A combination of total-energy studies of SiC surface structures with MBE growth experiments monitored by RHEED is used to contribute to an understanding of the interplay of surface geometry and stoichiometry and the resulting bond stacking, i.e. the local SiC polytype. Such an understanding may help to prepare heteropolytypic structures. In particular, the interplay of surface reconstruction, substrate polytype and bond stacking resulting in the subsurface region is studied.