Quick facts
- LLC filing
- A domestic LLC is formed by filing Articles of Organization for Limited Liability Company (Form LLC-1). The filing fee is $50.00, expedited service is an additional $25.00, and there is a $1.00 State Archives fee. Filing fees are not refundable.Business Registration Division: domestic limited liability company
- Trade name
- A trade name is filed on Form T-1 at $50.00, with a $20.00 expedited fee. If you plan to trade under one, the contractor application must include a filed-stamped copy of the approved registration.Business Registration Division: trade names, trademarks and service marks; Contractors License Board: Requirements for License, Sole Proprietor (PDF, rev. 10/25)
- Annual report
- The annual report filing period follows the entity's own registration date quarter. Fees are $12.50 for LLCs, profit corporations and LLPs, $2.50 for nonprofit corporations and $5.00 for partnerships, plus $10.00 late per year delinquent.Business Registration Division: quarterly annual business report notice
- New BREG portal
- The Business Registration Division moved to a new computer system and online portal effective Monday, July 6, 2026, so older links and screenshots may point at the wrong place.Hawaii DCCA Business Registration Division
- No sales tax
- Hawaii has no sales tax. The General Excise Tax is a privilege tax on the business, charged on gross income, and construction contracting is taxed at the 4% state rate plus the 0.5% county surcharge.Hawaii Department of Taxation: Tax Facts 37-1, General Excise Tax (PDF); Hawaii Department of Taxation: An Introduction to the General Excise Tax (PDF)
Which registrations exist, and which agency owns each one
Hawaii splits the work across three agencies inside two departments, and confusing them is the most common way a startup timeline slips. DCCA's Business Registration Division owns the entity and the name. DCCA's Professional and Vocational Licensing Division owns the contractor licence through the Contractors License Board. The Department of Taxation owns the General Excise Tax licence. The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations owns the employer coverages.
The Business Registration Division handles corporations, general and limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, limited liability limited partnerships, limited liability companies, cooperatives, trade names, trademarks, service marks and publicity rights. It maintains the public business registry, and it moved to a new computer system and online portal effective Monday, July 6, 2026.
Two of those registrations are prerequisites for the contractor application rather than parallel tasks. The Board's application packet requires a filed-stamped copy of current trade name registration approved by the Business Registration Division to be submitted with the application if you plan to use a trade name, and it requires a current Hawaii State Tax Clearance issued not more than six months ago with an original DOTAX stamp. You cannot get a tax clearance from a department you have never registered with. So the sequence is entity, then name, then GET, then contractor licence.
Official sources: Hawaii DCCA Business Registration Division; Contractors License Board: Requirements for License, Sole Proprietor (PDF, rev. 10/25)
Forming the entity
A domestic limited liability company is formed by filing Articles of Organization for Limited Liability Company, Form LLC-1, with the Business Registration Division. The Division states that the "date of registration will be the date the Articles of Organization is filed in compliance with the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act", so the filing date is the date that will later determine your annual report quarter.
The published fees are $50.00 to file, an additional $25.00 for expedited service, $10.00 plus $0.25 per page for a certified copy, a $1.00 State Archives fee and a $25.00 dishonored check fee. The Division notes in capitals that filing fees are not refundable, which is a reason to check name availability before filing rather than after. Filings may be submitted online, by email, by mail or by fax.
If you are not forming an entity at all, you can be licensed as a sole proprietor - the Board states you may apply "either as a sole proprietor or an entity (corp., LLC, etc.)". The difference at the licensing counter is that an entity applicant must also complete a responsible managing employee application, and that under HAR section 16-77-71 the principal RME must be in residence in Hawaii while the licence is in effect or a project is under construction.
Official sources: Business Registration Division: domestic limited liability company; Contractors License Board: Contractor Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
Registering the name you will actually put on the truck
A trade name is a separate registration from the entity. The Division files trade names on Form T-1, trademarks on Form T-2 and service marks on Form T-3, at a fee of $50.00 for any of the three, with a $20.00 expedited fee. Certified copies are $10.00 plus $0.25 per page with the $1.00 State Archives fee, and again, fees are not refundable.
