Hawaii has no state sales tax, but businesses that operate there must pay a general excise tax (GET) on gross receipts. The GET covers retail sales, services, contracting, rentals, most digital products, and more.

Below, we’ll explain how the GET works, how to calculate what you owe and what to collect, and how to determine whether your business has GET obligations in Hawaii.

Highlights

• Hawaii has no state sales tax, but businesses pay a GET on gross receipts at a base rate of 4.000%.

• Counties can add surcharges, which raise the combined GET rate to 4.500% and the maximum customer pass-on rate to 4.712%.

• The GET applies to services and digital products that most states exempt from sales tax, and remote and out-of-state businesses are often subject to it.

What is the Hawaii sales tax rate?

Hawaii doesn’t have a traditional sales tax. Instead, the state uses a general excise tax, which is a broad tax on business activity. The effective rate is typically between 4.000% and 4.712%, which is the maximum pass-on rate businesses can charge customers.

What is the general excise tax?

Hawaii’s GET applies to nearly all business activity in the state: retail sales, services, contracting, rental income, and commissions. The base GET rate is 4.000% for most transactions. Some activities qualify for reduced or special rates. Wholesalers pay a reduced rate of 0.500%, and there are special rates for insurance commissions and certain agricultural activities, such as sugar and pineapple farming.

Unlike traditional sales tax but similar to value-added tax (VAT), the GET applies at every stage of a transaction chain. Businesses often pass the GET on to customers. But because the tax is assessed on gross receipts, pass-through requires a gross-up. The maximum pass-on rate is 4.712%. The GET applies across most Hawaii islands and counties. If your business sells to customers in Hawaii, including remotely, those receipts are usually subject to the GET.

How do local taxes affect Hawaii’s GET rate?

Hawaii counties can add a surcharge to the 4.000% state GET rate. As of 2026, Honolulu County (Oahu), Kauai County, Maui County (which covers Molokai and Lanai), and Hawaii County all add 0.500% surcharges, which brings the combined rate to 4.500%. With the pass-on gross-up applied, customers effectively pay up to 4.712%.

Hawaii’s GET rate range in 2026

What are Hawaii’s GET rates by city?

Hawaii doesn’t set city-level tax rates. Instead, the county where a transaction occurs determines the rate.

What are Hawaii’s GET rates by county?

Hawaii has four counties, and all apply surcharges of 0.500%. Here are GET rates by county:

How do you calculate Hawaii’s GET rate?

There are two formulas for calculating Hawaii’s GET, depending on whether you’re solving for your GET liability or what to collect from customers.

Your GET liability is straightforward: multiply your taxable gross receipts by the applicable rate.

GET Liability = Gross Receipts x 0.045

Because the GET applies to gross receipts, including the tax you collect, you can’t just add 4.500% to a price and remit that amount. You must multiply the sale price by the gross-up rate.

GET Collected = Sale Price x 0.04712

Stripe’s sales tax calculator handles this for individual transactions. If you input the location and amount, it will return the applicable rate and dollar figure. Stripe Tax goes further: it identifies GET applicability based on business and customer location, applies the correct rate including surcharge, and produces the records you need at filing time.

Does Hawaii’s general excise tax apply to your business?

In most cases, yes. Hawaii’s GET has a broader scope than a traditional sales tax, and nexus rules pull many businesses in.

Here’s when Hawaii’s GET applies to you:

• Physical presence: If you have an office, employees, or inventory in Hawaii, you immediately owe the GET on Hawaii-sourced revenue.

• Economic nexus: Out-of-state sellers with more than $100,000 in Hawaii sales in the previous or current calendar year must collect the tax, regardless of physical presence. Hawaii adopted this threshold after the 2018 South Dakota v. Wayfair decision.

• Services: If you provide services to Hawaii-based customers, remotely or in person, those receipts are typically subject to the GET. These include professional services, software subscriptions, and most digital products.

Exemptions exist, but they’re limited. Some wholesale transactions, agricultural sales, and export sales might qualify for reduced rates or exemptions. When in doubt, consult the Hawaii Department of Taxation before assuming an exemption applies.

How Stripe Tax can help

Stripe Tax reduces the complexity of tax compliance so you can focus on growing your business. Stripe Tax helps you monitor your obligations and alerts you when you exceed a sales tax registration threshold based on your Stripe transactions. In addition, it automatically calculates and collects sales tax, VAT, and goods and services tax (GST) on both physical and digital goods and services—in all US states and in more than 100 countries.

Start collecting taxes globally by adding a single line of code to your existing integration, clicking a button in the Dashboard, or using our powerful application programming interface (API).

Stripe Tax can help you:

• Understand where to register and collect taxes: See where you need to collect taxes based on your Stripe transactions. After you register, switch on tax collection in a new state or country in seconds. You can start collecting taxes by adding one line of code to your existing Stripe integration or add tax collection with the click of a button in the Stripe Dashboard.

• Register to pay tax: Let Stripe manage your global tax registrations and benefit from a simplified process that prefills application details—saving you time and simplifying compliance with local regulations.

• Automatically collect tax: Stripe Tax calculates and collects the right amount of tax owed, no matter what or where you sell. It supports hundreds of products and services and is up-to-date on tax rules and rate changes.

• Simplify filing: Stripe Tax seamlessly integrates with filing partners, so your global filings are accurate and timely. Let our partners manage your filings so you can focus on growing your business.

Learn more about Stripe Tax, or get started today.