Letter: Vacant homes penalty should be lowered
Bill 9 (2022) would impose an empty homes tax on homes unoccupied for more than half the year (“Panel reviews measure to increase Honolulu housing,” Star-Advertiser, May 18).
Residents of other states and countries who own Hawaii homes enjoy among the lowest property tax rates in the country while avoiding our high income taxes.
An empty homes tax would force absentee owners to pay their fair share, while increasing the supply of housing by encouraging them to rent or sell their vacant properties. It also would raise funds to help support affordable housing.
But Bill 9 sets the annual tax penalty at 3% of assessed value, nearly 10 times the 0.35% rate paid by those living in the homes they own. This is excessive, and would destabilize the market as well as encourage tax avoidance. A penalty of 1% of assessed value is more realistic, and would still leave absentee owners paying three times the rate applied to owner-occupied properties.
Jack Ashby
Hawaii Kai
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