Taxes

...Did DOTAX Turn the Corner on Customer Service?....

...Hawaii has enough in cash reserves to weather next recession, report says....

...The State Business Tax Climate Index is a measure of how well states structure their tax systems....

...with speakers from the Reason Foundation, Tax Foundation, and Pew Charitable Trusts to inform the public on ways we can solve many of our fiscal problems and make our economy better....

...During the past few months, the Tax Review Commission has been busy at work....

...and this is before the legislature raised the TAT and increased the Income Tax.... 

...Hawaii has the 8th highest amount of taxation per capita in the USA....

...those who buy things from Amazon and have been paying Use Tax can stop....

Over the past several months, there has been a court fight brewing that could have changed how the Department of Taxation lobbies for legislation....

...Excise taxes are particular taxes levied on specific goods or activities....

The hearings will be held at the following times and locations....

...Hawaii counties collect an average of $980 in property tax per capita....

...$27,100 = Each taxpayer's share of Hawaii's debt....

"...Doing nothing is unacceptable...." -- Mayor Kirk Caldwell, Sept 18, 2017

...Hawaii and North Dakota collect the most in statewide sales tax per capita at $2,090 and $1,835 respectively....

...The special session rail bill, SB 4, provides that if the Foundation wins and the State is ordered to refund money to the City, then the State will scoop the same amount of money from the City’s share of transient accommodations tax....

...in FY 2015, the corporate income tax only comprised 5.3 percent of state tax collections....

Confucius said to the ruler: So long as when you get richer, the poor get richer....

......Our floor amendment to exclude neighbor islands from the 1% TAT increase received support from four other neighbor island Representatives....

...Ige’s signing of the rail funding bill also allows the Honolulu City Council to approve Bill 45, which extends O‘ahu’s half-percent surcharge to the state general excise tax another three years....

...The TAT, when it was enacted in 1986, was primarily meant to fund the Hawaii Convention Center....

...Senators highlighted in YELLOW are up for reelection in 2018.  Only four of them voted for the tax hike....

...FTA is complicit.  That’s why it is likely to approve a Plan B that stops at Middle Street....

Senate Committee on Ways and Means to hold hearing Monday, August 28th beginning at 3pm...

...People who aren’t aware of what happened may find themselves with property tax bills many times what they are now....

...The Recovery Plan does not include a financial plan with funding sufficient to cover HART's current estimated total Project cost....

...we were told that this was not a negotiation but a take it or leave it situation....

...there is, in fact, another feasible option: no tax increases at all....

...how much U.S. taxpayers deduct in home mortgage interest by county....

...In a week, lawmakers will be opening a special legislative session to determine how they are going to raise our taxes....

...City and HART officials were often unable to give specific answers to our questions and rarely took responsibility for their cost overruns and inflated budgets....

...the immediate cash flow problems have been solved for the most part by the Honolulu City Council, which authorized the sale of $350 million in bonds to help bail out the project....

...Honolulu Rail Project is on track to becoming the costliest and most mismanaged public transportation project in our nation's history....

...The Hawaii Legislature is hosting a public informational briefing on state funding for the City & County of Honolulu’s rail project at 10 a.m. Aug. 14 in the State Capitol auditorium....

Texas has no personal income tax....

...A Hawaii law dating back to 1955, which now can be found at HRS section 36-27, says that 5% of any special fund’s income will be paid to the state general fund to pay “central service expenses....”

...Hawaii has no soda tax. But that's not for lack of trying.....

... If the funding of rail was all that was on the table it would be simple....

...if you don’t work, you don’t eat....

... we found $1.595B being siphoned off of Rail for non-rail purposes ....

On July 10, 2017, Governor Ige proudly signed House Bill 209, a bill that establishes a Hawaii earned income tax credit.... 

... Before the latest increase, Hawaii ranked 11th ....

...Full Text: Letter to HART Boardmembers, Mayor and County Councilmembers from John Henry Felix....

...State inheritance and estate taxes, together with the federal estate tax, reduce investment, discourage business expansion, and can sometimes drive wealthy taxpayers out of state....

...rail is like the cousin who is always hitting you up for money....

...the share of state and local road spending that is covered by tolls, user fees, and taxes varies drastically. It ranges from only 12 percent in Alaska to 76.3 percent in Hawaii....

...Hawaii GET taxes many products multiple times and ultimately taxes 99.21 percent of the state’s personal income compared to the national median sales tax which applies to 34.46 percent of personal income....

One of the legislative bills that is now being considered by Gov. David Ige is a curious bill, HB 735, involving the car rental industry.... 

...Either Anderson did not understand how the GE Tax works, or he pretended not to....

...Hawaii recently became the first state to make a major push towards a universal basic income....