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Committee backs MOU to share transient accommodations tax data with state
Summary
The committee voted to forward Resolution 592-24 authorizing a memorandum of understanding with the State Department of Taxation to share transient accommodations tax (TAT) filing information; county finance staff said current state data lack property-level linkage, and the county is working to merge datasets and upgrade software to improve reconciliation.
The Committee on Government Operations and External Affairs voted Sept. 4 to forward Resolution 592-24 to the full council with a favorable recommendation. The resolution would authorize the mayor to enter an agreement with the State of Hawaii Department of Taxation to share confidential tax return information to support administration of Hawaii County's transient accommodations tax (TAT).
Aaron Brown of the county finance office described the MOU as a data-sharing agreement: "Basically, the resolution is an agreement with the state. A lot of the data we get to help process our TAT comes from the state," he said, and added that some reciprocal requests for payment information from the county are possible under the MOU. Finance TAT specialist Wilson Kreider told the committee the state currently provides taxpayer ID, name, revenue and mailing address but not a direct property identifier. "So based off of that revenue, we calculate the 3%... we don't know which property is generating the revenue per se," Kreider said. He said the county is working with Real Property Tax and planning to merge datasets once listing agencies provide property-level information.
Committee members pressed finance staff about whether the county can break out TAT revenue by transient-accommodation rentals and location. Kreider said the current state dataset limits that capability, though the county has improved collections since the tax began in January 2022 and has developed its own internal systems. Brown and Kreider also said the county is in a contract process to move to a commercial software system (Tyler Hawaii) and an ERP/connect implementation that should add TAT-tracking modules and improve reconciliation.
The committee also considered Resolution 591-24, which would align council rule 26 subordinate language with recent nonprofit grant code changes; that measure was forwarded with a favorable recommendation. The clerk reported each measure advanced on an 8–0 vote, with one member excused. Both resolutions will be transmitted to the full council for final action.
