Oahu Bookkeeping

GET on Oahu

Half a percent more since 2007.

Oahu has had the county surcharge longer than any other island, since 1 January 2007. Retail sales and services pay 4.5 percent, and the most you can show on an invoice is 4.712 percent.

Wholesale, manufacturing and producing stay at 0.5 percent, and the surcharge does not touch them. A business that does both has to keep the two apart in the books, or the return gets filed at the wrong rate.

Where Oahu books go wrong

What I look for first.

Card sales that land in the bank as one deposit, with the fees already taken out. Booked like that, sales look smaller than they were, and GET is owed on the whole sale.

Health care. From 1 January 2026, some payments through Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE are exempt from GET for certain providers. The books have to show where each payment came from, or there is nothing to claim it on.

Contractors. Deposits taken before the work starts, and costs that need to land on the right job.

Vacation rentals

Three taxes on every night.

A rental on Oahu owes GET at 4.5 percent, the state TAT at 11 percent from 1 January 2026, and the Oahu TAT at 3 percent, which started 14 December 2021. The first two are filed with the state and the Oahu TAT is paid to the City on its own.

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.

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. We go through your file together, and within five business days you get a written summary of what I found. Nothing in your file is changed.