Landlord may levy excise tax if bill is a business expense

By June Watanabe

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Feb 13, 2013

~~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.
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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. Login for more...