Registered under Bill 47? Here is your tax catch-up checklist

Updated July 15, 2026 · General information, not tax advice

Hawaii County's Bill 47 made short-term rental registration mandatory on the Island of Hawaii, with a deadline of September 1, 2026 and fines that can reach $10,000 for operating unregistered. Registering is the easy part. The part that catches owners off guard is what registration reveals.

Why registration exposes your taxes

To register a short-term rental, you need state tax licenses: a GET license and a TAT registration. If you've been renting for years without them, then the moment you apply, the state has a record of a rental with no filing history attached to it.

Two facts make that uncomfortable. Unfiled GET returns in Hawaii have no statute of limitations, so there is no year the state cannot ask about. And late amounts grow at 5% per month up to 25%, plus interest, with TAT unpaid more than 60 days picking up an additional 20%. Waiting doesn't make any of this smaller. Getting current on your own schedule, before anyone asks, is the whole game.

The checklist

1. Confirm you are covered by Bill 47. It applies to short-term rentals on the Island of Hawaii (the Big Island). Rentals of 180 days or more per tenant are a different situation, though they still owe GET.
2. Pull your rental income records. Airbnb and VRBO both let you download yearly earnings statements. Get every year you operated. Gross rent is what matters, including cleaning fees.
3. Get your GET license. One-time $20 registration with the Hawaii Department of Taxation. This is the license number the county wants to see.
4. Register for TAT. State transient accommodations tax registration, plus Hawaii County's own TAT applies on top.
5. Register with the county under Bill 47. Annual fee in the $250 to $500 range. Deadline September 1, 2026.
6. File the catch-up returns. Periodic GET and TAT returns for the years you operated, plus annual reconciliations. This is the step where owners stall, and the step where penalties keep growing while they do.
7. Get on a schedule going forward. Once you're current, filings come around as often as monthly, due by the 20th. Set it up once so you never fall behind again.

What a catch-up actually costs

The tax itself is what it always was: roughly 4.5% GET on all rent and 11% state TAT plus 3% county TAT on short-term rent for recent periods, at the rates in effect for each year you file. What you control is how much penalty and interest stack on top, and that is purely a function of time. Owners who come forward on their own are in much better shape than owners the state finds first.

Related reading: Hawaii's TAT is 11% now, here is the full tax stack and why long-term rentals owe GET too.