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 Island4.5%
County surcharge since2019
Most you can pass on4.712%
County TAT sinceJan 2022
Crucible Ledger Co.

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 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.

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 I show you what I found. Nothing in your file is changed.

The Free Diagnostic

See what I would see.

A free look at your books before anyone agrees to anything.

About the Free Diagnostic

It costs nothing to find out where your books stand.

We go through your QuickBooks together and I tell you what I see. If your books are clean enough, I will also show you a few quick moves that could put more money in your pocket.