Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 12 > Chapter 37 - Assessment of Property Taxes

• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Aircraft: means any contrivance, used or designed for navigation or flight through the air. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2410
• Airline company: means any person who undertakes, directly or indirectly, to engage in the regularly scheduled transportation by aircraft of persons or property for hire in interstate, intrastate or international transportation. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2410
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Annuity issuer: means an insurer that has issued a contract to fund periodic payments under a structured settlement. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• appraised: means the process provided by law for the property tax assessor to determine the fair market value of real property and additions and improvements to real property. See South Carolina Code 12-37-3130
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assessable transfer of interest: means a transfer of an existing interest in real property that subjects the real property to appraisal. See South Carolina Code 12-37-3130
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Assignee: means a person acquiring or proposing to acquire structured settlement payments from a structured settlement purchase company or transferee after, or concurrently with, the transfer of the structured settlement payment rights by the payee to the structured settlement purchase company or transferee. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Bus: means every motor vehicle designed for carrying more than sixteen passengers and used for the transportation of persons, for compensation, other than a taxicab or intercity bus. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2810
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• clerk: as used in this title , signifies the clerk of the court where the action is pending and, in the Supreme Court or the court of appeals, the clerk of the county mentioned in the title of the complaint or in another county to which the court may have changed the place of trial, unless otherwise specified. See South Carolina Code 15-1-60
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• Commercial motor vehicle: means a motor propelled vehicle used for the transportation of property on a public highway, except for farm vehicles using FM tags as allowed by the Department of Motor Vehicles. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2810
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Commonly controlled: means persons having relationships as described in Section 267(b) of the Internal Revenue Code as defined in § 12-6-40(A). See South Carolina Code 12-37-3130
• Company: shall be deemed and construed to mean any person, copartnership, association, corporation, or syndicate that may own or operate, or be engaged in operating, furnishing, or leasing cars, as defined and described in this section, whether formed or organized under the laws of this State or any other State or territory. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2110
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conveyance: means the date of the transfer of an assessable transfer of interest in real property. See South Carolina Code 12-37-3130
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the South Carolina Department of Revenue. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2110
• Department: means the South Carolina Department of Revenue. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2410
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Dependents: include a payee's spouse and minor children and all other persons for whom the payee legally is obligated to provide support, including alimony. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• Discounted present value: means the present value of future payments determined by discounting the payments to the present using the most recently published applicable federal rate for determining the present value of an annuity, as issued by the United States Internal Revenue Service. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Foreign subpoena: means a subpoena issued under authority of a court of record of a foreign jurisdiction. See South Carolina Code 15-47-110
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Gross advance amount: means the sum payable to the payee or for the payee's account as consideration for a transfer of structured settlement payment rights before a reduction for transfer expenses or other deduction is made from the consideration. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Highway: means all public roads, highways, streets, and ways in this State, whether within a municipality or outside of a municipality. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2810
• Independent professional advice: means advice of an attorney, certified public accountant, actuary, or other licensed professional advisor. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• individual: means a human being. See South Carolina Code 12-2-20
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Interested parties: means , with respect to a structured settlement, the payee, a beneficiary irrevocably designated under the annuity contract to receive payments following the payee's death, the annuity issuer, the structured settlement obligor, and any other party to the structured settlement that has continuing rights or obligations to receive or make payments under the structured settlement. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
• Large commercial motor vehicle: means a commercial motor vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of greater than twenty-six thousand pounds that is registered under the International Registration Plan or used on a highway for the transportation of property. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2810
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Life estate: A property interest limited in duration to the life of the individual holding the interest (life tenant).
• Motor carrier: means a person or legal entity who owns, controls, operates, manages, or leases a commercial motor vehicle, or bus for the transportation of property or persons in intrastate or interstate commerce except for scheduled intercity bus service and farm vehicles using FM tags as allowed by the Department of Motor Vehicles. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2810
• Net advance amount: means the gross advance amount less the aggregate amount of the actual and estimated transfer expenses that must be disclosed pursuant to § 15-50-30(5). See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• partnership: includes a limited liability company taxed for South Carolina income tax purposes as a partnership;
  
  (2) "partner" includes a member of a limited liability company taxed for South Carolina income tax purposes as a partnership;
  
  (3) "corporation" includes a limited liability company or professional or other association taxed for South Carolina income tax purposes as a corporation; and
  
  (4) "shareholder" includes a member of a limited liability company taxed for South Carolina income tax purposes as a corporation. See South Carolina Code 12-2-25
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Payee: means an individual who is receiving tax-free payments under a structured settlement and who proposes to make a transfer of payment rights under the settlement. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Periodic payments: includes recurring payments and scheduled future lump-sum payments. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See South Carolina Code 15-47-110
• Person: means any individual, corporation, firm, partnership, company or association, and includes a guardian, trustee, executor, administrator, receiver, conservator or any person acting in a fiduciary capacity therefor. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2410
• Person: means any individual, corporation, firm, partnership, company or association, and includes a guardian, trustee, executor, administrator, receiver, conservator, or a person acting in a fiduciary capacity. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2810
• personal property: as used in this Title , include money, goods, chattels, things in action and evidences of debt. See South Carolina Code 15-1-40
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Private car: includes a passenger car, sleeping car, dining car, express car, refrigerator car, oil or tank car, horse or stock car, fruit car, or any car designed for the carrying of a special commodity, operated upon the railroads in this State. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2110
• Probate: Proving a will
• property: as used in this Title , includes both real and personal property. See South Carolina Code 15-1-50
• Property tax assessor: means the county assessor, an assessor appointed to handle multiple county assessments pursuant to an intergovernmental agreement, or the Department of Revenue, as applicable. See South Carolina Code 12-37-3130
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Prospective payee: means an individual who is receiving tax-free payments under a structured settlement pursuant to United States Code, title 26, § 130, and who has been personally and individually solicited by and has not yet proposed to transfer all or a portion of the structured settlement payment rights to a structured settlement purchase company. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Qualified assignment agreement: means an agreement providing for a qualified assignment within the meaning of Section 130 of the United States Internal Revenue Code, United States Code Title 26. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• real estate: as used in this Title are coextensive with lands, tenements and hereditaments. See South Carolina Code 15-1-30
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Real property: shall mean not only land, city, town and village lots but also all structures and other things therein contained or annexed or attached thereto which pass to the vendee by the conveyance of the land or lot;
  
