Licenses and permits in Hawaii

The Business Registration Division filing is not a license to do the work. What you need depends on the activity and the county. Start with the general excise license, then the board or the county that regulates the work.

What’s different in Hawaii

• The general excise license is the statewide business license. The Business Action Center says so. There is not a second, separate statewide license for simply being open.
• Contractors are licensed above a dollar line, and also whenever a building permit is required. The line is $1,500⁴.
• Some food made at home needs no food-establishment permit. The exemption is real, and it is narrow. The label has to say the kitchen is not routinely inspected.
• Alcohol licenses come from the county, not from a single state counter.

Do this

1. Get the general excise license if you will have business income. File it with the Department of Taxation. The steps and the $20⁷ fee are on Get your tax IDs. Display it at each place of business.
2. Ask the county about the location. A building permit, a sign, a short-term rental, and a health permit are county or department rules. This guide does not have a single fee that covers every county.* Call the planning or permitting office for the island where you will operate.
3. Get a contractor license if the job requires one. The contractor page says a license is required for any project that needs a building, electrical, or plumbing permit, and for any project exceeding $1,500⁴ in labor and material. Electrical and plumbing contractors must employ licensed electricians and plumbers for that work. The page does not print the application fee or the renewal fee.* Read the application for your license type before you pay. You can check a license at the same department’s business-check tool, linked from that page.
4. Selling food from home? Read the homemade food brochure. Operations are exempt from a food establishment permit. Sales can be from a home kitchen, to consumers or to other retailers. Most of the food cannot need time or temperature control. Pickled, fermented, or acidified plant foods have to meet a pH of 4.2 or lower, or water activity under 0.88. The producer is responsible for those numbers. The brochure excludes dried meats, seafood, or fruits from the melon family. On the package, the label must say it was made in a home kitchen not routinely inspected by the Department of Health. Operators need food safety training from the Department of Health or a program it approves. You may also sell online. A permitted store or restaurant may buy it to resell. A restaurant that uses it in a menu item needs a written disclosure that it is homemade food. The FDA does not recognize homemade food as an approved source. An event organizer can still require a special event permit⁵. The brochure does not print a sales cap or a permit fee for the exemption itself.* If you are opening a restaurant that serves meals on site, that is a food establishment, not this exemption. Contact the Food Safety Branch before you open one.
5. Selling alcohol? The license comes from the liquor commission of the county where you will sell⁶. Honolulu, Hawaii County, Maui, and Kauai each run their own. No state page prints one fee for every county and every kind of license.* Start with that county’s liquor commission and read the fee on its application.
6. A licensed profession is separate from the company. For example, real estate agents, construction contractors, and travel agents need a professional or vocational license³. Registering the trade name or the LLC does not issue that license. Start with the Professional and Vocational Licensing Division at the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, then the board for your work.
7. Renting a room for fewer than 180 days? That is a transient accommodations certificate, on top of the general excise license. The fee and the rate are on Get your tax IDs.

What you get back

A general excise license, a county permit where the location needs one, a state contractor or professional license if the work needs it, a homemade-food setup if you are inside the brochure, and a county liquor license if you sell alcohol. Each one renews on its own date. Write the date down when the agency gives it to you.