HAWAII RENTALS
Three taxes on every booking
Bottom line: a Hawaii vacation rental owes three taxes on its rent and cleaning fees, and in 2026 they come to about 18.5 percent of what your guests pay. Take an Oahu condo that brings in $60k a year in rent and cleaning fees. If you quote your guests one price and absorb the taxes, you owe about $11.1k a year, which is $2,700 of general excise tax, $6,600 of state transient accommodations tax, and $1,800 of county transient accommodations tax. If you add the taxes to the guest’s bill instead, you pay about $11.2k and your guests cover all of it.
In our opinion, most of this is attention and paperwork. You need two state registrations and a county payment account, and then you file returns on a schedule for as long as you rent. The cost of missing it is penalties and per-day fines, so you should set it up before your first guest arrives. And before any of that, you need to know that your county allows a short-term rental at your address, which is a question this page does not answer.
What your rental owes in a year
Enter what your guests pay in a year and whether you add the taxes to their bill, and the calculator will show each of the three taxes. Nothing you enter here is saved or sent anywhere. Treat the result as an educational estimate, and bring us your facts before you file.
Your rental
This year’s rates
General excise tax 4% plus the county surcharge of 0.5%, state transient accommodations tax 11%, and county transient accommodations tax 3%, all for 2026. When you pass the taxes on, the calculator bills the general excise tax at 4.712%, the most the state allows.
The three taxes
What each tax applies to
The two accommodations taxes start from the same place, which is everything your guests must pay to stay. That includes the rent, the cleaning fee, and any other mandatory fee, such as a resort fee. It does not include a separate charge for something optional, like laundry, or the taxes you visibly pass on. The general excise tax is wider. It applies to all of the income from the rental, so it reaches an optional charge too, and it reaches the general excise tax you bill to your guest. Say a guest pays $1,000 of rent and $40 for optional laundry. The accommodations taxes apply to $1,000, and the general excise tax applies to $1,040. You cannot subtract costs from either one, so management fees and booking commissions do not reduce what is taxed. The calculator assumes every charge is mandatory.
General excise tax
4.5 percent in 2026The general excise tax is Hawaii’s tax on the gross income of a business, and rent counts. The state rate is 4 percent, and each county adds a surcharge of 0.5 percent, so you pay 4.5 percent on every island in 2026. The surcharge law ends on December 31, 2030, so the rate would drop to 4 percent in 2031 unless the law changes.
State transient accommodations tax
11 percent in 2026This tax applies when you rent a home, condo, or room to a guest for less than 180 days in a row. Act 96 raised it from 10.25 percent to 11 percent on January 1, 2026. The Department of Taxation applies 11 percent through December 31, 2030, and the statute sets 10 percent from 2031 unless the law changes.
You may still find two older state publications that say 10.25 percent, because they were written before Act 96. The state’s current brochure and its 2025 and 2026 announcements say 11 percent, and they control.
County transient accommodations tax
Up to 3 percentEach county charges its own tax on the same rental proceeds, and state law caps it at 3 percent. All four counties charge 3 percent today. You register and file with the state, but you pay this tax to the county separately.
Registration, returns, and due dates
You register once with the state for both taxes, and you get a separate Hawaii Tax ID for each. After that, you file a short return for each period and an annual return for each tax, and you file every one of them even when you had no bookings.
| What you file | Form | When |
|---|---|---|
| General excise tax license | BB-1 | Before your first booking; $20 once |
| Transient accommodations tax registration | BB-1 | Before your first booking; $5 for one to five units, $15 for six or more |
| General excise tax, each period | G-45 | The 20th of the month after the period ends, with no extension |
| Accommodations tax, each period | TA-1 | The 20th of the month after the period ends |
| General excise tax, for the year | G-49 | April 20 for a calendar year |
| Accommodations tax, for the year | TA-2 | April 20 for a calendar year |
| County accommodations tax | The county’s own payment | On the state’s schedule in Honolulu and Kauai; see below |
How often you file depends on how much tax you owe, and it is set separately for each tax. If the year’s tax is $2,000 or less, you file twice a year. If it is $4,000 or less, you file quarterly, and above that you file monthly and must file electronically. In the Oahu example, the state accommodations tax of $6,600 means monthly electronic returns, and the general excise tax of $2,700 means quarterly returns.