For a contractor this is not cosmetic. The Board requires the filed-stamped trade name registration with the licence application, so a name you have not registered is a name you cannot be licensed under. It also has a tax consequence: the Department of Taxation requires a branch licence, applied for on Form G-50 at no charge, if you have "more than one business name (such as a trade name or doing business as (DBA) name)" as well as if you have multiple business locations.
The Business Registration Division publishes a business name search alongside the registration tools, which is where to start rather than finish, given that filing fees are not refundable.
Official sources: Business Registration Division: trade names, trademarks and service marks; Contractors License Board: Requirements for License, Sole Proprietor (PDF, rev. 10/25); Hawaii Department of Taxation: An Introduction to the General Excise Tax (PDF); Hawaii DCCA Business Registration Division
The annual report, and why Hawaii's date is different
Hawaii does not put every entity on one common annual report date. The Business Registration Division ties the filing period to the entity's own registration date, and the report may be filed at any time during the quarter in which it falls due. The quarters are the calendar quarters: January through March, April through June, July through September, and October through December.
Fees are $12.50 for LLCs, profit corporations and limited liability partnerships, $2.50 for nonprofit corporations and $5.00 for partnerships. Late filings draw an additional charge, and the Division states that "a $10.00 late fee will be assessed per year delinquent" - per year, so a report forgotten for three cycles compounds.
The deadline is the last day of your quarter. In its most recent quarterly notice the Division stated that reports due in quarter three "must be filed by midnight (HST) September 30, 2026, to avoid a late filing penalty fee". If you register a Hawaii entity in, say, February, your annual report is a first-quarter filing every year after that, due March 31, and nobody will move it for you.
Official sources: Business Registration Division: quarterly annual business report notice; Hawaii DCCA Business Registration Division
Registering with the Department of Taxation
Complete Form BB-1, the State of Hawaii Basic Business Application, and select "General Excise/Use Tax". Registering for GET automatically registers you for use tax. The registration fee is $20.00, and a Hawaii Tax Identification Number is issued "in five to seven business days" for an application filed through Hawaii Tax Online, or the same day for one filed in person at a district tax office.
One application covers the taxpayer, not each line of business: "separate applications are not needed. It is the taxpayer, not the specific business activity, that is being registered." List all your activities on the one form. If you later need to add a tax type, change the business name, change partners or corporate officers, or change your filing frequency, you file Form BB-1 again to amend.
Display the licence at your place of business, and file Form G-50 for a free branch licence for each additional location or trade name. Operating without a GET licence carries a civil citation with a fine of $500 for most businesses and $2,000 for a cash-based business.
Official sources: Hawaii Department of Taxation: An Introduction to the General Excise Tax (PDF); Hawaii Department of Taxation: General Excise Tax
Hawaii asks more of employers than most states do
Workers' compensation comes first and the threshold is one person. The Disability Compensation Division states that "any employer, other than those excluded (section 386-1), having one or more employees, full-time or part-time, permanent or temporary, is required to provide WC coverage for its employees." Coverage is bought from a carrier authorised to write it in Hawaii, or you apply to self-insure by proving solvency to the Director. Every employer must also post a statement of benefit rights where employees can read it, furnish an injured employee the "Highlights of the Hawaii Workers' Compensation Law" brochure within three working days of notice of injury, and file the Employer's Report of Industrial Injury (WC-1) within seven working days.
Then there are two coverages most mainland contractors have never had to buy. Temporary Disability Insurance is partial wage-replacement for non-work injury or sickness, including pregnancy; you may share the cost with employees, but the employee contribution cannot exceed 0.5% of weekly wages. An employee qualifies after at least 14 weeks of Hawaii employment in each of which they were paid for 20 hours or more, having earned not less than $400 in the 52 weeks before the first day of disability.
