How to Renew Your Boat Registration in South Carolina (and Why You Won't Pay SCDNR)

Last verified: July 27, 2026

Your decals are about to expire, so you go looking for the SCDNR renewal page, and nothing quite fits. There is a form, but it says it is only for certain boats. There is an online portal, but it wants a PIN you never received. The reason is simple: most South Carolina boat owners never renew with SCDNR at all. The $10 annual renewal fee shows up on the county property tax bill, and paying that bill is the entire renewal.

Here is how the system actually works, who the exceptions are, and what it costs if you miss the date.

Renewal Is Annual, and It Runs Through Your County

Two changes reshaped this. Registrations moved from a three-year cycle to an annual one effective January 1, 2020, replacing a $30 three-year fee with a $10 annual one (SCDNR, 2020 Registration Renewal Changes). That was not a fee cut. SCDNR describes the new structure as “$30 every three years – the same TOTAL amount as before,” just collected in smaller yearly pieces. Then the billing moved to the counties. As SCDNR puts it: “Beginning January 2021, your annual registration renewal fee of $10.00 will be billed by your county along with your property taxes.”

That is why your decal expiration lines up with tax season rather than with the date you bought the boat. SCDNR states it directly: “The expiration month of your watercraft decals will be the month the personal property taxes on your boat are due to the county along with the $10.00 annual registration renewal fee.”

So the renewal chain runs county first, agency second. You pay your county tax bill, which includes both the property tax and the $10 renewal fee. Your county then notifies SCDNR that both have been paid, and SCDNR issues the new decal and registration card. You do not file anything and you do not contact SCDNR.

One consequence worth knowing: South Carolina bills boat property taxes prospectively, meaning for the coming year rather than the year just finished. If you want the fuller picture of where those dollars land, we covered it in where SC boat property tax money actually goes.

What You Actually Do

For the large majority of SC boat owners, the complete renewal procedure is this:

Watch for the property tax notice from your county in the month your decals expire.
Pay it, including the $10 registration renewal line.
Wait for the new decal and registration card to arrive from SCDNR.

That is the whole process. If the bill has not shown up and your expiration month is here, call your county Auditor or Treasurer rather than SCDNR. The agency is explicit that questions about an individual tax bill have to go to the county office that issued it.

Who Still Renews Directly With SCDNR

Two groups fall outside the county billing path.

Non-taxable boats. Some boats have aged past their taxable life or fallen below the county’s dollar threshold, so no property tax bill gets generated for them. There would be nothing to attach the renewal fee to. SCDNR handles these itself: “SCDNR will continue to mail renewal notices for boats that are non-taxable (boats that a county has determined have reached the end of their taxable life or dollar threshold).”

Taxable boats billed without the renewal fee. Occasionally a county bills the property tax but leaves the $10 renewal off. In that case you renew with SCDNR and attach proof you already paid the county.

If you are in either group, you have two options. The online renewal portal asks for your SC registration number and a renewal PIN, and that PIN comes from the renewal notice SCDNR mailed you. No notice means no PIN, which is exactly why the portal turns people away who were never supposed to use it in the first place.

The alternative is Form BM-402, Boating Renewal, Duplicate Decals and Registration Cards (SCDNR, BM-402 PDF). The form spells out its own eligibility on its face: it covers tax-exempt boats, which is the form’s wording for the non-taxable boats above, and taxable boats where property taxes were paid to the county without the renewal fee, in which case it “must be accompanied by a paid tax receipt for the upcoming year.” Mail it to SCDNR Boating, Attn: Renewal, PO Box 167, Columbia, SC 29202-0167.

Note the warning printed at the top of BM-402: it is not to be used to change ownership. If you bought the boat and are trying to get it into your name, that is a BTR-1 transaction, not a renewal. See our SC boat title transfer checklist.

