South Carolina Window Tint: 27 Percent on Every Tinted Window

The controlling number is twenty-seven percent, and subsection (C) is explicit that it is the combined light transmission of the sunscreening device with the factory or manufacturer installed sunscreening material. That matters when you buy film: a twenty-seven percent film laid over already tinted factory privacy glass will meter well below the limit, so the rating printed on the roll is not the figure a trooper reads. Subsection (J)(2) defines light transmission as the ratio of the amount of total visible light to pass through a product or material to the amount of the total light falling on it, and subsection (J)(4) defines nonreflective as a product or material primarily designed to absorb light rather than to reflect it. Mirrored, metallic-looking film fails on that definition alone, before any percentage is measured.

South Carolina is unusual in refusing to give the rear windows a darker allowance. Subsection (C) sweeps in the side windows behind the driver at the same twenty-seven percent as the front, and subsection (D)(2) has applied that figure to the rear-most window since January 1, 1993. The only survivor of the older, darker rule is subsection (D)(3): a vehicle whose rear-most window met the twenty percent standard of subsection (D)(1) when the film was installed is not in violation, but only so long as the original sunscreen device is still in place. Re-film that window today and the twenty-seven percent figure governs. The rear window also carries a mirror condition, stated twice, in (D)(1) and again in (D)(2), as a requirement rather than advice: if a sunscreening device is used on the rear-most window, one right and one left outside rearview mirror is required. Section 56-5-4990 separately requires a mirror giving a view of at least two hundred feet to the rear whenever the vehicle is built or loaded so as to obstruct it.

On the windshield, subsection (B) permits film only along the top and not below the AS1 line, which subsection (J)(11) defines by reference to the glazing material position marking in 49 C.F.R. Section 571.205, Subsection S5.1.1. If the AS1 line is not visible on your glass, no sunscreening device may be applied to the windshield at all. Red, yellow and amber film is banned outright on every window.

Subsection (I) carves out vehicle classes rather than window positions. The light transmittance requirement applies to windows behind the driver on pickup trucks, but does not apply to windows behind the driver on other trucks, buses, trailers, mobile homes, multipurpose passenger vehicles and recreational vehicles. Subsection (J)(5) defines a multipurpose passenger vehicle as one designed to carry ten persons or less, constructed either on a truck chassis or with special features for occasional off-road operation, which is how many sport utility vehicles escape the rear limit while a pickup truck squarely does not.

Subsection (E) adds a paperwork rule that catches drivers who bought compliant film. Every vehicle with an after-factory sunscreening device must at all times bear a certificate of compliance, in a size and form prescribed by the Department of Public Safety, attached on the inside and lower right hand corner of each tinted window, stating the percentage of light transmission allowed, the identity of the installer by name, address and telephone number, and the date of installation. Subsection (F) puts the duty to supply that certificate, and instructions for affixing it, on the manufacturer of the film.

Medical relief runs through subsection (H)(1). A vehicle registered in South Carolina in the name of a person, or that person legal guardian, who holds an affidavit signed by a physician or an optometrist licensed to practice in this State stating that a physical condition makes darker material necessary sits outside the section entirely. The affidavit must be in the vehicle at all times during its operation, must be produced at the request of a law enforcement officer, and must be updated every two years. Subsection (H)(2) exempts a law enforcement vehicle used regularly to transport a canine trained for law enforcement purposes.

Enforcement is entirely roadside. South Carolina runs no periodic motor vehicle safety inspection: Article 37 of Chapter 5, headed Condition of Vehicles, contains a single section, 56-5-5310, which does no more than require equipment in good working order and a vehicle in safe mechanical condition. A full-text search of the Code of Laws returns no matches for inspection sticker, and no light-transmittance figure appears anywhere in the South Carolina Code of Regulations, so there is no annual lane test standing behind the twenty-seven percent number. Under Section 56-5-6170 the Department of Public Safety administers and enforces Chapter 5 on state highways, and law enforcement officers generally enforce it within their own jurisdictions.

Subsection (K) makes it a misdemeanor triable in magistrate court for a person who owns or operates a vehicle in violation of the section, punishable by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars or imprisonment for not more than thirty days. The certificate rules carry heavier and separate consequences under subsection (G): a professional window tinter, defined in subsection (J)(13) as a person who installs sunscreening devices for profit, who violates subsection (E) or (G) must be fined not less than one thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than thirty days, or both, for each offense, while a consumer who does so must be fined not less than two hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than thirty days for each offense.

Note the direction of those figures: for the shop it is a floor, not a cap, and it runs per offense, so a car with four uncertified windows is exposed four times over. Offering non-compliant film for sale or use in South Carolina is itself an offense under subsection (G)(1). Glass that also blocks the driver view can draw a second charge under Section 56-5-5000, and Section 56-5-4410 makes it unlawful to drive a vehicle equipped in any manner in violation of the equipment article.

Cases are heard in magistrate court, and under Section 56-5-6200 the fine is paid to the county treasurer, or to the city treasurer where a municipal officer wrote the ticket.