South Carolina State Bankruptcy Exemptions
§ 15-41-30. Property exempt from attachment, levy, and sale.
The following real and personal property of a debtor domiciled in this State is
exempt from attachment, levy, and sale under any mesne or final process issued
by any court or bankruptcy proceeding:
(1) The debtor's aggregate interest, not to exceed five thousand dollars in
value, in real property or personal property that the debtor or a dependent of
the debtor uses as a residence, in a cooperative that owns property that the
debtor or a dependent of the debtor uses as a residence, or in a burial plot
for the debtor or a dependent of the debtor, except that the aggregate value of
multiple homestead exemptions allowable with respect to a single living unit
may not exceed ten thousand dollars. If there are multiple owners of such a
living unit exempt as a homestead, the value of the exemption of each
individual owner may not exceed his fractional portion of ten thousand dollars.
(2) The debtor's interest, not to exceed one thousand two hundred dollars in
value, in one motor vehicle.
(3) The debtor's interest, not to exceed two thousand five hundred dollars in
aggregate value in household furnishings, household goods, wearing apparel,
appliances, books, animals, crops, or musical instruments, that are held
primarily for the personal, family, or household use of the debtor or a
dependent of the debtor.
(4) The debtor's aggregate interest, not to exceed five hundred dollars in
value, in jewelry held primarily for the personal, family, or household use of
the debtor or a dependent of the debtor.
(5) The debtor's aggregate interest in cash and other liquid assets to the
extent of a value not exceeding one thousand dollars, except that this
exemption is available only to an individual who does not claim a homestead
exemption. The term "liquid assets" includes deposits, securities, notes,
drafts, unpaid earnings not otherwise exempt, accrued vacation pay, refunds,
prepayments, and other receivables.
(6) The debtor's aggregate interest, not to exceed seven hundred fifty dollars
in value, in any implements, professional books, or tools of the trade of the
debtor or the trade of a dependent of the debtor.
(7) Any unmatured life insurance contract owned by the debtor, other than a
credit life insurance contract.
(8) The debtor's aggregate interest, not to exceed in value four thousand
dollars less any amount of property of the estate transferred in the manner
specified in Section 542(d) of the Bankruptcy Code of 1978, in any accrued
dividend or interest under, or loan value of, any unmatured life insurance
contract owned by the debtor under which the insured is the debtor or an
individual of whom the debtor is a dependent.
(9) Professionally prescribed health aids for the debtor or a dependent of the
debtor.
(10) The debtor's right to receive:
(A) a social security benefit, unemployment compensation, or a local public
assistance benefit;
(B) a veteran's benefit;
(C) a disability benefit, except as provided in Section 15-41-33, or an illness
or unemployment benefit;
(D) alimony, support, or separate maintenance;
(E) a payment under a stock bonus, pension, profit sharing, annuity, or similar
plan or contract on account of illness, disability, death, age, or length of
service, unless
(i) the plan or contract was established by or under the auspices of an insider
that employed the debtor at the time the debtor's rights under the plan or
contract arose;
(ii) the payment is on account of age or length of service; and
(iii) the plan or contract does not qualify under Sections 401(a), 403(a),
403(b), or 409 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 (26 U.S.C. 401(a), 403(a),
403(b), or 409).
(11) The debtor's right to receive or property that is traceable to:
(A) an award under a crime victim's reparation law;
(B) a payment on account of the bodily injury of the debtor or of the wrongful
death or bodily injury of another individual of whom the debtor was or is a
dependent;
(C) a payment under a life insurance contract that insured the life of an
individual of whom the debtor was a dependent on the date of that individual's
death, to the extent reasonably necessary for the support of the debtor and any
dependent of the debtor.
(12) The debtor's right to receive individual retirement accounts as described
in Sections 408(a) and 408A of the Internal Revenue Code, individual retirement
annuities as described in Section 408(b) of the Internal Revenue Code, and
accounts established as part of a trust described in Section 408(c) of the
Internal Revenue Code, to the extent reasonably necessary for the support of
the debtor and any dependent of the debtor. A claimed exemption may be reduced
or eliminated by the amount of a fraudulent conveyance into the individual
retirement account or other plan. For purposes of this item, "Internal Revenue
Code" has the meaning provided in Section 12-6-40(A).
(13) The debtor's interest in a pension plan qualified under the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended.
§ 15-39-410. Property which may be ordered to be applied to execution.
The judge may order any property of the judgment debtor, not exempt from
execution, in the hands either of himself or any other person or due to the
judgment debtor, to be applied toward the satisfaction of the judgment, except
that the earnings of the debtor for his personal services cannot be so applied.
§ 38-38-330. Attachment, garnishment or seizure of benefits.
Money or other benefit, charity, relief, or aid to be paid, provided, or
rendered by a society is not liable to attachment, garnishment, or other
process, nor may it be seized, taken, appropriated, or applied by legal or
equitable process or operation of law to pay a debt or liability of a member or
beneficiary or another person who may have a right to it, either before or
after payment by the society.
§ 42-9-360. Assignments of compensation; exemptions from claims of creditors and
taxes.
