Hawaii Business Taxes: GET, Income Tax, Agencies and Deadlines

How Hawaii business taxes and accounts work

Running a small business in Hawaii means dealing with five levels of government accounts. You report federal taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and you handle entity formation and annual reports with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Business Registration Division (DCCA BREG). You file state income tax, withholding, and General Excise Tax with the Hawaii Department of Taxation (DOTAX). You also register with the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) for employer insurance and unemployment tax, and with your county government for real property taxes.

Follow these steps in order when setting up your accounts so your state and federal registrations match from day one.

• Step 1: Register your legal entity with DCCA BREG. All business forms except sole proprietorships, unincorporated associations (nonprofits), and foreign insurance companies must register with DCCA BREG. Domestic corporations file Form DC-1, domestic LLCs file Form LLC-1, foreign corporations file Form FC-1, and foreign LLCs file Form FLLC-1. Sole proprietors who want to register a business name can file Form T-1.
• Step 2: Get your free federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS. If you are forming an LLC, partnership, or corporation, the IRS requires you to register the entity with the state before you apply for an EIN. You can apply online for free and use your EIN immediately to open a bank account or apply for licenses, though you must wait up to 2 weeks before e-filing a federal return or making electronic federal tax deposits.
• Step 3: Apply for your Hawaii Tax ID and General Excise Tax (GET) license with DOTAX. All persons doing business in Hawaii must obtain a GET license by submitting Form BB-1 and paying a one-time $20 registration fee. Filing Form BB-1 on Hawaii Tax Online takes about 5 to 7 days, mailing or dropping it off takes 4 to 6 weeks, and bringing two copies with the $20 fee in person to any DOTAX district office gets you a Hawaii Tax ID immediately.
• Step 4: Register as an employer with DOTAX and DLIR if you hire staff. You must register with DOTAX for state employee income tax withholding and with DLIR for Unemployment Insurance (UI) tax and mandatory employee insurance policies.
• Step 5: Set up Hawaii Compliance Express (HCE) if you bid on government jobs. HCE lets you file a single online application covering DCCA good standing, DOTAX and IRS tax clearances, and DLIR compliance for state and county government contracts of $2,500 or more.

• IRS: Employer identification number
• cca.hawaii.gov: BREG Frequently Asked Questions

Hawaii General Excise Tax (GET) rates, surcharges, and pass-on math

The General Excise Tax (GET) is assessed directly on the business across all business activities rather than on the customer. If you ever close your GET license, DOTAX will not reactivate it, so you must apply for a new license if you resume business later.

The state sets three base rate tiers: 0.15% on insurance commissions, 0.5% on wholesaling, manufacturing, producing, wholesale services, and Use Tax on imports for resale, and 4% on all other business activities. All four Hawaii counties add a 0.5% County Surcharge Tax (CST) to activities taxed at the 4% general rate through December 31, 2030. The county surcharge does not apply to activities taxed at the 0.5% or 0.15% rates.

Because GET is a tax on the business, you are not required to charge it separately to buyers. However, DOTAX allows sellers to visibly pass on the GET and any applicable county surcharge up to a maximum rate of 4.7120% in counties with the 0.5% surcharge because the tax reimbursement collected from a customer is also counted as gross receipts subject to GET.

Here is a worked example prepared by our team using DOTAX's published rates. Suppose you run a consulting service in Honolulu and charge a client $1,000 for a project, visibly passing on the maximum allowed rate of 4.7120%. By our calculation from the Hawaii Department of Taxation GET rate schedule, adding 4.7120% to a $1,000 sale adds $47.12 on the invoice, for $1,047.12 collected in total. When you file your GET return, you pay the combined 4.5% rate (4% state GET plus 0.5% county surcharge) on your total gross receipts of $1,047.12, which equals $47.12 in tax owed to DOTAX and leaves you with $1,000.00 in net revenue. If you had only charged 4.5% ($45.00), you would owe 4.5% on $1,045.00 ($47.03), paying the $2.03 difference out of your own pocket.

