If your watercraft is currently registered in another state and you are looking to reregister it in Beaufort County, please refer to one of the following scenarios:
Watercraft was previously registered in South Carolina
If your watercraft was previously registered in South Carolina at some point, our office will need to create a personal property tax bill before you send your documentation to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR). To have an account created, our office will need the following:
- Driver’s licenses or photo IDs of the listed watercraft owners (expired IDs are not accepted)
- The watercraft title
The requested documentation can be submitted to our office by filling out the request ticket form linked at the bottom of this article. Copies can be scans or images taken from a smartphone, as long as the information is legible and preferably in PDF or a common image file format (PNG, JPEG).
Please be aware that if the watercraft is flagged through DNR as having outstanding or unpaid taxes within South Carolina, our office will not be able to have a bill created until the delinquent flag has been lifted by the county Treasurer in question. To determine whether the watercraft is up to date with taxes, you will either need to contact DNR at 803-734-3857 (Columbia) or 843-953-9301 (Charleston), or you can look up the status of the watercraft through their website here: Boat/Motor Status Search
Watercraft has never been registered in South Carolina at any time
If the watercraft has never been titled or registered in South Carolina, then you can submit your information directly to DNR for processing, and a personal property tax bill will automatically be mailed to you at a later time. Our office is unable to create personal property tax bills for watercrafts unless they have an associated South Carolina title number, which is assigned by DNR.
If you are unsure, it is recommended to contact DNR at 803-734-3857 (Columbia) or 843-953-9301 (Charleston) to determine whether a bill needs to be created for your watercraft prior to reregistering.
Submit your information
To begin the process of having your watercraft reregistered if it has ever been titled in South Carolina, please provide our office the above applicable documentation by filling out and attaching documents to the request form linked here:
Watercraft Request Ticket