Taxes

... Hold on to your wallet ....

... Road map to prosperity ....

... you can't let your guard down when our esteemed legislators get together ....

... thus raising the state’s top income tax rate from 11% to 13% ....

... Want to pass one of these bills?  Go ahead, make my day! ....

... New incentives approved to spur development of affordable rentals ....

... The states in the bottom 10 tend to have a number of afflictions in common: complex, nonneutral taxes with comparatively high rates ....

... The 20th annual American Lung Association "State of Tobacco Control" report evaluates states ....

... On top of the federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon, Hawaii levies an additional excise tax of 51.7 cents - the fourth highest gas tax rate among states ....

... HONOLULU remained a Sinkhole City because it needed more than $3.9 billion, or $31,700 from each taxpayer, to pay its bills ....

"...increase the refund amount...."

... Their recommendation:  “Tax pension and other retirement income...."

... With this kind of money projected to come in the door, politicians of all stripes are staying up nights plotting and planning how to spend it ....

...Just like they were a year ago at this time, the businesses that provide jobs to the state’s civilian workforce are in danger of having their annual unemployment taxes skyrocket....

... What to do with the state’s $3 billion budget surplus ....

... the problem isn’t too little money, it’s too much ....

... The 2022 Legislative Briefings will be held via Zoom on the following Tuesdays from 7:30 am- 8:30 am ....

... the result of years of indulgence and bad habits ....

... This is not the only recommendation the Tax Review Commission came up with ....

... “Hawaiʻi is the ʻmost hostile health environment to practice in," physician says ....

... a chance to get in front of lawmakers and argue that we aren’t being taxed enough ....

... these are majority opinions in our state ....

... the Aloha State now has the highest tourist taxes in the nation, topping out at 17.75% ....

... calculations show there is plenty of room for the Legislature to break its habit of continually increasing taxes ....

... these debates are meaningless ....

... big fat property tax bills coming next ....

...Translation: The Legislature took the counties' share of the state TAT away but let them impose their own TAT.  I'm giving it to rail -- so, in effect, other city services have been cut to fund rail but -- like a shell game -- with so many moving parts, the public has been deceived....

... DoTax wants years of back GE Taxes ....

... Mayor Michael Victorino has signed Bill 118 -- the ʻAina Kūpuna bill -- that establishes a mechanism to provide long-time Maui families with tax relief for inherited real property in a Special Management Area ....

... projected revenues from the tax fall short of what the project needs to cover its budget shortfalls ....

... Once upon a time there were some property developers on Oahu ....

... In more recent years, the Hawaii Supreme Court has been giving the tax office even more help and protection ....

... ʻĀina kupuna bill to help long-time Maui families keep ancestral lands passes first council reading ....

... The poll of nearly 1,000 Hawaii residents also found significant agreement that private firms should be more involved in delivering public services ....

...A Tax Break for the Rich Could End up Being the Largest Part of the 'Build Back Better' Plan....

... lump-sum entry fees assessed on visitors only are legally problematic in the U.S. as they may be judged to impede travel between states and discriminate against non-residents in violation of the U.S. Constitution and federal laws ....

... the Maui County Transient Accommodations Tax (MCTAT) goes into effect November 1, 2021 ....

... the federal funds made it unnecessary for our legislators to take all of the TAT funds. But they did it anyway ....

... the Index is designed to show how well states structure their tax systems and provides a road map for improvement ....

... So now let’s pose a challenge ....

... Hawaii is still in a state of emergency, tourism has slowed, businesses are closing and unemployment is high. The economy will take years to recover ....

... Monthly fees for A+ programming will be increasing from $120 to $200 ....

... How to build affordable housing?  Impose a $1.169 billion tax on housing.  Clue: 'Boondoggle' ....

... A professional poll of almost 1,000 people throughout the islands suggests lawmakers are ignoring what their constituents really want ....

... The memo concludes that the State did not have the power under the Hawaii Constitution to provide for four extra HART board members.  Thus, we can basically ignore the extra folks and conduct business as if they weren’t around ....

“When combined with their share of the state debt, Honolulu taxpayers each owe $61,300.”

... “Growing the Good Life Begins Here” ....

... “Those people have at their disposal so many ways to flummox the tax authorities if they want to. Panamanian bearer shares corporations. Dutch sandwiches. Entities from the Isle of Man, the Caymans, or Bermuda perhaps.” ....

... Another sovereignty scammer busted ....

... I have seen legislature after legislature consider many, many bills to increase taxes ....