County Surcharge Information
Kauai & Hawaii Counties Begin New County Surcharges on January 1, 2019
The Legislature authorized county governments to adopt county surcharges on state general excise
(GE) tax and use tax.1 To establish the surcharge, the county must adopt a surcharge by ordinance. The
City and County of Honolulu has levied a surcharge since 2007.2 The Counties of Kauai and Hawaii have
adopted county surcharges that will be effective beginning on January 1, 2019.3, 4 The County of Maui
has not adopted a surcharge.
The county surcharge only applies to transactions subject to the 4.0% GE and use tax rate. The county
surcharge does not apply to activities taxed at the 0.5% rate (e.g., wholesaling) or the 0.15% rate (i.e.,
insurance commissions). Taxpayers are required to allocate their gross proceeds and gross income to
the designated taxation districts. Revised general excise tax forms for tax year 2019 will be available in
January 2019 on the Department’s website at http://tax.hawaii.gov/forms. For your convenience, you
may also file returns online using the Department’s e-filing portal, Hawaii Tax Online at https://hitax.
hawaii.gov.
A seller may choose to visibly pass on the GET and any applicable county surcharge to its customers,
but is not required to do so. The following table shows each county’s surcharge rate, maximum pass-on
rate, and effective date.
For more information on county surcharges, please visit the Department’s website at
http://tax.hawaii.gov/geninfo/countysurcharge
1 Section 46-163.8, Hawaii Revised Statutes
2 Section 6-60, Revised Ordinances of Honolulu
3 Section 5-3, Kauai County Code
4 Chapter 2, Article 45, Hawaii County Code
COUNTY SURCHARGE AND GENERAL EXCISE TAX RATES
COUNTY STATE GENERAL MAX PASS-ON
COUNTY SURCHARGE EXCISE TAX RATE TAX RATE EFFECTIVE DATE
TA X RATE City & County
0.50% 4.0% 4.7120%
January 1, 2007 to
of Honolulu2 December 31, 2030
County of Kauai3 0.50% 4.0% 4.7120%
January 1, 2019 to
December 31, 2030
County of Hawaii4 0.25% 4.0% 4.4386%
January 1, 2019 to
December 31, 2030
County of Maui 0.00% 4.0% 4.1666% No county surcharge