Do I need a sales tax permit in Hawaii?

Anyone who receives gross income or gross proceeds of sales taxed under Hawaii's general excise tax law must apply for and obtain a general excise tax license from the Department of Taxation before engaging or continuing in that business. Hawaii calls the registration a Hawaii general excise tax license. For a seller outside Hawaii, the economic nexus threshold is $100,000 in sales or 200 separate transactions in the current or immediately preceding calendar year. Hawaii's own rule sets which sales count toward it and when registration must follow.

Sales tax permit · Hawaii

How to Get a Hawaii General Excise Tax License

The short answer. In Hawaii, the registration a business must hold before it makes sales subject to Hawaii general excise tax is a Hawaii general excise tax license, issued by the Hawaii Department of Taxation. The general excise tax license costs $20. It is a one-time fee, and a branch license for each additional location is free.

Hawaii General Excise Tax License at a Glance

What Hawaii calls it	Hawaii General Excise Tax License
Issued by	Hawaii Department of Taxation
How to apply	Online or paper
Fee	$20 (see Cost)
Security deposit or bond	Not confirmed
Expires	Does not expire (see Renewal)
Several locations	One for each location (see Locations)
Local general excise tax	Depends (see Local taxes)
Threshold for sellers outside the state	$100,000 in sales or 200 separate transactions

Read from the government sources listed at the foot of this page, last checked September 29, 2026. See the sources.

Who Needs a Hawaii General Excise Tax License

Anyone who receives gross income or gross proceeds of sales taxed under Hawaii's general excise tax law must apply for and obtain a general excise tax license from the Department of Taxation before engaging or continuing in that business.

For a seller outside Hawaii, the economic nexus threshold is $100,000 in sales or 200 separate transactions in the current or immediately preceding calendar year. Hawaii's own rule sets which sales count toward it and when registration must follow.

How to Apply

You apply to the Hawaii Department of Taxation. You can apply online or on a paper application. Go to Hawaii's registration page.

Hawaii requires your registration to be displayed at the place of business.

What It Costs

The general excise tax license costs $20. It is a one-time fee, and a branch license for each additional location is free.

We have not confirmed whether Hawaii can require security, such as a deposit or bond; check with the Hawaii Department of Taxation.

Does It Expire?

The general excise tax license does not expire. The license stays in effect until it is canceled in writing, and the Director may revoke or cancel it for cause.

More Than One Location

A business needs a separate general excise tax license for each place of business in Hawaii. Each additional location (or each additional business name) gets a free branch license, requested on Form G-50 or through Hawaii Tax Online, under the same registration.

Local General excise Taxes in Hawaii

The county surcharge on the general excise tax is collected by the Department of Taxation on your state return. Counties such as Maui County and the City and County of Honolulu also levy their own transient accommodations tax on lodging, which is paid separately to the county rather than to the Department (Maui County treats a state transient accommodations tax registration as registration for its county tax).

Worth Knowing in Hawaii

Hawaii's general excise tax is a privilege tax on the business's gross income, which the business may choose to pass on to its customers. The same license also registers you for Hawaii use tax.

More for Hawaii Businesses

Hawaii resale certificate, for buying inventory for resale.
Sales tax nexus checker, to see which other states your sales may require you to register in.
Hawaii LLC guide, for forming and running an LLC in the state.
LLC guide for eBay sellers in Hawaii, for selling only through a marketplace.

Frequently Asked Questions

: Anyone who receives gross income or gross proceeds of sales taxed under Hawaii's general excise tax law must apply for and obtain a general excise tax license from the Department of Taxation before engaging or continuing in that business. Hawaii calls the registration a Hawaii general excise tax license. For a seller outside Hawaii, the economic nexus threshold is $100,000 in sales or 200 separate transactions in the current or immediately preceding calendar year. Hawaii's own rule sets which sales count toward it and when registration must follow.
: The general excise tax license costs $20. It is a one-time fee, and a branch license for each additional location is free. We have not confirmed whether Hawaii can require security, such as a deposit or bond; check with the Hawaii Department of Taxation.
: The general excise tax license does not expire. The license stays in effect until it is canceled in writing, and the Director may revoke or cancel it for cause.
: A business needs a separate general excise tax license for each place of business in Hawaii. Each additional location (or each additional business name) gets a free branch license, requested on Form G-50 or through Hawaii Tax Online, under the same registration.
: The county surcharge on the general excise tax is collected by the Department of Taxation on your state return. Counties such as Maui County and the City and County of Honolulu also levy their own transient accommodations tax on lodging, which is paid separately to the county rather than to the Department (Maui County treats a state transient accommodations tax registration as registration for its county tax).

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state's law and tax agency say about the registration a business holds before it makes taxable sales, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you whether your own business must register: that turns on what you sell, where you sell it from, and how much you sell into the state, and fees, security rules and thresholds change between our reviews. Confirm your own position with the tax agency named on this page before you start selling.

Sources

Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified Hawaii sources, and each entry says what the document is. Some statutory text is read from an accurate mirror rather than from the state's own host, and those say so.

files.hawaii.gov/tax/legal/hrs/hrs_237.pdfHRS chapter 237, General Excise Tax Law (DoTax unofficial compilation as of 12/31/2025)
files.hawaii.gov/tax/legal/brochures/GE_brochure-23.pdfDoTax, An Introduction to the General Excise Tax (Revised September 2023)
tax.hawaii.gov/geninfo/licensing/DoTax: Licensing Information
tax.hawaii.gov/geninfo/countysurcharge/DoTax: County Surcharge on General Excise and Use Tax
mauicounty.gov/2466/Transient-Accommodations-TaxCounty of Maui: Transient Accommodations Tax (MCTAT)
mauicounty.gov/2536/TAT-Announcement-No-2021-02County of Maui: TAT Announcement No. 2021-02
honolulu.gov/bfs/otat/City and County of Honolulu: O'ahu Transient Accommodations Tax (OTAT)

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Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC

Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.