Get your tax IDs in Hawaii

An EIN, if you need one, comes from the IRS. Hawaii then asks almost every business for a general excise license. That license is the state’s stand-in for a general business license. Employees add withholding, unemployment, and the labor coverages on Stay compliant.

What’s different in Hawaii

• There is no sales tax. The tax is on the business, not the customer. The rate you may print on a receipt, 4.712%², is higher than the 4.5%¹ combined rate.
• The general excise license is $20², once. It covers a sole proprietor, an LLC, a partnership, and a corporation.
• Income tax is due the 20th day of the fourth month after the tax year ends, not on the federal April 15 date. The outline gives individual rates as 1.4% to 11% of taxable income⁶. It does not print every bracket.
• A single-member LLC still gets its own general excise license. Every LLC, including a disregarded one, gets its own GET license and pays GET on gross income⁵.
• Unemployment tax in 2026 uses a $64,500¹⁴ wage base. That is the first slice of each employee’s wages, not a small cap.

Do this

1. Get an EIN from the IRS if you need one. It is free and, if approved, issued immediately¹⁷ online. Hawaii Tax Facts says you need one if you have employees, or you are a corporation, S corporation, or partnership, including an LLC that files as a corporation or partnership. In certain cases a sole proprietor can use a Social Security number instead of an EIN⁵. Tax Facts does not say which cases.* If you will hire, open a bank account, or file as a partnership or corporation, get the EIN. Don’t pay a website to apply for you.
2. Get a general excise license if you have business income in Hawaii. File Form BB-1, State of Hawaii Basic Business Application and pay $20. Apply on Hawaii Tax Online. Online, the wait is about 5 to 7 days. By mail, it is about 4 to 6 weeks. In person, you get the number immediately, if you apply in person with two copies and the fee². A remote business can be required to register after $100,000 of Hawaii gross income or receipts, or 200¹ transactions, in the current or prior calendar year.
3. Learn which rate applies before you show a customer a number. You may show the tax to the customer, and you do not have to. The overview page prints 4.5% for retail sales, rent, contracting, commissions, and most other activities, and it says that figure includes the 0.5% county surcharge. The FAQ still prints a state rate of 4%. Both pages are current. The surcharge is added only to activities taxed at 4%, not to wholesaling at 0.5% or insurance commissions at 0.15%. The maximum pass-on rate is 4.7120% in Honolulu, Hawaii County, Kauai, and Maui, through December 31, 2030². Wholesale activity is 0.5%. Insurance commissions are 0.15%¹. If you work in more than one county, file Form G-75, attached to Forms G-45 and G-49, if you do business in more than one county³.
4. Put the license where people can see it. It must be displayed at each place of business. Another location, or another trade name, needs a branch license on Form G-50. There is no additional charge¹ for it.
5. File general excise tax on the schedule the tax fits. You must file monthly if you will pay more than $4,000 in the year. You may file quarterly at $4,000 or less. You may file semiannually at $2,000 or less. Monthly returns must be filed online¹. Periodic returns are due on the 20²th of the month after the period. File even when you had no gross income, unless the whole year’s tax is $100 or less. In that case periodic returns are not required, and you still file the annual return. The annual return is due the 20th day of the fourth month after the tax year ends, April 20 for a calendar year. A weekend or holiday means the next business day when the due date is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday. There is no extension for the periodic return. A late return adds 5% of the tax per month, up to 25%. If you file on time and the tax is still unpaid after 60 days, the penalty is 20%¹² of the unpaid tax.
6. Register for withholding when you pay wages. Use the same Form BB-1, State of Hawaii Basic Business Application¹, with no fee¹³. Returns are Form HW-14, quarterly, on or before the 15th day of the following month⁶. At year end, provide W-2 or HW-2 forms to employees and submit them to the Department of Taxation by January 31. Form HW-30 is a transmittal only for paper W-2/HW-2 submissions, not an annual tax return¹¹. Starting January 1, 2026, employers filing 10 or more W-2 or HW-2 forms in a calendar year must submit them electronically, regardless of withholding liability¹⁰. Withholding does not come with a license card. You still register and file.
7. Open an unemployment account when the coverage rule applies. The handbook says an employer who hires one or more people, or who does business in Hawaii, may be covered, and the handbook lists exclusions. The handbook’s exclusions include some agricultural labor and a family-corporation election, among others. Read that list before you register, and before you decide you are outside it. Reports are Form UC-B6, due the last day of the month after the quarter: April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. File the quarterly report even when no wages were paid. A late report is $30¹⁵, and missing reports can also push you to the maximum rate. For 2026 the wage base is $64,500, schedule C, new employers 2.4%, maximum 5.6%, plus an employment and training assessment of 0.01%¹⁴. File at the unemployment insurance site.
8. Report each new hire. That duty covers every Hawaii employer, including nonprofits, no matter how many employees. Report to the Child Support Enforcement Agency within 20 days of the first day of work. Also, a returning employee counts again after 60 consecutive days away. A late report is $25. A report skipped by agreement with the employee can be $500. How to send it: fax or mail a copy of the employee's W-4 with your employer details filled in, or set up electronic reporting by SFTP with the agency¹⁶. The hiring guide covers the federal side.

