The phrase "paid in or capital surplus" means the entire surplus of a corporation other than earned surplus including, but not limited to, amounts charged against earned surplus and credited to other surplus accounts, donated capital, amounts representing the increase in valuation of assets made upon a revaluation of the company's assets, and amounts credited to any surplus account other than earned surplus as a result of a merger or acquisition regardless of whether the amount credited to the surplus account was transferred from an earned surplus account.
For purposes of this section "earned surplus" means that portion of the surplus of a corporation equal to the balance of its net profits, income, gains, and losses from the date of incorporation or from the latest date when a deficit was eliminated by application of its capital surplus, after deducting subsequent distributions to shareholders and transfers to stated capital and capital surplus to the extent that such distributions and transfers are made out of earned surplus.
S.C. Code § 12-20-50
2004 Act No. 168, Section 2.B provides as follows:
"Notwithstanding the general effective date of this act, this section takes effect upon approval of this act by the Governor and applies to increases in capital over the prior year's capital on January 1, 2003, and thereafter."