Who counted as an immediate family member for South Carolina property-tax purposes under RR 98-1?

Plain-English summary

South Carolina Revenue Ruling 98-1 defined an “immediate family member” for property-tax purposes as someone related to the owner within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity—meaning by blood or by marriage.

The covered relatives were parents, children (including adopted children), grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, great-grandparents, great-grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews. The ruling applied that definition across property-tax provisions because the legal-residence statute used the term without defining it, while the agricultural-property statute supplied a third-degree definition.

Why the definition mattered

Section 12-43-220(c)(1) provided a four-percent assessment for an owner's legal residence and up to five contiguous acres, and also addressed additional dwellings on the same property occupied by the owner's immediate family members.

Section 12-43-232 addressed when agricultural real property retained its classification after transfer. It expressly defined immediate family as a person related to the current owner within the third degree by blood or marriage.

The Department read those property-tax statutes together and used Section 12-43-232's definition as the general property-tax meaning.

How the third degree was counted

South Carolina used the civil-law method. Each step up or down the family line counted as one degree. Parents and children were first-degree relatives; grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings were second-degree relatives; and aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, great-grandparents, and great-grandchildren were third-degree relatives.

The ruling's quoted authority explained that first cousins were fourth-degree relatives, so they were outside this third-degree definition.

Adopted children were included. The ruling quoted the adoption statute as creating the parent-child relationship and its legal consequences between an adoptee, adoptive parent, and the adoptive parent's kindred.

Common questions

Q: Did “immediate family” include relatives by marriage?

A: Yes. The ruling used “affinity” for relationships by marriage and “consanguinity” for blood relationships.

Q: Were adopted children included?

A: Yes. The conclusion expressly included adopted children and cited the adoption statute.

Q: Were first cousins included?

A: No under the method described in the ruling. First cousins are fourth-degree relatives, while the definition stopped at the third degree.

Q: Did the ruling create one definition for every South Carolina law?

A: No. It recognized that other Code sections used different definitions for different purposes. Its conclusion concerned property tax.

Citations and references

• S.C. Code Ann. § 12-43-220(c) (legal residence and additional family dwellings)
• S.C. Code Ann. § 12-43-232 (agricultural property and immediate-family definition)
• S.C. Code Ann. § 20-7-1770 (adoption consequences quoted in the ruling)
• Simonton v. Edmunds, 25 S.E.2d 284 (S.C. 1943) (civil-law kinship method)
• Ex Parte Kreps, 39 S.E. 181 (S.C. 1901) (quoted kinship computation)

Subject

Definition of “Immediate Family Member”

Source

• Landing page: https://dor.sc.gov/advisory-opinion-search
• Original PDF: https://dor.sc.gov/sites/dor/files/policies/RR98-1.pdf

Original ruling text

State of South Carolina

Department of Revenue
301 Gervais Street, P. O. Box 125, Columbia, South Carolina 29214

SC REVENUE RULING # 98-1

SUBJECT:

Definition of “Immediate Family Member”
(Property Tax)

EFFECTIVE DATE:

Applies to all periods open under the statute.

SUPERSEDES:

All previous documents and any oral directives in conflict herewith.

REFERENCES:

S. C. Code Ann. Section 12-43-220(c)
S. C. Code Ann. Section 12-43-232

AUTHORITY:

S. C. Code Ann. Section 12-4-320 (Supp. 1996)
SC Revenue Procedure #97-8

SCOPE:

A Revenue Ruling is the Department of Revenue's official advisory
opinion of how laws administered by the Department are to be
applied to a specific issue or a specific set of facts, and is provided as
guidance for all persons or a particular group. It is valid and remains
in effect until superseded or modified by a change in the statute or
regulations or a subsequent court decision, Revenue Ruling or
Revenue Procedure.

Question:
What is the definition of “immediate family member” for property tax purposes?
Conclusion:
Immediate family member means a person related to another within the third degree of
consanguinity or affinity. A relative within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity of a person
consists of that person’s parents, children (including adopted children 1 ), grandparents,
grandchildren, siblings, great grandparents, great grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews,
either by blood or by marriage.

