Posts from the Hawaii Category
Prorated fees in Honolulu
February 12th, 2007
Most of our readers know that Hawaii started enforcing its direct wine shipment permit law on January 1, 2007 and moved into the “blue” category on the state-by-state direct shipping map. There are 4 counties in Hawaii and each county requires wineries to complete its own permit application and pay a fee. The annual permit fee for the counties of Hawaii, Kauai and Maui are $48. The annual permit fee for the County of Honolulu is $120.00. Now for the good news – The annual permit fee of $120.00 is prorated ($10.00 per month); for example, wineries applying for a permit in March 2007 will only pay $90.00. Thus far, the Honolulu County direct shipper’s permit is the only permit with a prorated fee.
Tips for Completing the Hawaii Tax Applications
January 12th, 2007
As of January 1, 2007 Hawaii is officially operating under the permit law for direct wine shipments. This means that wineries can no longer ship under the reciprocity law and must have an approved direct shipper permit for each county. However, wineries must have a General Excise Tax License (similar to sales tax) and a liquor license from Hawaii’s Department of Taxation. I have outlined some steps that will hopefully simplify the application process and as always the forms are available on the Wine Institute website.
Wineries must complete the form BB-1 02, NOT BB-1 UC-1. The forms are almost identical except that UC-1 is for businesses that have employees in the state of Hawaii. Lynn confirmed that wineries must select General Excise when completing the application. She also thinks wineries should select Liquor on the same application. The General Excise Application fee is $20.00 and the Liquor Application fee is $2.50.
Wineries will be mailed the Combined Monthly Return of Liquor Tax and Report of Wine Gallons and Dollar Volume of Taxable Sales or Uses form (Form M-18) to complete each month and the General Excise Forms once their application for General Excise/Liquor is approved.
Question 6 on the application is the date business began in Hawaii. Wineries can put the date they are completing the application or the date they expect to be legally approved to ship. However, if a winery lists 1/10/06 on the application they will have to include January on their initial tax report. The excise tax reporting forms will be mailed to wineries in booklet form. Wineries can select to pay their excise taxes monthly, quarterly or semi-annually.
2007 Hawaii Permits Available
December 27th, 2006
Hawaii recently made available the new permit forms for shipping directly to consumers. Even though Hawaii passed a new limited-direct model that technically went into effect on July 1st, 2006, most wineries continued to ship under the previous reciprocity rules because Hawaii did not give clear guidance on how to get permits and report under the new rules. Most hoped that the new legislation would mean a uniform, state-wide permit and reporting system, but effective January 1st, 2007, wineries must receive a separate permit from each Hawaii county before they make shipments in 2007. They must also register with the Hawaii Department of Taxation by completing the State of Hawaii Basic Business Application. Permitted wineries can ship up to six nine-liter cases to any household on an annual basis. Below are the permits for each of the four counties.
New laws take effect in four states on July 1st
June 25th, 2006
Hello again, back in the swing of things after a nice two week break. We’ve seen some big developments in the world of wine direct shipping over the last two weeks that we’ll look at in more detail over the next few weeks.
July 1st is a huge day for direct shippers as new laws take effect in Washington, Idaho, and Colorado. We also just learned that HB 1968 was signed by the Governor of Hawaii on Thursday and will also take effect on July 1st. We’ll give you the full breakdown on the new rules and permit requirements in each of the these states this week. It is important to note that all four were previously “reciprocal” states and are now moving to a limited direct model to comply with the Granholm ruling. By my count, that will leave only seven reciprocal states (Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon, West Virginia, and Wisconsin) after July 1st.
We will also look at other direct shipping developments around the country in the near future, including legislation in Kansas and Pennsylvania, the appeal of the Costco ruling in Washington, and the lawsuits filed in California to allow the direct shipment of wine by retailers.
Hawaii moves to end reciprocity
March 7th, 2006
Two similar bills would create a limited direct model in Hawaii, which currently has reciprocity with 13 other states. The proposals are similar to the laws established in New York, Connecticut, and Texas with a permit requirement and a per customer limit of 24 cases per individual per year.