When you make a payment to DOTAX, the department applies your payment first to the Oahu County Surcharge Tax (CST), including any penalties and interest, and applies the remainder to the state GET.

• tax.hawaii.gov: General Excise Tax (GET) Information
• tax.hawaii.gov: FAQs

Hawaii state income tax and Pass-Through Entity (PTE) election

Under IRS rules, all businesses except partnerships must file an annual income tax return, while partnerships file an information return. In Hawaii, individual income tax returns are due on April 20, and partnership, corporation, and fiduciary income tax returns are due on the 20th day of the fourth month following the close of the tax year (April 20 for calendar-year businesses).

For taxable years beginning after December 31, 2022, partnerships and S corporations may elect to pay Hawaii income taxes at the entity level under Pass-Through Entity (PTE) taxation. Eligible members of an electing pass-through entity can then claim a Hawaii income tax credit for their pro rata share of the PTE taxes paid.

For sole proprietors and pass-through owners filing individual Hawaii returns (Form N-11), Hawaii is raising its standard deduction between the 2025 and 2026 tax years. By our calculation from the Hawaii Department of Taxation FAQs, the standard deduction increases by 81.8% across Married Filing Jointly and Single tiers, and by 86.8% for Head of Household filers in 2026. The personal exemption is $1,144 per exemption, with an additional exemption for taxpayers age 65 or older. Certified blind, deaf, or totally disabled taxpayers can submit Form N-172 before filing to claim a $7,000 disability exemption in place of the $1,144 personal exemption.

• No federal extension forms accepted: Hawaii does not accept Federal Form 4868 or other federal extension forms in place of state forms. You must file Hawaii-specific extension forms.
• No federal Power of Attorney accepted: DOTAX does not accept the federal POA (Form 8821) in lieu of the Hawaii state Power of Attorney (Form N-848).
• Exact year forms required for back taxes: DOTAX's computer system rejects prior-year returns filed on a current-year form with the year changed. You must use the exact form for the prior tax year.

• tax.hawaii.gov: Department of Taxation
• tax.hawaii.gov: FAQs

Self-employed, federal, and employer payroll taxes

At the federal level, the IRS groups business taxes into five categories: income tax, estimated taxes, self-employment tax, employment taxes, and federal excise tax. If you work as a sole proprietor, independent contractor, partner, or gig worker, the IRS classifies you as self-employed. You calculate net profit or loss on Schedule C (Form 1040). If your net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more, you must file a federal return, compute Social Security and Medicare taxes on Schedule SE (Form 1040), and pay quarterly estimated taxes using Form 1040-ES. Unincorporated businesses owned solely by a married couple filing jointly can elect to be treated as a qualified joint venture under the Small Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act of 2007, and eligible homeowners and renters can claim the home office deduction.

If you hire employees in Hawaii, you take on payroll and insurance obligations across the IRS, DOTAX, and DLIR.

• Federal employment taxes (IRS): Withhold and pay Social Security and Medicare taxes, withhold federal income tax (using Form W-4, quarterly Form 941, and annual Form W-2), and pay Federal Unemployment (FUTA) tax.
• Hawaii state income tax withholding (DOTAX): Register with DOTAX to withhold state income tax and file Form HW-14 and Form HW-2. Approved reporting agents can submit up to 100 returns via Simple File Import (SFI) or transmit bulk HW-14 and W-2 files in a single ZIP via SFTP using Hawaii's Bulk Filing System (HBFS).
• Hawaii Unemployment Insurance and Mandatory Employee Coverage (DLIR): Register online with the DLIR Unemployment Insurance Division to pay state UI tax and file forms like Form UC-348. Depending on employee status, Hawaii law may also require Workers' Compensation, Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI), and Prepaid Health Care coverage.

