New Taxes for 2018

[Old Croc]

From the Star Advertiser: It will cost you more to stay at a hotel or other visitor accommodation facility ANYWHERE [empahsis added] in Hawaii. On Monday the so-called transient accommodations tax, also known as TAT or the hotel room tax, rises to 10.25 percent, up from 9.25 percent, for the next 13 years. Those proceeds are designated for the city’s East Kapolei-to-Ala Moana Center rail line, which has been estimated to cost nearly $10 billion, including financing costs.
Passed by the Legislature in special session and then signed by Gov. David Ige this summer, Senate Bill 4 (2017 first special session), the bill also extended Honolulu’s 0.5 percent surcharge on the 4 percent general excise tax another three years — to 2030.
The weight tax portion of a vehicle registration is going up by 1 cent per pound in each of the next two years — to 6 cents per pound for most vehicles in 2018 and then to 7 cents per pound on Jan. 1, 2019. Trucks would go to 6.5 cents per pound in January and then 7.5 cents in 2019
I didn't include the part about the three new State income tax brackets because those income levels are in a different universe than I.

[rbakker]

Thanks for the reminder. So, the previous 13.42% for vacation rentals is, as of today, 14.42%.
Don't forget to charge it because you'll certainly have to pay it!

[DTisme]

quote:

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Originally posted by rbakker

Thanks for the reminder. So, the previous 13.42% for vacation rentals is, as of today, 14.42%.
Don't forget to charge it because you'll certainly have to pay it!

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Also good time to remind those with airbnb's that the state is pushing airbnb (also VRBO and HomeAway) to submit rental info to them, as other states have done. Not sure where I read that! Must've been the paper, but I don't have time to look. So if you're not collecting TAT, you will some day be liable for what you haven't collected. Unlike GET where who's to say what's been sold, they have proof of rentals from airbnb. Not sure if they're going to add penalties.

[kalakoa]

Not sure if they're going to add penalties.

If the "rules and laws" are in fact "for everyone", State should be sharing the TAT data so that counties can verify the land-use/permit status of these B&Bs.

Otherwise it would seem that State is perfectly willing to aid-and-abet a willful violation of County law, so long as State gets their cut to pay for rail.

[LazyLehua]

On Kaua‘i, you have to post your TVR Permit Number (that is what they call them...here would be TAT) under your street address. Wonder why Hawai‘i County does not require this. Seems like it would be a simple request.

[Kapoho Joe]

quote:

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Originally posted by LazyLehua

Seems like it would be a simple request.

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With all apologies but, you must be new here ;-)

[kalakoa]

Big Island tourism is way up, County would rather have the economic benefit than admit that current tourist accomodations are inadequate to the demand.

Enforcement is "complaint-driven". Given a copy of the Airbnb TAT data, it would be trivial to generate a complaint for every single one. I'm betting State would tell County to drop it, because rail.

Problem is, County would find ways to retaliate against the complainant, because obviously they're the problem, not the actual rule/law violations (which were generating perfectly good revenue).