Gov. Henry McMaster submitted South Carolina's Opportunity Zone 2.0 nominations to the U.S. Treasury on September 23, 2026, according to SC Commerce. Its published list has 112 census tracts, 84 marked rural and 28 non-rural, in 45 counties. That is every county with an eligible tract. All 112 are on the IRS Rev. Proc. 2026-14 eligibility appendix, which lists 445 South Carolina tracts for a 25% cap of 112, and the rural labels match the appendix. Richland County has the most nominations (9). Treasury still has to certify the list; certified zones take effect January 1, 2027.
What SC Commerce says. The SC Commerce Opportunity Zone page says “Governor McMaster submitted his nominations for Opportunity Zones to the US Treasury on September 23, 2026,” links the list, and says that “once approved by the US Treasury, the new OZs will go into effect on January 1, 2027.” The list is a PDF titled Final Recommendations, dated 9.22.26, with each tract's county, 11-digit census tract number and rural status.
The numbers. The list has 112 unique tracts: 84 marked Rural and 28 Non-rural. We checked every tract against the eligibility appendix to IRS Rev. Proc. 2026-14 (appendix spreadsheet). All 112 are eligible, and the state's rural label matches the appendix's rural flag for each one. The appendix lists 445 eligible South Carolina tracts (326 rural), so the 25% cap, rounded up, is 112. South Carolina used every slot. Rural tracts are 75% of the picks, compared with 73% of the eligible pool. That matters because a qualified rural opportunity fund gets a 30% basis step-up instead of 10% under OZ 2.0 (IRS Notice 2026-55).
Where they are. The 112 tracts cover 45 counties, which is every South Carolina county with at least one eligible tract in the appendix. Richland has the most (9), followed by Charleston, Greenville and Spartanburg (6 each), Orangeburg (5), and Aiken and Horry (4 each). The 28 non-rural tracts are concentrated in Richland (8), Charleston (6), Greenville (6) and Lexington (3); the rest of the state's picks are rural.
Overlap with today's zones. Using our crosswalk of the CDFI Fund list of 2018 zones to 2020 tract boundaries, 51 of the 112 nominated tracts are current Opportunity Zones and 1 is partly in one. The other 60 would be new zones if Treasury certifies them. See the matching method.
What happens next. Under Rev. Proc. 2026-14, Treasury has a 30-day consideration period after it receives a nomination; see our explainer on Treasury's review window. Every nominated tract, with its rural and current-zone status, is now marked on the South Carolina zone page and in its tract CSV, and on the OZ map. South Carolina's filing is on our OZ 2.0 tracker.
Original reporting by Sarah Whitfield for Opportunity Zone Invest, an independent OZ 2.0 research site. Facts are drawn from the primary sources cited above per our editorial standards. Nothing here is tax, legal, or investment advice.
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