Hawaii Island Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping for Hilo, Kona and everywhere between.
Monthly bookkeeping and cleanups in QuickBooks Online for small businesses on the Big Island, from Hilo to Kona and Waimea to Pahoa.
Hawaii Island at a glance GET
GET on Hawaii Island
Three rates in three years.
Hawaii County started its surcharge at a quarter percent in 2019 and raised it to half a percent in 2020. So retail sales and services paid 4 percent in 2018, 4.25 percent in 2019, and 4.5 percent every year since. The free GET Pass-On Calculator works out the GET to add on any price.
The most you could pass on moved with it: 4.1666, then 4.4386, then 4.712 percent. A cleanup that reaches back that far has to use the right rate for each year.
Farms and ranches
Half a percent or 4.5.
Selling your crop or your cattle to a buyer who resells it is producing, taxed at 0.5 percent with no county surcharge. Selling a bag of coffee at the farm stand is retail, at 4.5 percent.
Most farms do some of both. The books have to keep them apart, or everything gets filed at the higher rate.
Vacation rentals
Three taxes on every night.
A rental on the Big Island owes GET at 4.5 percent, the state TAT at 11 percent from 1 January 2026, and the county TAT at 3 percent, charged from 1 January 2022, the last of the four counties to start.
GET you visibly pass on to a guest can come out of the income the TAT is figured on. I keep the rent, cleaning fees and payouts apart so each return starts from the right number. The free Vacation Rental Tax Calculator shows all three on any stay.
Working together
Video, phone, or coffee.
Your books live in QuickBooks Online, so all of this works by video and phone and neither of us has to get on a plane. If you are close, I am always up for a coffee.
It starts with the free diagnostic. I go through your books and show you what I found, usually in two or three business days. Nothing in your books changes.
The Free Diagnostic
See what I would see.
A free look at your books, whether or not you hire me.
Ink & Crucible
A short note from me, now and then.
Money, books and running a small business in Hawaii, in plain words.
It costs nothing to find out where your books stand.
I go through your QuickBooks and show you what I find, whether or not you hire me. If your books are clean enough, I'll also show you a few quick moves that could put more money in your pocket.