Moving from Connecticut
to Myrtle Beach.

The short answer

Connecticut and South Carolina, side by side

Each line is explained below. Rates are the 2026 tax year unless the line says otherwise.

Connecticut figures from the Department of Revenue Services and the General Assembly's research office. 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.

The headline

The property tax falls by more than half

Connecticut's effective property tax rate of about 1.54 percent is among the highest in the country, and the median bill is $6,573. Horry County's primary-home rate works out near 0.38 percent, the median South Carolina bill is $1,337, and the primary rate also removes the school operating tax from your bill entirely.

Put real numbers on it: a $450,000 Connecticut house near the state average carries a bill most owners here would associate with a house three times the price. Buy a $342,000 home here as your primary residence and the bill lands near a tenth of many Fairfield County bills, and the savings repeat every year you own it.

You apply for the primary rate yourself after you move, by May 31, or your first bill arrives at the higher 6 percent second-home rate. The property tax page has the calculator and the deadline, and the new resident checklist puts it in order with the rest.

What the sale buys

What a Connecticut sale buys at the coast

A typical Connecticut home runs about $453,000 on the statewide Zillow average, against about $342,000 here, on the same July 2026 measure. Fairfield County sits far above that average and the northeast corner below it. See how much further every dollar goes here compared with your hometown on the cost of living calculator. The property tax on whatever you buy drops from a $6,573 median bill to a $1,337 one, every year.

If a boat is part of the plan, start where the water is: Little River keeps the Intracoastal marinas and fishing docks, Murrells Inlet works the saltwater creek behind the MarshWalk, and North Myrtle Beach puts the waterway a golf cart ride from the sand. The town by town page compares all ten areas on price, rules and features.

Retirees

Your Social Security is never taxed here

Start with the number Connecticut watches and South Carolina ignores. Earn more than $75,000 as a single filer or $100,000 as a couple and Connecticut begins taxing part of your Social Security, and the pension, annuity and IRA exemptions shrink toward zero over the same stretch of income. South Carolina never taxes Social Security, at any income, and its retirement deductions have no income test at all.

$75,000 in Myrtle Beach spends like about $83,000 in Connecticut, and $100,000 spends like about $110,000, from our cost of living calculator.

The specifics for your accountant: South Carolina deducts up to $10,000 of retirement income at 65 and another $15,000 off any income at 65, per person, and every dollar of military retirement is exempt. One side note that stays true in either state: a single large IRA withdrawal raises your income for that year, so plan withdrawals with your adviser. The retiree page covers what else changes.

The income tax

How the two income taxes are built

Connecticut's rates run 2 to 6.99 percent, which looks ordinary next to South Carolina's 1.99 and 5.21. Two design choices make Connecticut's bill bigger than its brackets suggest. There is no standard deduction, only a personal exemption that itself phases out as income rises. And Connecticut applies benefit recapture: past certain income levels the lower brackets are clawed back, so a high earner pays the top rate on all income rather than just the top slice above the threshold.

South Carolina starts a joint return with a $30,000 standard deduction, taxes the first $30,000 above it at 1.99 percent, and takes 5.21 percent of the rest, at every income, with nothing clawed back. This particular difference is modest for most households; for high earners the recapture rule makes it larger than the rate gap implies. See how much further every dollar goes here on the cost of living calculator.

The car and the register

The car bill shrinks here

The car tax you already know

You will not need the warning we give Ohio and Maryland movers, because Connecticut already taxes cars yearly: 70 percent of a depreciated value at the town mill rate, capped at 32.46 mills. Here the county taxes vehicles on value too, and the working numbers are these: about $362 a year on a $30,000 car in unincorporated Horry County, about $458 inside the City of Myrtle Beach, plus a $50 road fee, with a one-time $250 fee when a car titled elsewhere first registers. For most movers that is a smaller bill than the one they left. The steps and deadlines are on the new resident checklist.

Sales tax rises

Connecticut charges 6.35 percent statewide. Here it is 8 percent in the county and 9 percent inside the City of Myrtle Beach, and we would rather be honest with you about that: on most purchases the tax is higher. Groceries are the exception: untaxed in both states, and everyday goods price lower here than in Connecticut on the federal price index, so the grocery run itself usually costs the same or less.

The estate advantage

No estate tax here, at any amount

Connecticut's estate and gift exemption tracks the federal amount, $15 million for 2026. Most families will never reach it. We would rather tell you that plainly than sell you a benefit you would not receive.

Above $15 million, Connecticut charges 12 percent of the amount over the line. That is $120,000 for every million dollars above it. An estate of $20 million owes about $600,000 to Connecticut. An estate of $25 million owes about $1.2 million. South Carolina charges none of it, at any size.

Connecticut is also the only state with its own gift tax, at the same 12 percent above the same $15 million, on large gifts you make while you are alive. South Carolina has no estate tax, no inheritance tax and no gift tax. For a very large estate, moving here saves you twelve cents on the dollar in taxes.

Your attorney structures the plan. We handle the part where you actually become a South Carolinian, from the house to every residency step on the checklist.

First hand

What Connecticut movers tell us

Our Connecticut clients tend to praise what they are leaving, and they are right to: the historic towns, the schools, places that have been beautiful for three hundred years. What sends them south is the rest of it. The winters go on too long, prices they describe as getting out of hand, and they want more beach and more room than the shoreline they left.

Common questions

Connecticut to Myrtle Beach FAQ

Sources: Connecticut DRS estate and gift tax, Connecticut OLR on retirement income exemptions, CGS 12-71e motor vehicle mill rate, South Carolina 2026 income tax, Tax Foundation property taxes, Zillow research data. We are not tax advisers; rates change and your situation decides the answer. Verify with a professional before you plan around any of it.