Hawaii General Excise Tax

[clinthi]

Can someone please explain to me about the Hawaii General Excise Tax?

 

The Gov't Taxes and Fees for my cruise were listed at $72.01 per person for the trip---we expected that, of course.

 

But the an additional $257.29 for "Hawaii Excise Tax" I was not expecting! It wasn't in my original quote/summary.

 

 

I can understand the tax being charged on shore excursions WHILE IN HAWAII. But how are they able to apply the tax to my total trip (cruise, air, transfers)???

 

Thanks!

[Freckles_51]

Wow! I hope they are not going to add that much to our cruise.

 

We booked last October and have since received 3 new invoices from NCL, each time indicating lower taxes (total reduction since last Oct is about $20pp)

 

Our latest invoice shows Government Taxes/Fees at just a few $$ more than yours, but GET is way way lower, must be charged on your flight if you booked cruise air and we probably paid it in with our total flight cost as well, although we did not book the flight through NCL.

[Pokeraddict]

I don't know which tax is which but in 1/2012 we pd 196.74 GET TAX

177.24 Gov Tax/Fees

for a total of 373.98 for 2 people and the 2nd week was the same.

 

in 2010 same cruise we 117.74 GET TAX

73.56 Govt Tax/Fees for a total of $191.30

and the same for the 2nd week.

 

 

So I don't know what the $257.29 for "Hawaii Excise Tax" is about. Maybe a call to NCL

 

If you call I would be curious to know their reply.

[clinthi]

I did call NCL and they said it was the "Hawaii Excise tax" but she couldn't tell me why it covered the entire cruise amount and why it was so high. I asked LOTS of questions to which she only said "I have no idea--it"s just the factored tax that shows up"

 

I don't like that answer. If Hawaii has GET instead of sales tax, fine--but that should ONLY apply to products and services IN HAWAII. Not my cruise I bought here and certainly not my flights I bought here!

[Pokeraddict]

Why don't you try to email Hawaii Tourist Board.

 

I also found Dept of Taxation for Hawaii but don't have the time to search through the site , I may try later but here is the link

 

http://www6.hawaii.gov/tax/a7_faq.htm

 

I doubt that NCL would be doing anything unethical and the reply from the PCC's is no surprise. But a firm answer would be nice.

[Pokeraddict]

Found this blurb

 

Hawaii General Excise Tax Last updated: 02/17/2012 11:59:50 AM

 

The Hawaii General Excise Tax (GET) was established in the 1930s and is somewhat unique in that it taxes both goods and services at every level, including food and medical care. It is not the same as the retail sales tax found on the mainland. The GET is currently 4% statewide except on Oahu where a 1/2% surcharge was imposed starting 1/1/2007 to fund rail mass transit. All goods and services on Oahu, including the City and County of Honolulu are taxed at 4 1/2% of gross sales. This GET is assessed on the provider of the goods and services and in turn passes the cost on to the consumer at a rate of 4.712% on Oahu and approx. 4.2% on Neighbor Islands.

 

My guess is that it's linked to your flight and maybe the fact that the ship is US flagged also may have something to do with it. But just guessing at this point.

 

We flew on points out of Canada so I can't check a breakdown.

[Pokeraddict]

Been hunting around still can't find a clear answer to your question.

I decided to do a fake booking w/o air and it showed $395. in tax's for 2 people, so u need to pursue this further.

[PCWalton1]

Are you sure it's not just port taxes? I looked at our upcoming booking to Hawaii on Radiance, we are paying $74.92 tax and $250 port charges per person.

[clinthi]

Port taxes are the most reasonable explanation--but it sure would have helped if the NCL agent could have said "port taxes" instead of it just being a factored GET that she did not know what is covered.

 

Hopefully no more $urpri$e$ will come up and I can relax and start planning my wonderful vacation. Thanks to everyone who responded!