Income tax and short-term rentals

Individual income tax, for owners who report the business on their own return: 1.4% to 11% of taxable income. The outline does not print each bracket. Section 235-51 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes does, by filing status: use the tables for any taxable year beginning after December 31, 2024. That page lists amendments only through 2024⁸, so its tables for later years predate the 2026 law below. For tax years beginning after December 31, 2026, Act 24 of 2026 adds a top rate of 13% on taxable income over $500,000 for a single filer or a married person filing separately, $750,000 for a head of household, and $1,000,000 on a joint return or for a surviving spouse. The same Act lowers the second and third brackets for those years to 2.5% and 5%, down from 3.2% and 5.5%⁷ in the current table. File the 20th day of the fourth month after the tax year ends. Estimated tax, for people who are not withheld on, and for estates, trusts, and corporations, is due April 20, June 20, September 20, and January 20⁶.

A C corporation pays 4.4% on taxable income up to $25,000, 5.4% over that and not over $100,000, and 6.4% above $100,000. The return is due the 20th day of the fourth month after the tax year ends⁶.

An LLC, for income tax: more than one member is treated as a partnership, a single member as a disregarded entity, unless the LLC elects to be taxed as a corporation. Every LLC, including a disregarded one, gets its own GET license and pays GET on gross income⁵.

An S corporation files federal and Hawaii income tax returns, and the income is generally taxed to the shareholders. An S corporation still pays GET⁵. Also, a partnership or S corporation may elect to pay Hawaii income tax at the entity level. The elective rate is 9%⁶, with no separate capital-gains rate. Whether the election helps depends on your numbers. Ask a CPA. This page does not pick it for you.

Renting a place for lodging furnished to a transient for less than 180 consecutive days also needs a transient accommodations certificate. The registration fee is $5 for 1 to 5 units and $15 for 6 or more. For ordinary lodging, the state TAT rose from 10.25% to 11% on January 1, 2026, as confirmed by the 2026 Department of Taxation announcement. On the county add-on, a county may add its own tax of not more than three percent, by ordinance, on top of the state tax⁶. Check the rate on the return before you charge a guest. Cruise fares are different: The 11% TAT on cruise fares is not being enforced under a federal court injunction; DOTAX says operators must not report or remit TAT on cruise fares until further notice⁹. Check for a newer court or tax-department notice before reporting cruise income.

What you get back

An EIN if you applied, a Hawaii Tax ID and a general excise license if you registered, a withholding account if you have employees, and an unemployment account once you are covered. Write down the general excise filing schedule. Monthly filers do not get to choose paper.