Hawaii Form G-75: Assigning GET by District, Rate, and County Surcharge

To fill out Hawaii Form G-75, sort your taxable income by activity type and by the island where the activity happened, enter each amount in the correct district column across Parts I through IV at the matching tax rate, and use Part V to reconcile the district totals back to the Form G-45 or G-49 you’re attaching the schedule to. You only need G-75 when you earned income in more than one of Hawaii’s four taxation districts during the filing period; a single-island business just picks its district in Part V of the main return and skips the schedule.¹

The schedule is not a standalone return. It travels with every G-45 (periodic) and G-49 (annual) that reports multi-district income, so a business operating across islands all year could end up filing twelve monthly G-75s plus one with the annual reconciliation.² When you do attach a G-75, shade the “MULTI” oval in Part V of the main return.

Know Your Four Columns

Every part of the form runs across the same four district columns. Before you write a number, confirm which island maps to which column:

Column a — Oahu (City and County of Honolulu).
Column b — Maui (County of Maui, which includes Maui, Lanai, and Molokai).
Column c — Hawaii (County of Hawaii, the Big Island).
Column d — Kauai (County of Kauai).

Income is assigned to the district where the business activity occurred, not where your office sits. A Honolulu contractor building a house on Maui reports that contracting income in Column b, not Column a.²

Before You Start

Pull up the G-45 or G-49 you’re attaching this schedule to. The activity totals on G-75 have to match the figures on that return line for line, so working with both forms side by side saves you from reconciliation errors at the end. Have your source records ready too: contracts showing job sites, rental property addresses, client locations, and anything else that documents where each piece of income was earned.

Part I — Activities Taxed at 0.5 Percent

Part I is for wholesale-rate activities: wholesaling, manufacturing, producing, wholesale services, imports for resale, and business activities of disabled persons. Enter the taxable income for each activity in the column for the district where it occurred. Line 7 totals each column. Line 24 multiplies those column totals by 0.5 percent to give you the tax due at this rate, by district.²

Part II — Activities Taxed at 4 Percent

Part II carries most businesses’ GET liability. The activity lines cover retailing, services (including professional services), contracting, theater and amusement, commissions, transient accommodation rentals, other rentals, interest and miscellaneous income, and imports for consumption. Fill in taxable income by district, then let Line 17 total each column and Line 25 apply the 4 percent rate.²

Part III — Activities Taxed at 0.15 Percent

Part III is a one-line section for insurance commissions, which carry their own 0.15 percent rate. Line 18 captures the taxable commission income by district, and Line 26 applies the rate.

Part IV — County Surcharge

Part IV adds the county surcharge, which currently runs at 0.5 percent in all four counties and stays in effect through December 31, 2030.³ The surcharge only applies to income taxed at the 4 percent rate. Wholesale (0.5 percent) and insurance commission (0.15 percent) income does not belong here. Enter surcharge-eligible taxable income on Lines 19 through 22 by district, then calculate the surcharge on Line 27 and transfer the total to your G-45 or G-49.

Part V — Pulling the Totals Together

Part V is where the schedule assigns tax to districts. Line 23 adds the tax amounts from Lines 24, 25, 26, and 27 for each district column. The combined total across all four columns must equal the total tax on your G-45 or G-49. If it doesn’t, something in Parts I through IV is off, and you need to find it before submitting.²

The Reconciliation Check Against Your Main Return

There’s a second math check built into the form. For every activity line, the sum of Columns a through d on G-75 must equal the amount reported in Column c for that same activity on the G-45 or G-49.² The Department of Taxation uses this to verify your district assignments. If G-75 shows $200,000 of retailing split across islands but the G-45 shows $180,000 of retailing total, you have a mismatch that will draw attention.

Deciding Which District a Dollar Belongs To

This is where multi-island businesses get into trouble. Default to your home office address and you’ll misallocate. Services performed for a Maui client at a Maui site are Maui income. A rental in Kauai is Kauai income no matter where you bank. The Department of Taxation has authority to determine, through apportionment or other methods, which portion of your tax belongs to each county.⁴ If you can’t document how you decided, the department can decide for you.

Two allocation errors show up again and again. The first is lumping all income into one district because that’s where the business is headquartered. The second is applying the county surcharge to wholesale income, which doesn’t belong in Part IV at all. Catching both before you file is faster than requesting a refund later.

Filing and Submission

G-75 has no separate deadline. It’s due when the return it accompanies is due: the 20th day of the fourth month after the close of your tax year for the annual G-49 (April 20 for calendar-year filers)⁵, or the 20th day of the month following the close of each periodic filing period for G-45. A deadline landing on a weekend or state holiday moves to the next business day.

If you file through Hawaii Tax Online, the system handles the district fields as part of the G-45 or G-49 workflow. Paper filers should print Form G-75 (Rev. 2025) from the Department of Taxation’s forms page and attach it directly behind the main return.⁶ Each return period needs its own G-75; attaching one to your annual G-49 does not cover the monthly or quarterly G-45s you filed earlier in the year.²

What a Missing or Wrong G-75 Costs

Filing without the required schedule, or filing one with incorrect district assignments, triggers a 10 percent penalty on the tax that should have been reported on G-75. That penalty is separate from the standard late-filing penalty under HRS 231-39, which runs 5 percent of unpaid tax per month (or partial month) late, up to a 25 percent cap.⁷ The two stack.²

Keep Your Backup

Hold on to every G-75 you file along with the G-45 or G-49 it was attached to for at least three years after the return’s due date. Keep the records that explain your district calls too: contracts naming the job site, client and rental property addresses, and anything else that shows your work. If the department asks how you assigned a particular dollar, the paper trail is what keeps a question from turning into a reassessment.

1
State of Hawaii — Department of Taxation. General Instructions for Filing the General Excise/Use Tax Returns
2
State of Hawaii — Department of Taxation. Form G-75, Rev. 2025, Schedule of Assignment of General Excise/Use Taxes by Districts
3
Department of Taxation. County Surcharge on General Excise and Use Tax
4
Justia. Hawaii Code 237-8-6 – County Surcharge on State Tax; Administration
5
Justia. Hawaii Code 237-33 – Annual Return, Payment of Tax
6
Department of Taxation. General Excise and Use Tax
7
Justia. Hawaii Code 231-39 – Additions to Taxes for Noncompliance or Evasion; Interest on Underpayments and Overpayments