HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu’s city council is considering raising taxes on residential vacation rentals. ADVERTISING HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu’s city council is considering raising taxes on residential vacation rentals. The measure — up for first vote Wednesday — would create
HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu’s city council is considering raising taxes on residential vacation rentals.
The measure — up for first vote Wednesday — would create a new tax category for homes that rent short-term rooms.
Bed and breakfasts and short-term rental vacation homes presently pay property taxes of $3.50 per $1,000 of assessed value, the same as other residential owners. Hotels and resorts, meanwhile, pay nearly four times that rate — $12.40 per $1,000. The council last year rejected a plan to raise the taxes of short-term rental homes to match those of hotels, as owners objected.
Council Chairman Ernie Martin, the bill’s author, said the measure would put short-term residential rentals on something closer to equal footing with hotels.
“Both endeavors are primarily business activities,” he said. Martin added he intends to introduce companion measures that would make way for more rentals to operate legally in the city while cracking down on illegal rentals.
The city now counts about 48 legal bed and breakfasts in the city and 810 legal transient vacation units.
