Tax Credits

Hawaii's tax structure is 2nd-worst in the US for labor-intensive manufacturing....

Excepting heavily incentivized research and development (R&D) operations, mature firms generally experience above-average tax costs in Hawaii....

You may remember Relativity Media from its efforts at the Hawaii Legislature in 2011 and 2012....

The primary mover behind Relativity's failed "Accelerator Package"--Senate Ways and Means Chair David Ige....

...the threat of losing NEM has led some in the PV industry down the path of hyperbole, exaggeration and self-interested fear-mongering....

originally published May, 2005, reprinted in honor of Al Hee being found guilty on all counts....

On July 9, Governor Ige signed Senate Bill 555, which will increase the food/excise tax credit for the first time in nearly a decade....

...federal subsidies to wind power do not create investment out of nowhere; they simply distort the relative cost of producing wind energy, shifting investments from other sectors of the economy to wind projects....

...if you are a taxpayer with questions and you call the Hawaii Department of Taxation’s customer service line, there is a more than 50% chance that your call won’t be answered. At all....

In 2012, we found that after nearly 40 years of existence, NELHA had yet to live up to its creators’ vision....

...Total federal income tax breaks from 2008 through 2012: $4.2 billion....

...77 separate contributions by Navatek or by employees linked to Navatek made to elected officials totaling $81,000....

...Consumers pay for electricity twice: once through monthly electricity bills and a second time through taxes that finance subsidies for inefficient wind and other energy producers....

Hawaii levies the second highest tax burden in the country on its low-income families. A major reason for this is the General Excise tax....

Built with your tax dollars, via crony capitalist Act 221 High Tech Tax Credits, Hawaii....

...Plenty of issues remain to be addres­sed, not least the safety implications of having kites weighing more than a tonne flying around on cables up to 310m long....

...subsidy programs assessed in each state....

...Hawaii Appleseed is making solid progress advancing important legislation to benefit low-income people in our state....

...a nonpartisan effort to make the state budgeting process accessible to the public by putting state budget facts and figures online, in real time....

Also in the H&R Block report is the news that the individual mandate penalty is averaging $172. This is likely to rise in future years....

...According to a report by the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, it lifts more families out of poverty than any other federal policy....

...the interaction between the advance disposal fee (ADF) and the deposit beverage container (DBC) programs creates inefficiencies in the recycling or down-cycling of glass....

Where the 'Recycled' Glass Goes? -- Busted: Hee Family Tied to Massive Waste Dumping Scheme....

This is happening now because Dan Inouye is dead.  There will be more....

NextEra paid just $88 million in taxes on earnings of nearly $7 billion. That’s a tax rate of just 1.25 percent when the statutory rate is 35 percent....

...it almost worked, until Goldman Sachs taught them all the meaning of "preferred stock"....

...The wind production tax credit, a generous $23 per-megawatt-hour tax credit the producer receives for 10 years, expired last year....

...September 30, 2014 deadline for three real property programs is approaching and urge those wishing to participate to submit the required documentation....

This week’s illustration of how timing is important involves the Hawaii Renewable Energy Technologies credit....

...Flikdate is the recipient of HSDC Hi-Tech 'investment' money....

...there was potential in Hawaii to find and invest in (get taxpayer money for) globally competitive startups (which are based in California)....

HTDC still relying on carbon paper and typewriters to draft communications with the state, which she says causes more work in the end for her staff....

Solar City collects for itself tax subsidies intended for its consumers, who are left vulnerable to sudden spikes in their electricity bills....

Over 11% of Hawaii households are multigenerational, the largest percentage in the United States....

Other states are being ordered to follow Hawaii's example and give lots of money to green energy scammers who in turn give campaign contributions to the politicians who made their scams possible...

...The Act also increases the cap on the amount of the credit per production from $8 million to $15 million and moves the expiration date for the credit from January 1, 2016 to January 1, 2019....

...HSDC today announced the State of Hawaii’s $4.5 million commitment to Startup Capital Ventures II....

Let’s use the discussion over this credit to help us all determine what time it is....

...You’ll never see it as a line item in the budget....

Biofuels made with corn residue actually release 7 percent more greenhouse gas....

Many well-known people such as Governors Lingle and Abercrombie, Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw, Blue Planet Foundation's Henk Rogers, and Hawaii's only billionaire Pierre Omidyar have Sopogy egg on their face....

...Washington cronies dole out special treatment to certain companies....

...a windfall gain for the typically wealthy households able to take advantage of the situation....

One of the bills now making its way through the Legislature concerns the motion picture, digital media, and film production tax credit....