance outside this State before they become contracts;\n(7) creating or acquiring indebtedness, mortgages, and security interests in real or personal property;\n(8) securing or collecting debts or enforcing mortgages and security interests or any other rights in property securing the debts;\n(9) owning, without more, real or personal property;\n(10) conducting an isolated transaction that is completed within thirty days and that is not one in the course of repeated transactions of a like nature;\n(11) transacting business in interstate commerce;\n(12) soliciting those contributions as are defined in Section 33-55-20(3) or any succeeding statute of like tenor and effect.\n(c) The list of activities in subsection (b) is not exhaustive.","path":["Title 33 - CORPORATIONS, PARTNERSHIPS AND ASSOCIATIONS","CHAPTER 31 South Carolina Nonprofit Corporation Act","ARTICLE 15 Foreign Corporations"],"source_url":"https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t33c031.php","current_through":"2025 Session of the General Assembly","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-09-02T07:03:59Z","sha256":"6a29a4c21d3cf1cbafb276108d4d9a8b04995130db841aabb5f15d98a6d7d927","source_id":"us-sc","stale":false,"prev":"us-sc/s.c.-code-ann.-33-31-1440","next":"us-sc/s.c.-code-ann.-33-31-1502"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}