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Question: I am renting from a landlord who has multiple tenants on a single Hawaiian Electric Co. service meter but who separates the electricity bills among the tenants. When doing so, he charges an additional general excise tax on each of us. When I had my own HECO account, no GET charges were noted. Is this correct?
Answer: The landlord can charge you the state’s general excise tax if he is personally liable for the overall electrical account as a business expense and pays excise tax on that amount to the state Department of Taxation.
HECO itself doesn’t pay the GET.
In lieu of that tax, HECO and other utilities pay a Public Service Company tax of 5.885 percent on revenues, said spokesman Peter Rosegg.
“It is factored into our ‘cents per kilowatt-hour’ rates and not shown as a separate line item, as the GET is shown by many retail providers,” he said.
Meanwhile, as we explained previously — see archives.starbulletin.com/2006/07/23/news/kokualine.html — the GET is not a tax on consumers; it’s a tax on businesses — specifically, on a business’s gross receipts.
Anyone engaged in a business in Hawaii, including renting out an apartment or selling goods at a craft fair, is required to get a general excise tax license and pay the taxes due, the Tax Department said.
In your case, “You have to look at each person’s liability,” said Ted Shiraishi, rules officer for the department.
If the landlord is liable to HECO for the bill and he’s charging tenants for it, much as he does the rent, “that’s income to him,” Shiraishi explained. “He’s (then) passing it on, because he owes it to the state.”
Question: We have been obtaining our yearly tax forms at Liliha Library, but were told the forms will not be available there until the end of February. Do you have information as to where we might be able to pick up these forms in the Moanalua area?
Answer: State and federal tax forms are or will be available at most public libraries; call in advance because some federal forms will not be ready until March.
In Moanalua the nearest library is the Salt Lake-Moanalua Library.
The Hawaii State Public Library System again is partnering with the state Department of Taxation to have its branches statewide serve as distribution outlets for its tax forms. Most libraries also will have federal forms. See is.gd/WEHFUf for a list of libraries.
State forms also can be downloaded from the department’s website, www6.hawaii.gov/tax/ a1_forms.htm or picked up at one of the four district offices. On Oahu the location is 830 Punchbowl St.
For more information, call the Department of Taxation’s information line, 587-4242 on Oahu, or check tax.hawaii.gov. For information on how to obtain federal forms, go to the Internal Revenue Service’s website, is.gd/sb9857, or call 800-829-1040.
Some forms will not be available until March, because the IRS is updating them and reprogramming software. For more information, see is.gd/ZnChyR.
MAHALO
To all the people who rendered aid to me on the H-1 freeway’s Pali offramp at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22. I was in my little silver Suzuki when I had a medical emergency. Sandra Hall, Anna Gonzales, a young male and all the first responders really helped me to get back on my feet. Thank you all for stopping to help. — H. Diamond
MAHALO
To the Roberts Hawaii bus driver at the stoplight at Ala Moana and Kalakaua on Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 29. I dropped a soda in a Koozie out of my backpack in the crosswalk, and if he hadn’t honked at me to let me know, he would surely have flattened it when he took off. Small acts of aloha matter! — Grateful Pedestrian
Write to "Kokua Line" at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
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