1

S. C. Code Ann. Section 20-7-1770 provides in pertinent part:
(A) After the final decree of adoption is entered, the relationship of parent and child
and all the rights, duties, and other legal consequences of the natural relationship of
parent and child exist between the adoptee, the adoptive parent, and the kindred of the
adoptive parent.

Background:
There is no general definition of “immediate family member” for property tax purposes. Several
different definitions of “immediate family member” appear in the S. C. Code, but each definition
varies substantially with the other depending on the purpose of the section to which the
definition refers. See, generally, S. C. Code Ann. Sections 7-25-200(A), 8-13-710(C), 8-13100(18), 12-36-1710(E), 12-43-232, and 44-113-20(9).
Discussion:
S. C. Code Ann. Section 12-43-220(c)(1) provides:
The legal residence and not more than five acres contiguous thereto, when owned totally or
in part in fee or by life estate and occupied by the owner of the interest, and additional
dwellings located on the same property and occupied by immediate family members of
the owner of the interest are taxed on an assessment equal to four percent of the fair market
value of the property.
(Emphasis added.)
This section does not define “immediate family member.”
Section 12-43-232, which deals with agricultural use property, is the only provision in S.C. law
which deals with property tax matters and which discusses “immediate family member.” It
provides in part:
The property must continue to be classified as agricultural real property until the
property is applied to some other use or until the property is transferred to other than an
immediate family member, whichever occurs first. For purposes of this subitem,
“immediate family” is a person related to the current owner within the third degree of
consanguinity or affinity . . . . (Emphasis added.)
In construing a statute, statutes on the same subject are construed together, even if they are enacted or
adopted at different times. Uniform State and Rule Construction Act, Section 18(f)(3). The legislature
is presumed to have adopted a new statute in light of, and with reference to, earlier acts on the same
subject. St. Louis, I. M. & S. R. Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 198, 64 L.Ed. 225, 40 S.Ct. 120 (1920).
Because Section 12-43-232 involves property tax matters and because there is no other definition of
“immediate family member” for property tax purposes, we conclude the South Carolina legislature intended
the Section 12-43-232 definition to be the generic definition of “immediate family member” for property tax
purposes.
Section 12-43-232 provides that “immediate family” is a person related to the current owner within the third
degree of consanguinity or affinity. Affinity refers to a relationship by marriage and consanguinity refers to
a blood relationship. See The American Heritage Dictionary, 3d edition.

2

Two formulas exist for determining the degree of kinship: the civil-law method and the common-law or
canon law method. 2 See 23 AmJur 2d, Section 55, Degrees of Kinship. South Carolina has adopted the
civil-law method.
“. . . In determining lineal consanguinity, each step up or down from the decedent counts as
one degree. Thus an intestate or his son or father are related in the first degree, and
intestate and his grandson or grandfather are related in the second degree. In determining
collateral consanguinity, the rule is to count up from the intestate to the common ancestor,
and then down to the person whose kindred with the intestate is sought to be ascertained.
In this computation each step, both in the ascending and the descending line, counts as one
degree. Thus an intestate and his brother are related in the second degree, and an intestate
and his cousin in the fourth degree.” [T]his . . . is the rule in South Carolina.
Simonton et al. v. Edmunds et al., 25 S.E.2d 284, 285 (S.C. 1943), quoting from Ex Parte Kreps, 39 S.E.
181 (1901).
“Computing by the rule of civil law, parents and children of a person are related to him in the first degree;
and grandparents, grandchildren, brothers and sisters of the person are related to him in the second degree.
Uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, and great-grandparents of a person are related to him in the third degree.”
Letter of Atty. Gen. to Dr. Jack S. Mullins dated Aug. 7, 1978, 1978 WL 35019 (S.C.A.G.)

SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

s/Burnet R. Maybank III
Burnet R. Maybank III, Director

Columbia, South Carolina
January 11
, 1998

2

“The degrees of consanguinity are reckoned as one degree for each person in the line of descent,
exclusive of him from whom the computation begins. This is so at the civil, canon, and common
law. At the civil law, the degree of consanguinity between collaterals is reckoned by
proceedings from one up to the common ancestor and then down to the other. At the common
and the canon law, the degrees between collaterals are found by taking the number from the
common ancestor to either, or the more remote of them.” See Webster’s New International
Dictionary, 2d. edition, unabridged.