• IRS: Self-employed individuals tax center
• tax.hawaii.gov: E-Services Information

Master calendar: Hawaii business tax and DCCA deadlines

Hawaii's tax calendar centers on the 20th of the month. The DOTAX penalty for failure to file a return on time is 5% per month (or part of a month) on the unpaid tax, up to a maximum of 25%. Interest accrues at 2/3 of 1% per month (or part of a month) on unpaid taxes and penalties starting the first calendar day after the payment due date, even if that day falls on a weekend or legal holiday.

Separate from tax returns, entities registered with DCCA BREG must file an Annual Business Report (which requires public entity details but no financial statements). No annual report is required in the calendar year you first register, and your ongoing due date is the final day of the calendar quarter in which you originally registered.

• tax.hawaii.gov: General Excise Tax (GET) Information
• cca.hawaii.gov: BREG Frequently Asked Questions

Specialty taxes, online filing, and account maintenance

You can file and pay almost all state taxes on Hawaii Tax Online (HTO) at hitax.hawaii.gov and through the IRS Modernized e-File (MeF) system. Filing state returns and making ACH debit payments on HTO is free, while credit card payments carry a service fee. Checks must be made payable to HAWAII STATE TAX COLLECTOR, and insufficient checks are not redeposited. Cash is accepted only in person at a DOTAX office during normal business hours. If you do not have a federal EIN, DOTAX assigns a specific tax account number and prints its last four digits on billing notices to protect your Social Security number.

• Specialty state, local, and federal taxes: Short-term rental operators file Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT) on Forms TA-1 and TA-2, and third-party rent collectors must electronically file Form RCA-1 on HTO (available starting January 2, 2025). HTO also supports Use Only, Seller's Collection, Franchise, Public Service Company, Rental Motor Vehicle, Fuel, Liquor, Tobacco, and Estate/Transfer taxes. Real Property Taxes are administered by the four county governments. Federal excise taxes are reported on IRS Form 720 and Form 2290 (highway vehicles 55,000 pounds or more).
• Address changes and tax clearances: File Form ITPS-COA with DOTAX and IRS Form 8822-B to update your business address. Standard Form A-6 tax clearance requests take 10 to 15 business days, or the same day for walk-ins.
• DCCA BREG fees, trade names, and closures: Effective July 6, 2026, DCCA BREG is transitioning Hawaii Business Express to a new online portal. Regular document copies cost $3.00 (plus $10.00 for certified copies), foreign corporation or LLC name changes cost $25.00 ($10.00 for foreign nonprofits) plus a $1.00 State Archives fee, and amended annual reports are free. Trade name registrations (Form T-1) expire after 5 years and do not grant legal ownership, which comes from active, continuous marketplace use. To close an entity, file Form LLC-11 (domestic LLC) or Form DC-13 (domestic corporation).

• tax.hawaii.gov: FAQs
• tax.hawaii.gov: Department of Taxation

Hawaii small business tax and bookkeeping guides

Use our dedicated Hawaii pages to compare entity rules, local tax rates, and filing services across the islands. You can read our guides on Hawaii LLC taxes, the Hawaii General Excise Tax (GET) guide, and Hawaii self-employed tax rules, or explore our pages on online bookkeeping in Hawaii, a small business accountant in Hawaii, and business tax preparation in Hawaii.

Aldro is the cheapest way to get your business taxes done: $399 flat, with bookkeeping at $20 a month. The flat price covers everything tax for the year (every federal and state or provincial business return: Schedule C, 1065, 1120-S, 1120 and state returns. T2 and T1 with T2125 in Canada), multi-state returns at the same price, and the owner's personal return when the business income needs it. Bookkeeping covers unlimited bank and card accounts, monthly reconciliation and statements, but not payroll processing or sales-tax filing. City and local business returns and state franchise tax reports are included, along with 1099-NEC slips, extensions, and quarterly estimate reminders. If you are switching from Bench or another service, we start within a week of getting the documents.

• IRS: Business taxes
• tax.hawaii.gov: FAQs