Taxes

... the New Year is off and running and we are quaking in our boots waiting for our Legislature to reconvene, here are some of the ideas that we have been following ....

... Akina and Iwasa discuss the history of property taxes in Hawaii, how assessments are conducted and what reforms the counties should consider ....

... Gov. Josh Green made eliminating the general excise tax for food and medicine one of his major talking points. And on the county level, faced with concerns about skyrocketing real estate assessments, Mayor Rick Blangiardi promised to “aggressively” pursue ways to reduce that tax burden. ....

... more than 15,000 left the state between July 2021 and July 2022 ....

... revenue will continue to fall short of spending absent policy changes ....

... assessments of all real property on Oahu went up by 12.4% compared with the previous year. And that’s just the average ....

... Lawmakers have not indicated if they back Green's plan ....  

... City to Send 2023 Real Property Notice of Assessments ....

... Green's top priorities for his first 100 days in office ....

... A total of 606,674 Act 115 refunds were issued, totaling $307.9 million. That includes 288,590 direct deposits and 318,084 paper checks ....

“...our residents will continue to suffer and flee the state....”

"... it is essentially a budgeting gimmick ...."

... many Hawaii families are taking a hard look at their finances and calculating how inflation and recession will affect their holiday plans, if not their entire economic futures ....

... Rethinking HTA’s “Regenerative Tourism Fee” ....

... The state is short more than 1,000 doctors, which means some patients cannot get care, and the ones who do have to wait a long time. ...

... The idea seems to be gaining steam now since our federal court has struck down Honolulu’s recent ordinance clamping down on transient vacation rentals ....

... Hawaii’s unemployment insurance (UI) program is funded exclusively by employers via state and federal payroll taxes on wages ....

... The Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index enables business leaders, government policymakers, and taxpayers to gauge how their states’ tax systems compare ....

“If we exempted medical care from the general excise tax it would save doctors and patients more than $200 million [a year]. And that would help keep doctors in our state, rather than having to flee the state to earn money elsewhere...."

... we gained a few high-income individuals but lost more of those folks scraping to make ends meet ....

... the petition, which can be viewed here, calls on lawmakers to exempt medical services from the state’s general excise tax ....

... The report examines the tax and spending choices made by the governors and discusses recent policy trends ....

... four of the top five states Hawaii residents moved to—Washington, Texas, Nevada, and Florida—forgo individual income taxes on wage income ....

... they told me, ‘Send this person to Costco’ ....

... Grassroot Institute of Hawaii is working with experts around the country to create a better Hawaii ....

... Hawaii Department of Transportation has been studying implementation of a Road Usage Charge ....

... support grew when rental cars are charged a higher rate than residents ....

... about 600,000 Hawaiʻi taxpayers are scheduled to receive approximately $294 million in tax refunds ....

... Will Hawaii’s candidates on the 2022 campaign trail follow through on their promises? ....

... Honolulu is 75% higher in taxes than the second most tourist-taxed city in the world ....

... Does the state have a responsibility to “go without,” if that would be better for the people? ....

... lawmakers are allowed to waive the state’s spending cap by a two-thirds vote, which they routinely do ....

... taxes on the purchases of those expenditures disproportionately hurt low income households ....

... Why don’t we just get rid of it? ....

... The three Democratic candidates for governor all support it ....

... $51.70 a night ....

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

... Tired of runaway government taxes, spending and debt?  Learn what we can do about it from budget expert Daniel Mitchell ....

... According to the Hawaii Physician Shortage Crisis Task Force, taxes are one of the reason for the shortage ....

... folks who seem to rank high on the milking list:  tourists....

... FY2022 corporate income tax collections up 60.1% from the previous year, IIT collections up 22.3% from the previous year, and General Fund tax collections up 34.8% ....

... Tax Department wanted get a piece of the UH research grants ....

... Maui County proposes to spend more than One Billion Dollars in this fiscal year, a 26% increase over last fiscal year ....

... State-local taxes paid $8,410 -- 14.1% of income ....

... Whether it be a bake sale, benefit dinner, or a silent auction, any income from an activity the primary purpose for which is raising money is GET taxable ....

... It would have increased the state sales tax and would have eliminated many tax credits and deductions.  The legislature, predictably, tossed out these offsets ....

... HART's recovery plan was shipped off to the FTA today with revenue projections that I think are too high ....

... Hawaii’s gross domestic product is down by 4.43% since 2019, yet even as the economy suffers, all four counties seem determined to spend like crazy ....

... efforts to reform the state’s emergency powers law; reduce barriers to housing; bring taxes, debt and state spending under control ....

... there are a lot of different taxes that go into the price at the pump ....