Hawaii Reporter

We’ve written a lot about the Hawaii State Watch Doggie.  Those who have visited our Twitter site have seen that the Doggie is a family man, with a wife and son.  His son is five and loves to ask questions.  He also really, really, really loves to eat. Q:  Are you reading something about my school, Dad?

by Ray Tsuchiyama Host Dailynn Yanagida, an expert in business organizations, interviewed me in January 2019 for 2019 Hawaii Real Estate trends. I recalled my first phase in Hawaii real estate – in the 1980s -- a turbulent period characterized by stagflation (residential mortgage rates skyrocketed to 18 percent) with high...

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 suspect is Blankety Blank. No, that isn’t a cuss word.  It’s just the facts, ma’am.  Blankety Blank is House Bill 1190.  Its purpose, should you decide...

We’ve previously warned that our legislature has a dogged focus on new taxes – “ARF!  Don’t make fun of me like that!” It’s the Hawaii State Tax Watch Doggie, with a report on recent bills! Q:        What would you like to report? A:        Our Legislature...

Several online travel companies engaged in protracted litigation against the Department of Taxation over whether and to what extent they are liable for Hawaii General Excise and Transient Accommodations Taxes on hotel accommodations that they sold to third parties on their respective platforms.  The litigation spanned multiple years, resulted in one exhaustive Hawaii Supreme Court opinion, In re Travelocity.com,...

One of the more debate-worthy bills at our Legislature (Senate Bill 94) involves requiring candidates for President and Vice President of the United States to post their tax returns on the Internet.  If they don’t, the bill says, they won’t appear on the Hawaii ballot and even if they somehow win, the folks that we send to the Electoral...

HONOLULU, HAWAII–March 21, 2019–The Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii today rejected the lawsuit by the Tax Foundation of Hawaii to invalidate the “skim” of 10% on the Oahu rail surcharge from the inception of the surcharge in 2007 until it was slashed to 1% in late 2017.  The Supreme Court concluded that “in 2005, it was uncertain...

If you’re following bills as they move through our legislature, there are a couple of practices that we need you to know about. Often, committee chairs will refer to one or both of these practices when they move bills forward. Each bill must have an effective date so that we know when it starts doing what it is supposed to...

“Friends!  Romans!  Countrymen!  We desperately need to lift our public schools and our namesake university into the 21st Century.  Senate Bill 1474 will do this by a teensy little increase of half a percent to our general excise tax (“GET”), and by establishing two special funds for the Department of Education and the University of Hawaii that will give...

Well, we’re in the thick of tax season!  It’s that time of year when individuals, gritting and gnashing their teeth, scour through their financial records and begin the arduous process of completing their 2018 federal and state tax returns. Here are some thoughts to keep in mind when filling out your Hawaii return.  Do not assume that specialized computer tax...