SERVING HAWAII ACROSS ALL ISLANDS · SINCE 2005
Hawaii Bookkeeping Services
Last Updated: October 6, 2026Hawaii does not have a sales tax. It has a General Excise Tax, and the difference costs businesses real money. GET is levied on the seller for the privilege of doing business, applies to almost everything including services and commissions, and — critically — it pyramids. A wholesaler pays, then the retailer pays again on the full retail price, with no credit for the tax already paid down the chain. Services that would be untaxed in most states are taxed here. The state rate is low by sales-tax standards and the county surcharges add to it, but the breadth of the base is what matters: almost every dollar of revenue is in scope.
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Hawaii owners and their CPAs come to us because GET applies to nearly all revenue including services, so the tax base is your top line — and that makes revenue classification the whole job. Dedicated bookkeepers, monthly reconciliations, and tax-ready financials — plans from $75/month, extra hours at $15/hour, and wholesale $10/hour rates for CPA firms — backed by a 100% money-back guarantee on your 1st retainer, refundable on the unused balance.
On This Page
- Hawaii’s small-business tax landscape
- GET is not a sales tax, and the difference is expensive
- Subcontractors and the pyramiding problem
- Operating across islands
- Hawaii cities we serve
- Hawaii FAQs
Hawaii’s Small-Business Tax Landscape
| Tax / Filing | Rate / Fee | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| General Excise Tax (GET) | Levied on the seller, applying to nearly all business activity including services and commissions. Different rates apply to retail and wholesale activity | Monthly, quarterly or semi-annually, by assignment, plus an annual reconciliation |
| County surcharge | Counties add a surcharge on top of the state GET rate, varying by island | With the GET return |
| Pyramiding | GET is charged at each stage of a transaction chain with no credit for tax paid earlier — unlike a conventional sales tax | — |
| Transient accommodations tax (TAT) | Applies to short-term lodging, in addition to GET | On the assigned schedule |
| Income tax | Hawaii levies graduated individual income tax and a corporate income tax | Annually, with estimated payments |
Hawaii Department of Taxation, checked 4 October 2026. GET rates, county surcharges and the wholesale rate change — confirm your classification and rates with the Department or your CPA.
GET Is Not a Sales Tax, and the Difference Is Expensive
Three differences matter, and each one catches mainland businesses out.
It is levied on you, not your customer. You may visibly pass it on, and most do, but the liability is the seller’s. An under-charged sale is still an owed tax, paid from margin.
It applies to services. Consulting, design, professional services, commissions — categories that are untaxed in most states — are generally within the GET base. A mainland consultancy opening in Honolulu and configuring its system as “services, not taxable” is wrong from the first invoice.
It pyramids. A conventional sales tax is charged once, at retail. GET is charged at each stage, with no credit for tax already paid. A product passing through a wholesaler and a retailer is taxed twice, on overlapping bases.
None of that is obscure, but all of it has to be configured correctly at the start, because the base is essentially your entire revenue line.
Subcontractors and the Pyramiding Problem
Pyramiding hurts most where work passes through several hands — construction being the obvious case. A general contractor bills a client; a subcontractor bills the general contractor; each has GET exposure on their own receipts.
Hawaii provides mechanisms that can mitigate this in defined circumstances, and whether they apply to you is a determination for your CPA, not your bookkeeper. What is squarely ours is the record they depend on: subcontractor payments tracked separately rather than lumped into general costs, with the documentation attached to the transactions.
Businesses that treat subcontractor costs casually in the ledger cannot support any mitigation, and end up paying GET on the full amount by default.
Operating Across Islands
County surcharges differ by island, so a business selling or operating on more than one has more than one applicable rate. For anyone shipping inter-island or running locations on Oahu and Maui, the rate is a function of where the activity happens.
The practical requirement is revenue recorded with its island or county attached, so each surcharge can be applied and the return reconciles to the ledger. Like most of the work on this page, it is a configuration decision made when transactions are recorded rather than a calculation attempted afterwards.
Hawaii also runs a separate transient accommodations tax on short-term lodging, which sits on top of GET rather than replacing it — so a vacation rental has two taxes on the same revenue, both of which need the gross figure to be right.
Hawaii Cities We Serve
Dedicated local guide: Honolulu — plus Hilo, Kailua-Kona, Kahului, Lihue and Waipahu, and every corner of the state, all served remotely. Browse all locations.
Hawaii Bookkeeping FAQs
Is Hawaii GET the same as sales tax?
No, and the differences are significant. GET is levied on the seller rather than the buyer, it applies to nearly all business activity including services and commissions that most states do not tax, and it pyramids — it is charged at each stage of a chain with no credit for tax paid earlier. A business treating it as a conventional sales tax will under-collect and absorb the shortfall.
Do I pay GET on consulting or professional services in Hawaii?
Generally yes. Services are within the GET base in a way they are not in most states, which is one of the most common surprises for mainland businesses opening in Hawaii. Confirm your classification and rate with the Hawaii Department of Taxation or your CPA.
What does GET pyramiding mean for my construction business?
That GET can apply at more than one point in a chain — subcontractor to general contractor, general contractor to client — without credit for tax already paid. Hawaii provides mechanisms that can mitigate this in defined circumstances; whether they apply is a determination for your CPA. What we make sure of is that subcontractor payments are tracked separately with documentation attached, since without that no mitigation can be supported.
We run a vacation rental. What applies?
Generally both GET and the transient accommodations tax, which sit on top of each other rather than being alternatives. Both are calculated from gross revenue, which makes booking platform payouts gross — with commission and processing recorded as costs rather than netted off — the single most important thing to get right.
Do you have offices in Hawaii?
No, and we would rather say so plainly than imply otherwise. We are a fully virtual bookkeeping company — founded in Vienna, Virginia on May 25, 2005 and headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico today, US-registered with delivery centers in India, which we disclose on our About page. We have served Hawaii businesses remotely since 2005. You get a dedicated bookkeeper with plans from $75/month, monthly reconciliations, and a 100% money-back guarantee on your 1st retainer, refundable on the unused balance.
Related Resources
Island Business, Ledger-Clean Books
Dedicated Hawaii bookkeeping from $75/month — with a 100% money-back guarantee on your 1st retainer, refundable on the unused balance.