Guide for Uber drivers in Hawaii

Does Hawaii have a sales tax? The GET, explained for Uber drivers

No. Hawaii has no sales tax. It has the General Excise Tax, or GET, and the difference matters if you drive for Uber: GET is a tax on you as a business, not on your riders.

GET isn’t a sales tax

The Department of Taxation puts it in two lines:

• A sales tax is a tax on customers; GET is a tax on businesses.
• Businesses must collect sales tax from their customers; they don’t have to collect GET.

GET is owed on a business’s gross receipts, its total business income before any expenses are taken off, whether or not it charges its customers anything for it.

The rates

Most business activity is taxed at 0.5% or 4.5%. The 0.5% rate covers wholesaling, manufacturing, producing and wholesale services. The 4.5% rate covers retail sales and services, rentals, contracting and commissions: it’s 4% plus a 0.5% county surcharge, which every county now has. Insurance commissions are taxed at 0.15%.

Why receipts say 4.712%

A business may pass its GET on to customers, though it doesn’t have to. Because GET is owed on everything the business takes in, including the GET it charges, the most it may add is a little more than its rate: 4.712% where the rate is 4.5%. On a $100 sale, that’s $4.71. Charging more than that breaks consumer protection law, and so does telling customers there’s no tax when there is.

What it means for an Uber driver

• You owe GET on what you earn. Driving is a business in Hawaii’s eyes. Under Tax Information Release 2025-01, your fares are taxed at 0.5% and your tips at 4.5%. How the rates work for drivers.
• Uber’s GET is separate. Uber pays GET at 4.5% on what riders pay, apart from the tips it passes on to you; that doesn’t cover yours. It works like a wholesaler selling to a retailer: two sales, each taxed once, which the Department’s Tax Facts 37-1 says isn’t double taxation.
• You need a GE license and file returns. Periodic G-45s and an annual G-49, usually twice a year. Getting a license · the two forms · filing online.

Sources

Read on October 6, 2026. The Department’s pages are the final word: check them, and your tax professional, before you file.

• Tax Facts 37-1, General Excise Tax (revised May 2025)
• General Excise Tax (GET) Information: FAQs (Department of Taxation)
• County Surcharge on General Excise and Use Tax: maximum pass-on rates
• Tax Information Release 2025-01: GET obligations of rideshare companies and drivers

This guide explains the Department’s rules in plain words. It isn’t tax or legal advice.