South Carolina Bankruptcy Exemptions: Home, Vehicle, Wildcard

If you file bankruptcy in South Carolina, you can protect up to $76,125 of equity in your home, $7,600 of equity in one vehicle, your retirement accounts, and a defined list of personal property and benefits under state law. South Carolina bankruptcy exemptions are set by S.C. Code § 15-41-30, and the state has opted out of the federal exemption list, so you use the state figures whether or not the federal numbers would have been better for you.¹ The dollar amounts below reflect the figures in effect since July 1, 2024.²

Do You Qualify to Use South Carolina’s Exemptions

Living in South Carolina on the day you file is not enough. Under 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A), you must have been domiciled in the state for the 730 days (roughly two years) immediately before you file.³ If you moved here more recently, the court looks at where you lived for most of the 180 days before that two-year window and applies that earlier state’s exemption list instead.

If the domicile rule leaves you ineligible for any state’s exemptions, federal law lets you fall back on the federal list in 11 U.S.C. § 522(d).³

Home Equity: The Homestead Exemption

S.C. Code § 15-41-30(A)(1) protects equity in your primary residence, which can be a house, a mobile home, or an interest in a cooperative, along with a burial plot for you or a dependent. The current limit is $76,125 per individual filer.²

Spouses who file jointly and both own the home can double the protection to $152,250. The statute caps the total homestead exemption for any single living unit at $152,250 no matter how many owners there are, and each owner is limited to their fractional share.¹

What the exemption shields is equity, not market value. Equity is the home’s value minus the mortgage balance and any other liens. A house worth $250,000 with a $200,000 mortgage has $50,000 in equity, which sits comfortably inside the individual limit. If your equity runs above the cap, a Chapter 7 trustee can sell the home, pay you the exempt amount, and send the rest to creditors.

Vehicle Equity

Under S.C. Code § 15-41-30(A)(2), you can protect up to $7,600 of equity in one motor vehicle.² A car worth $12,000 with an $8,000 loan has $4,000 in equity and is fully covered. The statute covers one vehicle per filer, so joint-filing spouses can each exempt a separate car. If you own a second vehicle or your equity in one runs over $7,600, the wildcard exemption may close the gap.

Household Goods, Clothing, and Jewelry

S.C. Code § 15-41-30(A)(3) protects household furnishings, clothing, appliances, books, animals, crops, and musical instruments held primarily for personal or family use, with a combined cap of $6,100.² Value is what the items would sell for today, not what you paid. Used furniture and clothing almost always come in well under this cap.

Jewelry has its own exemption under subsection (A)(4), capped at $1,525 for pieces held for personal use.² A sentimental family ring with modest resale value fits easily; a high-value diamond may not.

Tools of the Trade

If you need specific equipment to earn a living, subsection (A)(6) covers up to $2,275 in tools, professional books, and work implements belonging to you or a dependent.¹² A mechanic with a full tool chest or a contractor with powered equipment can exceed this quickly, and the wildcard may help with the overflow.

The Wildcard Exemption

South Carolina’s wildcard under S.C. Code § 15-41-30(A)(7) is not a free-standing allowance. It lets you redirect up to $7,600 of unused exemption amounts from subsections (A)(1) through (A)(6) to any property you choose.¹²

That distinction matters. If you rent and have no homestead to protect, you have a large unused amount under (A)(1) and can shift up to $7,600 of it toward cash in the bank, a tax refund, or extra vehicle equity. If you’ve already used the full homestead and vehicle amounts, the wildcard only draws on whatever’s left in the other personal property categories. It cannot push your homestead above the statutory cap. Renters tend to benefit most from this provision.

Retirement Accounts

Retirement savings get some of the strongest protection in the statute. S.C. Code § 15-41-30(A)(14) exempts interests in pension plans qualified under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which covers most employer 401(k) plans, defined benefit pensions, and similar workplace accounts. No dollar cap applies.¹

Traditional and Roth IRAs fall under subsection (A)(13), and the state statute specifically carves them out from South Carolina’s opt-out of federal exemptions.¹ Federal law caps combined Traditional and Roth IRA protection at $1,711,975 for cases filed between April 2025 and March 2028. Amounts rolled over into an IRA from an employer plan don’t count against that cap.

Two limits to be aware of. If money was moved into an IRA as a fraudulent transfer to shield it from creditors, the court can reduce or wipe out that part of the exemption. And IRAs inherited from someone other than a spouse (for instance, from a parent or sibling) may not qualify for exemption at all.

Government Benefits, Support, and Insurance

S.C. Code § 15-41-30(A)(11) protects your right to receive, and property traceable to, several income sources with no dollar cap:¹

Social Security benefits, unemployment compensation, and local public assistance.
Veterans’ benefits.
Disability and illness benefits, with a limited exception under S.C. Code § 15-41-33.
Alimony, child support, and separate maintenance you receive.
Payments from stock bonus, pension, profit-sharing, annuity, or similar plans received on account of illness, disability, death, age, or length of service, where the plan qualifies under the relevant Internal Revenue Code sections.

The protection depends on the funds being traceable to a protected source. Mixing a Social Security deposit into a general checking account makes tracing harder, so keeping benefit payments in a separate account is a sensible habit.

Subsection (A)(12) covers crime victim reparations, personal injury settlements or judgments for bodily harm to the debtor, and wrongful death awards for someone the debtor depended on.¹ Life insurance proceeds from the death of someone you depended on are also protected under (A)(12)(c), but only to the extent reasonably necessary for your support.

A separate statute, S.C. Code § 38-63-40, gives life insurance an extra layer. Proceeds and cash surrender values payable to a named beneficiary other than the insured’s estate are generally exempt from the insured’s creditors when a spouse, child, or dependent is the primary beneficiary.⁴ Policies bought within two years of filing bankruptcy are an exception and get only the protection available under § 15-41-30.

How Exemptions Play Out in Chapter 7 vs Chapter 13

The dollar amounts are the same in both chapters, but they do different jobs.

In Chapter 7, the trustee compares your assets to the exemption limits and can sell anything that isn’t fully covered. A car with $12,000 in equity against a $7,600 vehicle exemption could be sold, with $7,600 paid back to you and $4,400 going to creditors. In practice, most Chapter 7 cases in South Carolina are “no-asset” cases where everything fits inside the exemptions.

In Chapter 13, you keep all your property regardless of value. The tradeoff is that your repayment plan has to pay unsecured creditors at least what they would have received in a Chapter 7 liquidation. If you have $10,000 of non-exempt property, your plan has to distribute at least $10,000 to unsecured creditors over its three-to-five-year term. Your exemptions set the floor for what the plan will cost.

When the Numbers Change

South Carolina adjusts these dollar amounts every two years under S.C. Code § 15-41-30(B), using the Southeastern Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. New figures take effect on July 1 of each even-numbered year, and the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office publishes the updated amounts in the State Register by March 1 of that year.¹ The next adjustment takes effect July 1, 2026. If you’re filing near that date, confirm the current numbers through the South Carolina Bankruptcy Court or the State Register before relying on any specific figure.²

1
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 15 Chapter 41 – Homestead and Other Exemptions
2
United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Carolina. Reminder: South Carolina Exemption Amount Adjustments
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 522 – Exemptions
4
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 38-63-40 – Life Insurance Exemption