Moving from Massachusetts
to Myrtle Beach.

The short answer

Massachusetts and South Carolina, side by side

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

Massachusetts figures from the Department of Revenue. 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 estate

Massachusetts taxes your estate when you die. South Carolina does not.

Massachusetts taxes estates above $2 million, one of the lowest thresholds in the country. For deaths on or after January 1, 2023 the state allows a credit of $99,600, which is what makes the first $2 million pass untaxed; above the line, the estate itself owes the tax before anything reaches your heirs.

Two million arrives faster than people expect. A paid-off house near the state's $669,000 average, retirement accounts built over two working lifetimes, and life insurance can cross the line together without anyone in the household ever feeling rich. South Carolina has no estate tax and no inheritance tax at any amount.

Here is the part most people have never been told, and it is worth reading twice. What Massachusetts can reach after you move depends on the kind of asset. Once you are domiciled in South Carolina, your investment accounts, retirement accounts, and other intangible assets are out of the Massachusetts estate tax entirely, wherever the brokerage sits. Real estate is different: a house you keep in Massachusetts stays taxable there even after you become a South Carolinian, and the filing trigger is still your total worldwide estate over $2 million, with the tax computed on the Massachusetts property. So the move itself protects the accounts; keeping the old house keeps one foot in their system.

What decides all of it is where you are domiciled at death, so if this is part of why you are moving, move properly: license, registration, voting, the primary-home application, all of it. We are not tax or estate advisers and the details belong with yours; the part we handle is making you a South Carolinian, and the checklist is where that starts.

What the sale buys

What a Massachusetts sale buys at the coast

A typical Massachusetts home runs about $669,000 on the statewide Zillow average, against about $342,000 here, on the same July 2026 measure: close to double, the widest spread of any state page we publish. Greater Boston runs higher than even that statewide number. Sell near the average there, buy near the average here, and the difference funds the move, the furniture and a margin that changes what retirement looks like. See how much further every dollar goes here compared with your hometown on the cost of living calculator.

The coast itself will look structurally familiar: Surfside Beach and Garden City run on compact ocean-block grids of cottages and beach houses, Pawleys Island pairs historic cottages with creek docks, and North Myrtle Beach adds the wide-beach neighborhoods. The water is warmer for longer, which the weather page shows month by month, and the town by town page compares all ten areas.

The income tax

Five percent flat sounds close to ours. It mostly is.

Massachusetts charges 5 percent on nearly everything, plus 4 percent more on income above about $1.08 million. South Carolina's top rate is 5.21 percent. On rates alone this is the closest matchup of any state we cover.

South Carolina starts a joint return with a $30,000 standard deduction where Massachusetts has none, only an $8,800 personal exemption, so a middle income keeps more here before any rate applies. Massachusetts taxes short-term capital gains at 8.5 percent where South Carolina treats them as ordinary income. And the 9 percent top combined rate above the million-dollar line simply has no counterpart here.

If a business sale, vested stock or a large short-term gain is landing in the same year as your move, the timing of the sale against the change of domicile could be huge savings, and it is a question for your accountant before you sign anything.

Retirees, both directions

Check your pension type before you decide

Most of this page runs in South Carolina's favor, so read this section twice, because it does not. Massachusetts does not tax its own contributory public pensions: a retired Massachusetts teacher, police officer or state worker collects that pension free of Massachusetts income tax. South Carolina treats it like any other pension. Two deductions soften that: once you are 65, up to $10,000 of retirement income is deducted, and another $15,000 comes off any income, per person. Above those amounts, the pension is taxed here.

For a couple with one large Massachusetts public pension, that single line can offset much of what the property tax gives back. It does not usually reverse the whole answer, because the house, the heat and the property tax all still cost less here, but it narrows it, and nobody should discover that in April. Run both states against your actual pension before you list the house; the calculator takes a minute and we will happily check the arithmetic with you.

Everything else lands the usual way. Social Security is untaxed in both states. Private pensions, 401(k) and IRA withdrawals face the Massachusetts flat rate with no senior exclusion, against South Carolina's deductions. And military retirement is fully exempt here at any age, which Massachusetts also honors. The retiree page covers what else changes at this stage of the move.

The rest of the bill

The property tax and the car excise both fall here

Property tax

Massachusetts runs about 1 percent effective with a median bill of $6,080, the bill pushed up by the values underneath it. Horry County's primary-home rate works out near 0.38 percent and the median South Carolina bill is $1,337. You apply for the primary rate yourself by May 31; the property tax page has the calculator and the deadline.

The car excise you already pay

No warning needed here either. Massachusetts bills $25 per $1,000 of valuation, the same 2.5 percent in every town. Horry County taxes vehicles on value too, and the working bill is smaller for most movers: about $362 a year on a $30,000 car in the unincorporated county, about $458 inside the City of Myrtle Beach, plus a $50 road fee and the one-time $250 fee when an out-of-state title first registers. The checklist has the 45-day order of operations.

Sales tax rises

Massachusetts charges 6.25 percent and exempts groceries and clothing under $175. 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. The grocery run is the exception both ways: groceries are untaxed in Horry County and everyday goods price lower here than in Massachusetts on the federal price index, so the cart itself usually costs less. Clothing loses its exemption, which is fair to know before the first back-to-school shopping.

First hand

What one Boston retiree did with a $450,000 sale

A friend of ours ran a Boston hotel for years. He retired with about $100,000 saved, sold his Massachusetts house for about $450,000, and bought three condos in one oceanfront building here. Then he decided to manage the rentals himself instead of hiring it out.

The three units grossed over $120,000 a year, and about half of that came through as profit after dues, cleaning and the rest. Those are his real numbers, from a real story, and they are not a promise. The market-wide ranges, from five data vendors, are on our Airbnb income page, and his units sit at the strong end of them. The part worth translating is what $60,000 of profit means here: on the same index our cost of living calculator runs, $60,000 in Myrtle Beach spends like about $69,000 in Boston.

He works fewer hours than the forty he left behind, and he spends them where he lives: mornings on the sand, afternoons at the pool deck of the building he owns in, evenings with friends he made here. His friends up north saw how well he was doing and how happy he was, and it changed their plans too: several bought oceanfront condos of their own through us, some moved down themselves, and today he helps manage fourteen units. He came here to retire quietly and built a business he loves instead. We helped him learn this market and introduced him around when he landed, and he became a friend well beyond the work. We are proud of what he has built.

His figures as he shared them, rounded. Condo buildings differ on rental use and financing; the building directory and condotel financing page show how.

Common questions

Massachusetts to Myrtle Beach FAQ

Sources: Massachusetts estate tax guide, Massachusetts DOR tax rates, 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.