The annual returns are important, because filing them starts the three-year period the state has to review the year. The annual accommodations return also reconciles your accommodations receipts with your general excise receipts, so the two need to agree.
Paying the county
- Honolulu - the city treats your state return as filed with the city, so there is no separate city return. You pay the city separately, on the state’s schedule, and the city’s payment cannot be combined with the state’s. See the city’s accommodations tax FAQ.
- Kauai - you pay the county monthly by the 20th of the following month, or quarterly by the 20th day after the quarter closes, and you send a reconciliation voucher by the 20th of the fourth month after the year. See the county’s accommodations tax page.
- Hawaii County - you pay the county on the same schedule as your state returns. See the county’s accommodations tax page.
- Maui County - you pay the county on the same schedule as your state returns. See the county’s accommodations tax page.
Platforms, managers, and your guests
When a platform or a manager is involved
You are the one who owes these taxes, even when a property manager runs the unit or a platform takes the booking. If a manager files and pays for you, you are still liable when something is missed. And the tax is due on the full amount the guest pays, so you cannot pay it on the smaller check the manager sends you.
Airbnb and Vrbo each have settings that change which taxes they collect, so the answer differs from one listing to the next. In our experience, you cannot assume the platform has handled all three taxes. So read your own payout statements line by line, and keep your own registrations and returns either way. The state also requires platforms and managers that collect rent to report it to the Department of Taxation, so the state will see your receipts.
Passing the taxes on, or absorbing them
You can add the taxes to the guest’s bill, as long as the guest sees the amounts before booking and they appear as their own lines. You pass on the accommodations taxes at their own rates, and you can pass on the general excise tax at up to 4.712 percent in 2026. That is more than 4.5 percent because the general excise tax you collect from the guest is itself taxable. You cannot charge more than that, and if you absorb the tax, you cannot tell guests there is no tax.
If you quote one all-in price, the whole price becomes the base for every tax, and you pay all three out of it. In our opinion, passing the taxes on is the cleaner choice for most owners, because your rate then covers your costs and the tax is visible on every bill. Either way works, as long as you choose one and set your listing to match.
If you do not live in Hawaii
You owe the same taxes and file the same returns as a resident owner, and you also file a Hawaii income tax return on Form N-15 every year, even when the rental shows a loss. You need a local contact who lives on the same island as the rental, because state law requires one in your listings and at the unit. Hawaii does not follow federal bonus depreciation, so your Hawaii depreciation will not match your federal return. When you sell, the buyer has to withhold 7.25 percent of the amount you realize for the state unless an exemption applies, so plan for that well before closing.
On your federal return, the general excise and accommodations taxes you pay are deductible expenses of the rental.
County land-use rules
Each county decides through its own land-use rules whether a short-term rental is allowed at a given address. We are tax preparers and do not give legal advice on zoning or permits, so this is a short summary for orientation and nothing more. Check your exact property with the county before you take a booking.
