State Auditor’s Review of GET Exemptions and Exclusions
In 2016, lawmakers came up with a law requiring the State Auditor to review exemptions, exclusions, and credits in the general excise, public service company, and insurance premium taxes.
Current situation on contact tracers is unknown
Last week we discussed contact tracers, the people at the Department of Health who are supposed to follow up with COVID-19 positive patients and trace their contacts in order to either find their sources of infection or at least let the people with whom they were in contact know that they have been exposed to the virus.
Case of the missing contact tracer millions
The story you are about to read is true. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent. This is the city: Honolulu, Hawaii. I live here. I’m a doggie.
The fear of disappearing shares of CARES Act money
Two weeks ago in this space, we wrote about a generous genie known as Uncle Sam who is making available $1.25 billion under section 5001 of the CARES Act.
The doomsday rules in the general excise tax
Now that the economy is down and tax revenues are in the tank, we are now seeing cases of our state Department of Taxation using some particularly-nasty provisions in the tax code.
How we’re going to spend CARES Act money
Imagine what would happen if a genie came up to you and said, “Here’s a pot of money for you. All you need to do is spend it by the end of the year. If you don’t, whatever you haven’t spent will disappear.” What would you do with it?
How the unemployment tax impacts nonprofits
Two weeks ago in this space we discussed the unemployment tax and insurance system and how employers are likely to be hit with a significant and automatic rate increase at the end of this year.
Just two tax bills passed in the Legislature this year
Our Legislature has reconvened and has adjourned for the year.
Electric vehicle sweeteners running out
If you are one of the lucky people who have managed to buy an electric vehicle and get a special plate for it, you probably know that several benefits came with that special plate, including the ability to park at government parking lots (including at the airport!) and street spaces for free, and the ability to jump into carpool lanes even though there is just one person in the car.
Future of unemployment insurance
Multiple readers have asked about unemployment insurance and how it is going to fare after the pandemic. This will give you an idea of how the system works.
Damn the tax clearances, full speed ahead
Several articles in this space have been about features in Governor Ige’s emergency proclamations.
What the future holds for Aloha Stadium
While everyone’s attention is focused on COVID-19 and racially charged police brutality, we should also pay some attention to major happenings here at home.
Pitfalls of the subcontractor deduction
This week we’ll look at another general-excise-tax exemption that the State Auditor has put under the microscope in Report No. 20-05. It affects the construction industry, and the price tag the auditor put on it, based on 2018 numbers, was $19 million.
That giant sucking sound is residents leaving state
You may remember back in the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign, independent businessman and candidate Ross Perot argued, on live TV: “We have got to stop sending jobs overseas.”
Our GET may be too soft on sales to federal government
Our Legislature will be reopening soon, and some lawmakers are undoubtedly thinking of ways to make our budget balance, because the grim reality is that much of our economic engine has ground to a halt and is no longer spinning out tax revenues.
What to do with federal COVID money
This week our Legislature will be recessing after working on one of its important tasks: figuring out how to spend $1 billion of federal money that is being made available to Hawaii under the CARES Act.
If you happen to have money laying around
During this period of emergency and with our state facing revenue shortfalls of Brobdingnagian proportions, the state auditor has been busy at work trying to find options for legislators to consider for getting the state budget back on track.
Government still operating in darkness
Previously in this space, we spoke of various laws that were suspended by the governor’s emergency proclamations.
Crossing the Rubicon into tax suspension
In an article in this space just a couple of weeks ago, we growled and grumbled about the possibility that our governor, having already suspended laws and chapters in the Hawai‘i Revised Statutes in a listing 17 pages long, would start monkeying with the tax code.
Desire to do good no excuse for disregarding laws
Here we are, still amid the COVID-19 emergency, and there appears to be some confusion over what laws still apply.