Utilities, taxes, and HOA dues in West Ridge

1. Utilities:

1.1 Trash collection

No extra cost. Weekly trash collection is part of your HOA dues.

1.2 Water: Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority

Rates (August, 2025):

• The Customer charge (flat fee each month even if you use no water) is $24.85/month..
• Water+sewer charge: $3.81 per 1,000 gallons for the first 8,000 gallons. Rates rise beyond that. 8,000 gallons/month should cover typical household usage. NOTE: The HOA provides irrigation for your lawn, which saves you money!

Billing:

• No sales tax.
• Bill pay: Has automatic bill pay. As of October, 2025 they'll charge a 2% fee for paying with a credit card.

1.3 Electricity: Santee Cooper (residential rates)

Rate options:

• RG (Residential General) rate.

  • The Customer Charge (flat fee, even if you use no electricity) is $20/month.
  • The Energy Charge is a flat 7.92 cents/kWh all day all year.
  • On-peak hours are: during the months of April through October: 3-6 PM, and November through March: 6-9 AM.
  • There is a Demand Charge of $8.00 per peak kilowatt-hours (kWh) used during on-peak hours. This is NOT total kWh used during peak hours, it's the largest kWh draw in any hour during on-peak hours. Your bill lists the date and hour when the peak occurred.

  RG is the most common rate for West Ridge homeowners.

• The RT (Residential Time-of-Use) rates:

  The Customer Charge and on-peak/off-peak hours are the same as RG. Its off-peak rate is the same, but instead of a Demand Charge, it has an on-peak Energy Charge of $0.3380.

• The REV (Residential Electric Vehicle) rates:

  The Customer and Demand Charges are the same as for RG. The Energy Charge is lower (4.18 cents/kWh) during "Super Off-Peak hours" (11 PM - 5 AM), but higher (8.78 cents/kWh) the rest of the day.

Billing:

• No sales tax.
• Bill pay: There's no fee for checks, cash, or (after the first time) direct debit. There's always a "convenience fee" when paying by credit card, and sometimes a fee when paying by phone.

1.4 Landline phone, Internet, Cable TV: Horry Telephone Cooperative (HTC)

West Ridge is an HTC-exclusive enclave for landline telephone, cable TV, and cable Internet service. HTC has fiber to the home, not copper wires. Internet service enters the house as a standard Ethernet connection (no cable modem in your house needed) and currently (8/2025) speeds start at 500Mb/second, but will rise to 1Gb/second next year. HTC Internet service includes a wireless router, but you can use your own if you wish.

The HTC box on the side of the house converts signals and offers battery backup for telephone service but not for Internet or TV.

Some people have DirectTV, Dish, 5G wireless, or other over-the-air services. With any Internet service, you, of course, have the option of subscribing to other (non-HTC) TV streaming services.

Like other phone companies (and unlike most cable companies), HTC's Internet service DOES allow servers, and, for an additional fee, you can get a static IP address.

In return for that exclusivity, the HOA gets a check from HTC each year for a portion of the money paid to HTC by us. This has generally been thousands of dollars a year.

As a co-op, HTC also returns to each customer each year a portion of what they paid HTC during the previous 12 months. The amount varies.

Bill pay: HTC does not charge a fee for paying your bill with credit card, but there is currently no option for automatic bill pay to a credit card.

Please visit HTC's website for their services and prices.

2. HOA dues

Dues in 2025 are $126/month. Dues are the same for all.

3. Taxes

3.1 Property taxes

• the assessed value of the property,
• an "assessment ratio" which is 4% for an owner-occupied residence but otherwise 6%,
• and the tax rate, which was 201.0 mils (0.2010) in 2024.

In addition to the tax itself, the tax bill has fees and credits. Expect a Stormwater Fee of around $50 - $100, depending mostly on lot size. Credits may include the School Tax Credit and the Homestead exemption (a senior discount).

The School Tax Credit (see Act 388 of 2006) is an exemption from the school operating millage on the total assessed value of your residential property. South Carolina law allows this exemption for taxpayers who own the home in which they reside and are claiming legal residence. This is an automatic exemption for homeowners who have been granted the 4% legal residence ratio.

If you rent out the property, you are also subject to personal property tax on the value of your contents in the house, and perhaps the hospitality tax on the rent.

The tax bill each year is based on the appraised value and the owner as of December 31 of the prior year (so 12/31/2024 for tax bills sent in September/October 2025).

Example: An owner-occupied home assessed at the end of 2024 at $200,000 would be taxed at $200,000 * 0.04 * 0.2010 = ~$1608. A School Tax Credit of ~$950 and, if you're eligible, a Homestead exemption of ~$200, would reduce the final bill for such homeowners to about $460. The Stormwater Fee would raise the bill to ~$550.

When property is sold, its sale price becomes the appraised value. Reassessments occur every few (5, I think) years county-wide, and 2024 was a reassessment year. During reassessment, the appraised value is usually a bit under actual market value so that people will be less likely to challenge it. However, there is also a cap (15%, I think) on how much reassessment can increase the appraised value, so when home prices rise rapidly for several years, the appraised value for tax purposes can be substantially below the property's current market value. Tax bills generally list both the estimated actual current market value and the value used for taxes.

3.2 Sales taxes

• Sales tax is generally 8%, with many exceptions. That's 6% for SC State sales tax + 1% for an Horry County Schools/Education tax + 1% for the Horry County RIDE IV road projects tax. The SC State sales tax doesn't apply to certain essentials, such as food bought from a grocery store that is not intended to be eaten in the store (but if the store has a lunch counter and seats, then the food bought at the lunch counter is subject to sales tax plus the restaurant tax).
• Like most other states that have a sales tax, South Carolina has a matching "Use Tax". Purchases made out of state that are brought back into the state are subject to the same tax rate as the Sales tax you would have paid if you'd bought it locally (i.e., usually 8% if it's subject to sales tax), minus whatever sales tax you paid the other jurisdiction. So, if you buy something online that's normally subject to sales tax and have it shipped to you and no sales tax was collected, you owe 8% Use tax. If you buy something in NC, pay 5% sales tax, and bring it back home, you owe 8% - 5% = 3% Use tax. If you paid 8% or more sales tax, you owe no SC Use tax (and don't get a refund).
• Some towns, such as the City of Myrtle Beach, have a local option 1% sales tax.
• Restaurants have an additional 2.5% tax.

3.3 Income taxes

There are no local/municipal income taxes.

South Carolina has a graduated income tax that uses your Federal Taxable Income (FTI) (income after deductions), with adjustments.

• Starting in 2022, the top tax rate decreases 0.1% each year until it reaches 6.0%. In 2024, the top rate was originally scheduled to be 6.3%, but was reduced that July to 6.2%. The top tax bracket (for 2025) begins at $17,330 and is adjusted for inflation each year. If you're in that bracket, your tax will be about ($FTI - SC adjustments and extra deductions) * 0.062 - $678.
• Social security income, railroad retirement income, and disability retirement income due to permanent and total disability are not taxed. (Any such income in your FTI is deducted.)
• There's a $15,000 deduction if you're 65 or over (not inflation adjusted).
• There are the usual bunch of adjustments to income for things like state income tax refunds included in your FTI, income from partially tax-exempt investments, etc.
• South Carolina exempts 44% of long term capital gains from income.
• There's also a non-refundable tax credit if the total cost of insurance for your home (liability, catastophe, flood, etc.) is more than 5% of your Federal Adjusted Gross Income (before deductions).