  (2) "Personal property" shall mean all things, other than real estate, which have any pecuniary value, and moneys, credits, investments in bonds, stocks, joint-stock companies or otherwise;
  
  (3) "Moneys" or "money" shall mean gold, silver and other coin, bank bills and other bills or notes authorized to be circulated as money, whether in possession or on deposit subject to the draft of the depositor or person having the beneficial interest therein on demand;
  
  (4) "Credits" shall mean the remainder due, or to become due, to a person, after deducting from the amount of all legal debts, claims and demands in his favor the amount of all legal debts and demands against him, whether such demands be payable in money, labor or other valuable things, but, in ascertaining such remainder, no deduction shall be made for any (a) obligation to any mutual insurance company given for insurance, (b) subscription to the capital stock of any joint-stock company, (c) taxes assessed against the person, (d) subscription to any religious, scientific, literary or charitable purpose, (e) acknowledgment of a liability not founded on a legal and valuable consideration, (f) more of any joint liability with others than the person honestly believes he will be compelled to pay, (g) contingent liability or (h) acknowledgment of a debt or liability made for the purpose of diminishing the amount of credit to be returned for taxation. See South Carolina Code 12-37-10
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Secretary: means the Secretary of State. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Semitrailers: means every vehicle with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and constructed so that a part of its weight and of its load rests upon or is carried by another vehicle. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2810
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• South Carolina apportionment factor: means the ratio of miles operated by a fleet of vehicles in South Carolina to the miles operated by the fleet of vehicles everywhere, which is used to apportion the registration fees of the fleet under the International Registration Plan. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2810
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, federally recognized Indian tribes, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See South Carolina Code 15-47-110
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Structured settlement: means an arrangement for periodic payment of damages for personal injuries or sickness established by settlement or judgment in resolution of a tort claim. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Structured settlement agreement: means the agreement, judgment, stipulation, or release embodying the terms of a structured settlement. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Structured settlement obligor: means , with respect to a structured settlement, the party that has the continuing obligation to make periodic payments to the payee under a structured settlement agreement or a qualified assignment agreement. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Structured settlement payment rights: means rights to receive periodic payments under a structured settlement, whether from the structured settlement obligor or the annuity issuer, if the:
  
  (a) payee is domiciled in, or the domicile or principal place of business of the structured settlement obligor or the annuity issuer is located in, this State; or
  
  (b) structured settlement agreement was approved by a court in this State; or
  
  (c) structured settlement agreement is governed expressly by the laws of this State. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Structured settlement purchase company: means a person who acts as a transferee in the State and who is registered with the Secretary pursuant to § 15-50-80 through § 15-50-150. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Structured settlement transfer proceeding: means a court proceeding initiated by the filing of an application by a structured settlement purchase company seeking court approval of a transfer in accordance with this chapter. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Subpoena: means a document, however denominated, issued under authority of a court of record requiring a person to:
  
  (a) attend and give testimony at a deposition;
  
  (b) produce and permit inspection and copying of designated books, documents, records, electronically stored information, or tangible things in the possession, custody, or control of the person; or
  
  (c) permit inspection of premises under the control of the person. See South Carolina Code 15-47-110
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Terms of the structured settlement: include the terms of the structured settlement agreement, the annuity contract, a qualified assignment agreement, and an order or other approval of a court that approved a structured settlement agreement. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Trailers: means every vehicle with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and constructed so that no part of its weight rests upon the towing vehicle. See South Carolina Code 12-37-2810
• Transfer: means the sale, assignment, pledge, hypothecation, or other alienation or encumbrance of structured settlement payment rights made by a payee for consideration; except that the term "transfer" does not include the creation or perfection of a security interest in structured settlement payment rights under a blanket security agreement entered into with an insured depository institution, in the absence of an action to redirect the structured settlement payments to the insured depository institution, or an agent or successor in interest of it, or otherwise to enforce the blanket security interest against the structured settlement payment rights. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Transfer agreement: means the agreement providing for a transfer of structured settlement payment rights. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Transfer expenses: means all expenses of a transfer that are required under the transfer agreement to be paid by the payee or deducted from the gross advance amount including, without limitation, court filing fees, attorneys' fees, escrow fees, lien recordation fees, judgment and lien search fees, finder's fees, commissions, and other payments to a broker or other intermediary. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Transfer order: means an order approving a transfer in accordance with this chapter. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Transferee: means a party acquiring or proposing to acquire structured settlement payment rights through a transfer. See South Carolina Code 15-50-20
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.