The Prepaid Health Care Act is the one that reshapes a crew budget. Employers must provide health coverage to employees who work at least twenty hours per week and earn 86.67 times the current Hawaii minimum wage a month. Coverage begins after four consecutive weeks of employment, or the earliest time after that at which the plan contractor can provide it. The employer must pay at least half the premium, and the employee share cannot exceed the lesser of 50% of the premium or 1.5% of the employee's monthly gross earnings. Price a second full-time field employee with that in the number, not after it.
Official sources: Hawaii DLIR: About Workers' Compensation; Hawaii DLIR: About Temporary Disability Insurance; Hawaii DLIR: About Prepaid Health Care
Check the current rule before you file
Two of the documents this guide relies on carry old dates on their own faces. The Contractors License Board's Contractor FAQ is footer-dated 7/9/18, and the Description of Contractor License Classifications is dated June 20, 2014 and tells you so itself: it describes its contents as "selected excerpts" and directs you to "the most current language in Hawaii Revised Statutes ('HRS') chapter 444 and Hawaii Administrative Rules ('HAR') chapter 16-77" for the official version. Both are still the documents the Board links from its own pages today, which is why they are used here, but treat a figure in them as a starting point and confirm it with the Board before you write a check.
One conflict is already visible on the Board's own material. The Board's live page lists an on-time renewal fee of $338.00 for a contractor entity or sole proprietor in active status, $208.00 for an RME and $160.00 for any contractor in inactive status. The Contractor FAQ says $353.00 for entity and sole proprietor, and $208.00 for RMEs. The RME number matches; the entity number does not. We are not picking a winner - call the Board.
The other conflict is about timing, and it can cost you a month. The Board's applications and publications page says the application, fee and supporting documents "MUST be received in the Board's office on or before the first Tuesday of the month TWO MONTHS prior to the scheduled meeting date". The Contractor FAQ and the current sole-proprietor application packet, revised 10/25, both say the first Tuesday of the month prior to the scheduled meeting date. Work to the earlier of the two and confirm the date against the Board's published meeting schedule.
Official sources: Contractors License Board: Contractor Frequently Asked Questions (PDF); Contractors License Board: Description of Contractor License Classifications (PDF); Hawaii DCCA Contractors License Board; Contractors License Board: applications and publications; Contractors License Board: Requirements for License, Sole Proprietor (PDF, rev. 10/25)
Common questions
What order should I do the Hawaii registrations in?
Entity, then trade name, then GET, then the contractor licence. The reason is that the Contractors License Board requires two of the earlier outputs as inputs: a filed-stamped copy of the approved trade name registration if you plan to use a trade name, and a current Hawaii State Tax Clearance issued not more than six months ago with an original DOTAX stamp. A tax clearance presumes a DOTAX registration, and a DOTAX registration is the Form BB-1 filing. Employer coverages follow once you have a first employee.
Official sources: Contractors License Board: Requirements for License, Sole Proprietor (PDF, rev. 10/25); Hawaii Department of Taxation: An Introduction to the General Excise Tax (PDF)
When is my Hawaii annual report due?
In the calendar quarter that matches your entity's registration date, on the last day of that quarter. The Business Registration Division states that the filing period "is related to the business entity's registration date" and that the report may be filed at any time during the quarter in which it is due. Fees are $12.50 for an LLC, profit corporation or LLP, $2.50 for a nonprofit corporation and $5.00 for a partnership, and a delinquent filing draws a $10.00 late fee per year delinquent.
Official sources: Business Registration Division: quarterly annual business report notice
Does registering an LLC in Hawaii let me start taking contracting work?
No. The entity registration and the contractor licence are separate, from separate DCCA divisions, and the licence is the one that authorises the work. The Contractors License Board states that "generally, anyone who offers to, holds oneself out as able to, or contracts to perform residential, commercial, or public works construction, alterations, or improvements must hold a contractor license", and that a licence is required even to offer to undertake such work. The only routine exceptions the Board names are the $1,000 aggregate-price exemption for work not requiring a building permit, and the owner-builder exemption on your own property.
Official sources: Contractors License Board: Contractor Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
General educational information, not legal, tax, licensing, or insurance advice. Rules, fees, deadlines, and local requirements change. Confirm every item with the responsible agency before relying on it.