Renewal and Replacement Fees

Transaction	Fee
Annual registration renewal	$10.00
Duplicate registration card	$5.00
Duplicate watercraft decals	$5.00
Duplicate motor decal	$5.00
Address change	$0.00
Late fee, 31 to 60 days past expiration	$15.00
Late fee, 61 or more days past expiration	$30.00

Fees confirmed against SCDNR’s fee schedule and Form BM-402. All three duplicate transactions and the address change run through BM-402, so a lost card and a lost decal are a single mailing.

If You Let It Lapse

The late fee structure has two steps. SCDNR’s fee schedule reads: “A $15.00 late fee is required if application for registration renewal is not received within 30 days after registration expires,” and “A $30.00 late fee is required if application for registration renewal is not received within 60 days after registration expires.” Form BM-402 frames the same thresholds as 31 to 60 days for the $15.00 fee and 61 or more days for the $30.00 fee.

The larger risk is not the fee. South Carolina law requires that the certificate of number issued to a vessel be on board and “in full force and effect” whenever it is operated (SC Code 50-23-310). An expired certificate does not meet that standard, so you are in violation from the first day past expiration, and a warden checking your registration does not care that the bill is in the mail.

If your registration lapsed years ago rather than months, you are likely past a simple renewal and into re-registering the boat outright. That path is covered in how to register a boat you already own in South Carolina.

Five Things That Trip People Up

Your registration number does not change. Only the decals and the card get reissued each year. SCDNR was blunt enough about this to apologize for the confusion: “When a boat is registered in S.C., the registration number for that boat stays the same for as long as it remains registered in S.C.”

New decals go in a specific spot. State law puts the identifying number on each side of the forward half of the vessel, with the decals attached to each side of the bow within six inches following that number (SC Code 50-23-310). Since your number never changes, renewal is usually just peeling last year’s decal and placing the new one in the same position.

Address changes are on a 30-day clock. SCDNR requires a Notification of Address Change within 30 days of any move, mailed to PO Box 167, Columbia, SC 29202. This matters more than it sounds. Your renewal now depends on a county tax notice reaching you by mail, and a stale address means a missed bill, then a lapsed registration, then a late fee.

A newly purchased boat sets its own month. For a boat you just registered, the renewal month follows the purchase date. SCDNR’s example: a boat purchased in January gets a decal valid through the following January, no matter when in that window the owner actually applied.

Selling the boat does not end your obligation automatically. You have to notify SCDNR within 30 days of the sale, or tax notices keep arriving in your name. The seller’s side is laid out in how to sell your boat in South Carolina.

What Changes in 2027

H.3858 does not alter the renewal mechanism, but it does change what the county bill totals. The law cuts the property tax assessment ratio on watercraft from 10.5% to 6%, phased in across tax years 2027 through 2029, so the property tax portion of your renewal bill should shrink each year over that stretch. The $10 renewal fee and the county billing path stay as they are. Our overview of the SC boat tax cut covers the schedule, and seven hidden details in the law goes deeper on the provisions that got less attention.

Quick Reference

Renewal is annual, $10, and for most owners it is billed by your county along with your boat property taxes.
Pay the county bill and SCDNR issues the new decal and card automatically. There is nothing to file.
Your decal expiration month is the month your boat property taxes are due to the county.
Direct SCDNR renewal applies to non-taxable boats and to taxable boats billed without the renewal fee. Use the online portal with the PIN from your renewal notice, or mail Form BM-402.
Late fees are $15.00 from 31 to 60 days past expiration and $30.00 at 61 days or more.
Duplicate card, watercraft decals, and motor decal are $5.00 each. An address change is free.
Missing tax bill? Call your county Auditor or Treasurer, not SCDNR.

When You Need More Than a Renewal

Renewal is the easy transaction, because the county does most of the work. The hard ones are purchases, transfers, and registering a boat that has never been in the system. BoatForms fills out the SC BTR-1 for those situations, calculates the casual excise tax and fees, and builds a checklist of exactly what to send SCDNR. Free to use, no account required.