Taxes

... Property owners who wish to dispute their real property assessment may file an appeal during the period of December 15, to January 15, 2021 ....

...“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”....

... In a case called Timbs v. Indiana decided just last year, however, the U.S. Supreme Court made a couple of key points ....

...the looming massive increase in the state’s unemployment insurance tax....

...When businesses across the state are fighting for their lives, the state is about to levy an enormous hike in the unemployment tax.... 

...GET down by 25.1%...TAT down by 92.8%....

...Ranking Individual Income Taxes on the 2021 State Business Tax Climate Index....

... Ranking Corporate Income Taxes on the 2021 State Business Tax Climate Index ....

...Tax Treatment of Groceries, Candy, and Soda Can Get Tricky....

...we have a state budget hole of more than 2 billion dollars....

... Hawaii has a throwback rule ....

...Hawaii’s general fund spending rose a hefty 5.7 percent in 2020, thus reducing the governor’s score in this report....

... The Auditor was supposed to start on the first chunk last year and finish the report before the start of the 2020 legislature, but ....

...Hawaii and Washington State have the highest estate tax top rates in the nation at 20 percent....

...Almost every state spends more on highways than they collect in dedicated revenue from federal, state, and local sources. The only exceptions are Hawaii, Idaho, and Tennessee....

...Now that the economy is down and tax revenues are in the tank, we are now seeing cases of our Department of Taxation using some particularly nasty provisions in the tax code....

...employers are likely to be hit with a significant and automatic rate increase at the end of this year....

... State and Local taxes add $0.4628 per gallon -- not counting GE Tax .... 

...Tax Foundation of Hawaii, urged the Legislature to adopt key provisions of the CARES Act although it became law in 2020. DoTAX, in testimony, proposed to adopt a few provisions and leave others on the cutting room floor....

...Pass-through businesses, such as sole proprietorships, S corporations, and partnerships, make up a majority of businesses in the United States....

...unemployment insurance and how it is going to fare after the pandemic....

... donning rose-colored glasses and approaching the budget shortfall as a temporary setback ....

...Hawaii has the broadest sales tax in the United States, but it taxes many products multiple times and, by one estimate, ultimately taxes 105 percent of the state’s personal income.  This base is far wider than the national median, where the sales tax applies to 34.25 percent of personal income....

...nobody pays more for less....

“...Taxes are the single most expensive ingredient in beer, costing more than the labor and raw materials combined....”

...Ige's COVID order suspends law requiring that people who want to do business with the State or municipal governments need to be current with their state and federal taxes....

...we struggled to determine the purposes of the provisions reviewed, and in some cases, were unable to even infer the purposes. Additionally, we had no objective means to assess whether provisions were achieving their purposes....

...and the highest Total Sales & Excise Tax Burden....

"...This will allow local shippers and businesses, especially those on the neighbor islands, to conduct business without worrying about a rate increase at this time....”

...another general excise tax exemption that the State Auditor has put under the microscope....

...Victorino said his proposed property tax rates would have provided relief for hotels, resorts and short-term rentals from the economic downturn....

...Start working now to adopt a meaningful spending cap....

...tinkering with the tax code to raise more money has the effect of putting the brakes on what little spin we have left on our economic engine....

...the State Auditor has been busy at work trying to find options for legislators to consider for getting the state budget back on track....

...One way policymakers can help expedite their state’s economic recovery is by protecting employers from facing higher UI tax rates at a time when they can least afford to pay them....

...Hawaii is 9th at 36.6%....

...state policymakers seem to believe that the answer to the worst economic crisis in decades is to borrow and spend — and very likely raise taxes....

...Keli'i Akina Challenges Lawmakers' Plan to Increase Borrowing and Spending....

... 22.2% of Hawaii State tax receipts come from individual income taxes ....

...the state deficit for fiscal year 2021 could grow to between $710 million and $1.8 billion....

...Grassroot testimony outlines the problem and suggests some reforms....

...Buried on the 19th page of a 68-page the document is a sentence suspending “Section 237D-6.5(b), distribution of the transient accommodations tax.”....

...if Hawaii’s lawmakers wish to save our state economy from its current freefall, they must not be afraid to reduce state spending....

... stopgap measures which could help prevent public employees from feeling the slightest suffering...for now....

...Stormwater: $100M Tax Hike After 36 Years of Lawyering and Foot-dragging....

...Hawaii doesn't have enough doctors and other medical providers. Could Hawaii's tax system be a reason for the shortage?....

...This is not a far-fetched scenario....

...Unless you like the idea of having doctors in rural areas being scarcer than toilet paper....

...Suspension, deferment of general excise tax collections....

...We have a 44% shortage of physicians on the Big Island....