Yes, your long-term Hawaii rental owes GET. Here is the 5-minute version

By Kawika Lopez · Updated July 15, 2026 · General information, not tax advice

No Airbnb. No vacation guests. A single tenant on a one-year lease. Most landlords in that situation assume Hawaii taxes are something that happens to short-term rentals. They're wrong, and it's the most commonly missed tax in Hawaii real estate.

What is Hawaii's general excise tax?

Hawaii doesn't have a normal sales tax. It has the general excise tax, a tax on the gross income of nearly every business activity in the state, and renting out property counts as a business activity. If you collect rent in Hawaii, you owe GET on it. Long-term rentals are exempt from the transient accommodations tax (that one only applies to stays under 180 days), but GET has no such exemption.

What is the GET rate on each island in 2026?

Island	Base + county surcharge	Max pass-on rate
Oʻahu	4.5%	4.712%
Maui County	4.0%	4.166%
Hawaiʻi (Big Island)	4.5%	4.712%
Kauaʻi	4.5%	4.712%

As of July 2026. County surcharges change on their own schedules; the law is HRS chapter 237, and current rates live at the Department of Taxation and on our sourced rate table.

Why is GET owed on gross rent, not profit?

GET is owed on every rent dollar collected, before your mortgage, insurance, maintenance, or property manager fees. A $2,500/mo unit on Oʻahu owes roughly $112 in GET each month whether you cleared a profit or not. This is also why waiting years to fix it hurts: the base never shrinks, and penalties build at 5% per month up to 25%, with no statute of limitations on returns that were never filed.

How do landlords file GET in Hawaii?

One-time registration: a GET license from the Department of Taxation, $20.
Periodic filings: form G-45, monthly, quarterly, or semiannually depending on how much tax you owe per year. Smaller landlords usually qualify for quarterly or semiannual.
Annual reconciliation: form G-49, due after year end, squaring the periodic filings against the actual year.

The math isn't hard. The hard part is never missing a deadline, and that's exactly what slips when it's one more chore on a rental you manage from another island or the mainland.

$49 a month makes this someone else's calendar

We file GET for long-term rentals and the full three-tax stack for short-term rentals, every period, guaranteed on time. Founding clients onboard August 2026.