(A) No claim for compensation under this title shall be assignable and all
compensation and claims therefor shall be exempt from all claims of creditors
and from taxes.
(B) It shall be unlawful for an authorized health care provider to actively
pursue collection procedures against a workers' compensation claimant prior to
the final adjudication of the claimant's claim. Nothing in this section shall
be construed to prohibit the collection from and demand for collection from a
workers' compensation insurance carrier or self-insured employer. Violation of
this section, after written notice to the provider from the claimant or his
representative that adjudication is ongoing, shall result in a penalty of five
hundred dollars payable to the workers' compensation claimant.
(C) Any person who receives any fee or other consideration or any gratuity on
account of services so rendered, unless the consideration or gratuity is
approved by the commission or the court, or who makes it a business to solicit
employment for a lawyer or for himself in respect of any claim or award for
compensation is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must, for each
offense, be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned not more
than one year, or both.
(D) Payment to an authorized health care provider for services shall be made in
a timely manner but no later than thirty days from the date the authorized
health care provider tenders request for payment to the employer's
representative, unless the commission has received a request to review the
medical bill.
§ 9-1-1680. Exemption from taxation and legal process; exceptions; assignment.
Except as provided in Section 8-1-115 and subject to the doctrine of
constructive trust ex maleficio, the right of a person to an annuity or a
retirement allowance or to the return of contributions, an annuity, or
retirement allowance itself, any optional benefit, or any other right accrued
or accruing to any person under the provisions of this chapter, and the monies
of the system created under the provisions of this chapter or any private
retirement system operated by a municipality, are exempted from any state or
municipal tax, except the taxes imposed pursuant to Chapters 6 and 16 of Title
12, and exempted from levy and sale, garnishment, attachment, or any other
process and are unassignable except as specifically otherwise provided in this
chapter.
§ 9-9-180. Exemption of retirement allowance and certain other rights from
taxation and legal process; exceptions; assignment.
Except as provided in Section 8-1-115 and subject to the doctrine of
constructive trust ex maleficio, the right of a person to a retirement
allowance or to the return of contributions, a retirement allowance itself, any
optional allowance or payment on death or any other right accrued or accruing
to any person under the provisions of this chapter, and the monies of the
system are exempted from any state or municipal tax, except the taxes imposed
pursuant to Chapters 6 and 16 of Title 12, and exempted from levy and sale,
garnishment, attachment, or any other process and are unassignable except as
specifically otherwise provided in this chapter.
§ 9-11-270. Allowances and other rights are exempt from taxation and legal
process; exceptions; assignment.
Except as provided in Section 8-1-115 and subject to the doctrine of
constructive trust ex maleficio, the right of a person to retirement allowance
or to the return of contributions, a retirement allowance itself, any optional
or death benefit, or any other right accrued or accruing to a person under the
provisions of this chapter, and the monies of the system are exempted from any
state or municipal tax, except the taxes imposed pursuant to Chapters 6 and 16
of Title 12, and exempted from levy and sale, garnishment, attachment, or any
other process, and are unassignable except as specifically otherwise provided
in this chapter.
§ 9-13-230. Fund and payments shall not be subject to execution or other legal
process.
No portion of any such pension fund shall, either before or after an order for
its distribution by the board to such disabled and pensioned members of the
fire department, be held, taken, subjected to or retained or levied on by
virtue of any attachment, execution, injunction, writ, interlocutory or other
order or decree or any process or proceeding whatsoever issued out of or by any
court in this State for the payment or satisfaction in whole or in part of any
debt, damage, claim, demand or judgment against any member, but such fund shall
be sacredly held, kept, secured and distributed for the purpose of pensioning
the persons, or the payment of funeral expenses, as named in this chapter, and
for no other purpose whatsoever.
§ 33-41-720. Nature of right in specific partnership property.
(1) A partner is a co-owner with his partners of specific partnership property,
holding as a tenant in partnership.
(2) The incidents of his tenancy are such that
(a) a partner, subject to the provisions of this chapter and to any agreement
between the partners, has an equal right with his partners to possess specific
partnership property for partnership purposes but he has no right to possess
such property for any other purpose without the consent of his partners,
(b) a partner's right in specific partnership property is not assignable except
in connection with the assignment of rights of all the partners in the same
property,
(c) a partner's right in specific partnership property is not subject to
attachment or execution, except on a claim against the partnership and when
partnership property is attached for a partnership debt the partners, or any of
them, or the representatives of a deceased partner, cannot claim any right
under the homestead or exemption laws,
(d) on the death of a partner his right in specific partnership property vests
in the surviving partner or partners, except when the deceased was the last
surviving partner in which case his right in such property vests in his legal
representative; but such surviving partner or partners, or the legal
representative of the last surviving partner, has no right to possess the
partnership property for any but a partnership purpose and
(e) a partner's right in specific partnership property is not subject to dower,
curtesy or allowances to widows, heirs or next of kin.
Note: Exemptions may have changed since our last update. For the latest updates on these property exemptions, speak to a local bankruptcy lawyer.
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