Do I need a Pemit or Business Liscense to rent out a condo or rooms in my house in Hawaii USA

Jadezy0
Level 1
Chiang Mai, Thailand

Do I need a Pemit or Business Liscense to rent out a condo or rooms in my house in Hawaii USA

 
8 Replies 8
Jadezy0
Level 1
Chiang Mai, Thailand

as i will have to report income to the IRS

@Jadezy0  There is a huge issue going on in Hawaii right now.  If you google it, you will even see todays article in our State newspaper about taxes but right now, they are not issuing any permits to anyone on the Airbnb platform.  In the past 60 days, Airbnb has been on our tv news and local papers over a dozen times about the hosts who are getting $1000 fines for having vacation rentals without a permit.   Just google Airbnb Hawaii and you will see everything.  As it stands right now, about 57 hosts have been asked to shut down and were given a fine.  Be mindful of the laws here both Honolulu City zone and State of Hawaii.  But for now, I highly recommend that you at least get a GE tax license ID and a TAT license ID as you are running a business and do need to pay taxes.  Good Luck.

If you feel that me or another host have helped you, feel free to click on the "thumbs up" button at the end of any post. Thank you so much.

Aloha, Momi

Great way to contact Airbnb or via Twitter at AirbnbHelp / Facebook


 GET and TAT for paying Gen. Excise Tax and Transient Accomodation Tax.  Do we need to still pay TAT in Oahu? I saw under "Locations" in our listings, AirBnB pays for us.  I'm pretty new as well. 

 

Sean10
Level 2
Honolulu, HI

This may relate to your topic and to the response offered by "Momi".

We recently had an "Eric" request a one night stay. He is from Honolulu as we are. His profile was minimal and he was brand new to AirBnB. We asked him to tell us about himself and to tell us about his need as he already lives in Honolulu. The city and county is cracking down on BnBs and so we are apprehensive of accepting requests like the one I just mentioned. Its not typical to recieve requests from people living on island.

 

Thoughts, simialr experiences?

 

~Sean

Sean, how do you feel about the current crack down? I'm a bit apprehensive now.  I want to take my listing off but when I went to You-Tube discussion, City and County hired more people to do this crack-down of "illegal" short-term rentals, but the State is fine with it, as long as you pay local tax . Do you know about the up-coming meet with Grahams in the North Shore? If you want to come, I can give you the address.

 

Regina, hi. In regards to the crackdown, I think the city/county is probably looking where people are complaining.  Areas like Kailua are especially vulnerable due to the community conflict regarding BnBs. I also think that enitre homes that are rented out are easier to find than a home where the host lives and rents out a room. Nonetheless, we are staying alert to possible public agents seeking to find our spot. Overall, I do think, as things stand now, that the odds are in our favor that we will be able to maintain the room rental.

 

We are waiting to find out what occurs with the state/airbnb issue before paying our tax. Once we file our TAT and GET tax we become vulnerbale to the city/county, if they wish to shut us down. Id rather pay to AirBnB and maintain anonymity. The city/county has not offered bnb licenses since 1990, at least that is my understanding. I can't imagine that the city/county would openly agree to allow AirBnB as that would set precedent and therefore encourage short term vacational rentals, which the city/county have fought to limit.

 

If you live in an area where you seldom interact with or see you neighbors or,

If you live in an area where you and your neighbors are friendly and they like you...

If you live in an area where there is plenty of safe street parking or if you have an extra parking space that is 'out of sight, out of mind' to your neighbors....

If you check guests in at times when your neighbors are at work...

If you prep your guests by asking them to say that they are friends visitng...

If you stay alert to booking requests from people that live on Oahu, which will seldom occur, if at all....

Then you should be fine.  

 

We have hosted AirBnB for 4 years and its been great. We really enjoy the guests as they are always excited to be in Hawaii. Our guests are usually on the move and we only see them when they leave in the morning and return at night. In essence, they are the best roommates...the kind you seldom see and when you see them they are happy.

 

The downside to AirBnB is that, although it helps us afford to live in this expensive place (Oahu), it does exasperate the high cost of rents by further reducing available rentals. Supply and demand...

 

When is the North Shore gathering. If I can make it, I will attend:)

 

~Sean

 

 

Thanks Sean for your post.  Yes, I live in a place where I seldom see my neighbors, we don't even have the chance to talk to them in a daily basis.  Only one neighbor steps-in  in the house, sometimes, to check his kids playing with my daughter, only  when there is no guest around. I have ample parking too in the front garage.

 

About the GET and TAT, I did not yet pay the 2015 since I just started in Nov.  But, I think, I already will pay GET penalty since I need to pay semi-annual from Nov. to Dec. 2015 in January, according to the Business Action Center in Nimitz, where I got my TAT (tax number) recently.  I had the same thought about paying the TAT tax until HB1850 will passed on the floor.

 

I heard from Francis of AirBnB, the meeting will be at 6PM on March 24th.  Hope you can make it.

 

ALOHA....

Hello again Sean,

The home address for the 6PM Meeting on March 24th:

 

The home of Beverly Fettig

61427 Kamehameha Hwy

Haleiwa, HI