• Excise tax blues • Cowgirls changes • No rail tax for Kaua’i Aloha Hawai’i State Senators, Excise tax blues I’ve been reading so many articles about the state’s 4% excise tax over the years that I’ve decided to add
• Excise tax blues
• Cowgirls changes
• No rail tax for Kaua’i Aloha Hawai’i State Senators,
Excise tax blues
I’ve been reading so many articles about the state’s 4% excise tax over the years that I’ve decided to add my viewpoint to the mix. First of all, Hawaii state excise tax is 4% not 4.166%.
Many people are confused about this so I’ll try to explain why.
It is no secret that businesses charge consumers for the excise tax. Please note that when I say businesses, I mean the majority of businesses in Hawai’i. Not all, but most businesses charge consumers for the excise tax.
Simply put, the Hawaii state 4% excise tax is a tax imposed on the gross income of a business. Since a business can generally charge the consumer what it wants, the business adds the 4% excise tax to the consumer’s bill. The business does not pay the tax, the consumer does.
When the consumer pays the 4% tax out of the kindness of his/her heart, the business is now obligated to pay 4% of that amount, (remember the tax is on gross income). So the business adds 4% more to the bill which the customer again must pay. This process continues yet one more time, squeezing another 4% from the consumer. This adding on of 4% could theoretically continue on and on but the state has put a cap on this process restricting the amount which businesses can tack on to an invoice to 4.166%. As a business owner, I charge my customers 4% of the total invoice to cover my excise tax obligation to the state.
I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of our customers for paying my tax obligation. However, I personally believe that asking your customer to pay the tax on the tax of the tax is a bit too much. At any rate, I hope people realize that although this tax is an excise tax and is designed to tax businesses, it is really the consumer who is paying, paying and paying.
In conclusion, anytime an excise tax increase is discussed you will probably read that businesses will be affected. Since most businesses pass this tax on to the consumer in triplicate, it will be the consumer, not the business that will suffer.
Sincerely,
Tony LeHoven
Kilauea
Cowgirls changes
Dear Kristene Sugai; Fern White, Hoíolai Ludington-Braun, Rodeo Fans, and the Cowgirls who participated in the Aloha Festival State Rodeo 2003:
We’re writing this letter to send you a most sincere apology for any miscommunications and errors in the point awards system at the Aloha Festival Kauai All Girls Rodeo Association State Championship Rodeo on September 19, 2003.
As you all know, the announcement and prize award for the “All Around Cowgirl” winner and runner-ups was corrected “after-the-fact.” There was a math mistake when the points were added, compounded by some confusion about the tally rules. We honestly can’t find the words to express how sorry we are about what happened and ask for your understanding and forgiveness. Based on the top points for each event counting toward the “All Around Cowgirl” is: Kristene Sugai (43 points). Fern White is second with 42 points and Ho’olai Ludington-Braun is third with 32 points.
The KAGRA is a fairly new association, and we are doing our best to promote the sport of rodeo on our island. Many Kaua’i women have devoted countless hours to making KAGRA an ongoing success. This unfortunate incident certainly taught us a good lesson. We deeply regret very much any hurt or problems our errors may have caused. Please know that we are working very hard to be sure such errors don’t occur in the future.
Thank you so much for your support over the years. We hope you will continue to participate actively with KAGRA and look forward to seeing you in the arena!
With much aloha,
Nancy McMahon, Jocelyn Brun, Shelcee
Ludington, Joyce Miranda
KAGRA Board 2004
Rosanne Shimogawa, Wendy Tannery, Melissa Sugai, Shelcee Ludington, Apryl Soares, Nancy McMahon, Jocelyn Brun, Sheri Caveiro
KAGRA State Rodeo
Committee 2003
No rail tax for Kaua’i Aloha Hawai’i State Senators,
I am really concerned about passing SB2052 raising our excise tax to 4.5% to fund the O’ahu Rail System. I live on Kaua’i and because of air fares being so out of touch for kama’aina’s we can’t even afford to fly to O’ahu let alone help fund a rail system that has nothing to do with Kaua’i.
I hope you take this into consideration. I know I speak for alot of Kaua’i residents and I’m sure there are many other outer island residents that feel the same way
Sincerely
Barbara Poor
Hanalei
