Before you start

An SSN or ITIN
Form W-4 for federal withholding and Form HW-4 for Hawaiʻi state withholding
Records of foreign income and foreign financial accounts
The assessment notice for any property you own

Step-by-step

1
Complete Form W-4 and Hawaiʻi Form HW-4 on day one
Federal and state withholding are separate forms. Hawaiʻi's withholding tables were updated in January 2025 to reflect the Act 46 cuts, so take-home pay under the current tables is higher than any pre-2025 calculator will tell you.
Via employerWho: YouFirst week of employment
2
Determine your US tax residency
The substantial presence test counts weighted days across three years to decide whether the US taxes your worldwide income or only US-source income. Your visa category does not decide this.
OnlineWho: You
3
Check for an applicable tax treaty
The US has treaties with around 70 countries that can reduce or exempt tax on particular income. Note that a federal treaty exemption does not automatically flow through to Hawaiʻi state tax — check the state treatment separately rather than assuming.
OnlineWho: You
4
Understand that the general excise tax is on your rent
GET is levied on the seller's gross income, so a landlord renting residential property is subject to it and it is normally built into the rent, and a business may pass it on visibly at up to 4.712% on Oʻahu. Unlike a mainland sales tax it is not lifted from groceries, medical services or professional fees. Assume roughly 4.5% on top of nearly everything, not on retail only.
OnlineWho: You
5
If you buy, file the home exemption — and know about Residential A
The City and County of Honolulu's owner-occupier residential rate is $3.50 per $1,000 of net taxable value, with a home exemption that reduces the taxable value. A residential property assessed above $1 million with no home exemption on file is classified Residential A and taxed on a two-tier schedule that is several times higher above the first million. Filing the exemption is the difference between the two classes — it does not arrive with the deed.
OnlineWho: You
6
File your federal and Hawaiʻi returns
The tax year is the calendar year. The federal return is due 15 April; Hawaiʻi's individual return has its own deadline and its own automatic extension rules, so check the Department of Taxation's calendar rather than assuming the federal date applies to both.
OnlineWho: YouSpring, annually
7
If you earn from letting property or from freelance work, register for GET
GET is a tax on doing business in Hawaiʻi, and that includes letting out a room, freelancing and consulting. It requires its own licence and its own periodic returns, separate from income tax. This catches a lot of newcomers with a side income who assume income tax is the whole obligation.
OnlineWho: You
8
File an FBAR if foreign accounts exceed $10,000
Aggregate foreign account balances over $10,000 at any point in the year trigger a FinCEN filing, separate from your tax return and with its own penalties.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Form W-2 from each employer, issued by 31 January
Form 1099s for freelance, interest and investment income
Forms W-4 and HW-4 filed with your employer
Passport and travel history for the substantial presence day count
Real property assessment notice, if you own property
GET licence and periodic returns, if you have business or rental income
Foreign account statements for FBAR reporting

Things most newcomers don’t know

The general excise tax is on your rent, your doctor and your groceries.

Mainland newcomers model Hawaiʻi as 'a state with 4.5% sales tax' and are wrong twice. It is levied on the business's gross income rather than on the sale, so exemptions that are standard elsewhere — food, medicine, professional services, residential rent — do not exist. And because it applies to the passed-on tax itself, the maximum visible rate on Oʻahu is 4.712% rather than 4.5%. Across a full household budget it costs more than a nominally higher mainland sales tax does.

Source: Hawaiʻi Department of Taxation — general excise tax

Act 46 is a real cut on a genuinely high base, phasing in to 2031.

The 2024 law is the largest income tax cut in Hawaiʻi's history, widening brackets and roughly doubling the standard deduction in steps across tax years 2024 through 2031. Withholding changed in January 2025, so people saw take-home pay move before they understood why. Any article or calculator written before mid-2024 overstates your liability — but the 11% top rate is still there, and still the second highest in the country.

Source: Hawaiʻi Department of Taxation — estimated impacts of the 2024 tax cut bill

Honolulu's property tax rate is startlingly low, and Residential A is the trap.

An owner-occupier with a home exemption on file pays $3.50 per $1,000 of net taxable value — a rate that would be unremarkable in Hawaiʻi and astonishing in Texas or New Jersey. But a residential property assessed over $1 million with no home exemption filed is reclassified as Residential A and taxed on a much steeper two-tier schedule. In a market where a modest house clears a million, filing the exemption is not paperwork, it is the tax rate.

Source: City and County of Honolulu — Real Property Assessment Division

Letting a room or freelancing makes you a GET taxpayer.

GET attaches to the privilege of doing business in Hawaiʻi, which includes rental income and freelance work at a scale most people would not call a business. It needs its own licence and its own returns. Discovering this at the first audit rather than at the first invoice is a common and avoidable newcomer error.

Source: Hawaiʻi Department of Taxation — general excise tax

Common mistakes to avoid

Modelling GET as a sales tax and assuming groceries, rent and medical care are exempt.
Using a pre-2024 calculator and overstating your Hawaiʻi income tax.
Buying a home and never filing the home exemption, landing in Residential A.
Assuming a federal tax treaty exemption automatically applies to Hawaiʻi state tax.
Earning rental or freelance income without a GET licence.
Missing the FBAR because a home-country account did not feel 'foreign'.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.