| County | What the county’s own sources say |
|---|---|
| Honolulu | The city treats a stay of less than 30 consecutive days as a short-term rental, and it says it enforces that figure across the island. Short-term rentals are permitted only in resort-zoned areas and the areas shown in Ordinance 25-52, so the answer depends on your parcel and on any nonconforming use certificate it already holds. A unit in an eligible area has to be registered and renewed every year. Holders of an existing certificate, and hotel and time share units, follow different rules. Check the city’s eligibility map, and see its short-term rental FAQ. |
| Maui County | The County Council approved Bill 9 in December 2025, which ends vacation rentals in apartment districts starting in 2029 in West Maui and 2031 elsewhere. See the council’s announcement. |
| Kauai | Outside the Visitor Destination Area, a new rental of less than 180 days is not permitted, apart from existing nonconforming rentals and approved homestays. Those certificates are renewed every year, with no grace period. See the county planning page. |
| Hawaii County | Under Ordinance 25-50, every rental of less than 180 days has to be registered with the county and renewed every year, whether or not you live on the property. A rental that already held a county short-term vacation rental registration is treated as registered. Registration does not change the zoning rule. Outside the permitted districts, only rentals that were operating before April 1, 2019, and hold a nonconforming use certificate may continue. See the county’s vacation rental page for the current deadlines. |
Setup, and what you do each period
Before your first guest
- Confirm with the county that your unit may be rented short term
- Register for the general excise tax and the accommodations tax on Form BB-1
- Set up your county accommodations tax payment account
- Name a local contact who lives on the same island
- Listings - add your registration ID and local contact, and show the taxes as their own lines if you pass them on
Each period, and each year
- Total the rent and fees your guests paid, including what the platform or manager collected
- File the G-45 and TA-1 by the 20th of the next month, even with no bookings
- Pay the county separately, on its own schedule
- Compare your platform and manager statements with what you reported
- By April 20 - file the G-49 and TA-2 and the county reconciliation
What goes wrong
Most of what goes wrong here is missed paperwork, and the state’s penalties add up quickly. A late return costs 5 percent a month, up to 25 percent, and a return filed on time but not paid within 60 days costs 20 percent, plus interest of 2/3 of 1 percent a month.
| The mistake | The fix |
|---|---|
| Paying tax on what the manager sends you | The tax is due on the full amount your guests pay. |
| Assuming the manager or platform handles it | You stay liable, so check every statement and keep your own returns. |
| Quoting one all-in price | The whole price becomes taxable. If you pass the taxes on, show each one on the bill. |
| Charging more than 4.712 percent for the general excise tax | You cannot pass on more than the tax actually due. |
| Skipping a period with no bookings | File a return for every period, even at zero. |
| Filing only the periodic returns | The G-49 and TA-2 are separate annual returns, and they start the state’s review period. |
| A listing without your registration ID or local contact | Add both to every listing, because the fines run per day and per unit. |
| Paying the county inside the state payment | Pay the county accommodations tax to the county separately. |
| Missing the electronic filing rule | Above $4,000 of a tax in a year, you file that tax electronically, or you pay a 2 percent penalty. |
| Assuming a purchased unit’s registration carries over | A new owner registers again. |
Working through this with an AI assistant?
Paste this into Claude, ChatGPT, or whichever assistant you use. It points your assistant at our full guide to this strategy, which covers the rules and their sources, this year’s figures, the setup steps, the paperwork, and the risks. It also tells the assistant when to send you to a professional. Nothing is held back.
Read https://www.reddoortaxes.com/guides/hawaii-vacation-rentals.md from Red Door Taxes. I own a vacation rental in Hawaii and I want to get the state and county taxes right. Using that guide, ask me its intake questions one at a time, estimate what I owe for the year, and tell me which registrations, returns, and due dates apply to me. Tell me plainly when the guide says to stop and get a professional.
The guide is a plain page that anyone can read: open the guide. It states the same rules and the same figures as this page, with a source for each. All of our guides are listed in one place.
We prepare these returns for owners
Everything you need to handle this yourself is on this page, and nothing is held back. If you would rather hand it off, preparing the returns is a paid service. Our office is in New Braunfels, Texas, and we also work with clients online. We prepare your Hawaii general excise and accommodations tax returns, and your federal and state income tax returns with them. We do not give legal advice on zoning or permits, so the county question stays with you and the county.
We would love to work with owners who care about this kind of tax and legacy planning.
For educational purposes only. This page and its calculator are general education for property owners. They are not tax, legal, or accounting advice for your specific situation, they do not address whether a rental is allowed under county land-use rules, and reading them does not create a client relationship with Red Door Taxes. The calculator uses the 2026 rates and treats every dollar entered as taxable rental proceeds. It does not cover time shares, resort fees charged separately, cancellation penalties, or receipts from more than one county. When the taxes are passed on, it treats a county accommodations tax shown to the guest like the state’s, outside the general excise tax. It does not estimate income tax. Nothing you enter in the calculator is saved or transmitted. Bring us your facts before you act on any of it.
Tell us what you need.
You send us a short inquiry, and we contact you about next steps. If you would rather talk first, you can book a consultation, which runs 55 minutes and costs $500.