David Y. Ige

HONOLULU –  As the deadline for tax filing nears, remember to file your individual income tax return or general excise tax return if you did business in the State of Hawaii (including receiving rental income) during the taxable year, regardless of the whether or not you derived any taxable income from that business. Residents will need to file the Individual Income Tax Form N-11 while Non-Residents will need to file the Form N-15. If you did business in Hawaii, you will also need to file the General Excise Tax Form G-49.

 

If you are unable to file your Individual Income Tax return by the April 20, 2018 deadline, you are granted an automatic 6-month extension of time to file. If you are due a refund, you do not need to file a form to request an extension. Just file your return by October 20, 2018.

 

If you are unable to file your General Excise Tax by the April 20, 2018 deadline, you may submit a request for an extension to file on Form GEW-TA-RV-6. Approval of an extension request is not automatic. 

 

The extension of time to file is not an extension of time to pay. If you have a balance due, you must pay your taxes in full by April 20, 2018. For Individual Income Tax, file Form N-101A with your tax payment.  For General Excise Tax, file Form GEW-TA-RV-6 with your payment. If you owe taxes on your return, failure to pay by the deadline may result in additional penalties and interest.

 

For faster processing, you may wish to electronically file (e-file) your return. The Department is currently modernizing its computer systems and can accept General Excise Tax returns and payments through its online portal, Hawaii Tax Online (https://hitax.hawaii.gov). However, e-filing Individual Income Tax is not yet available through this portal (but will be available starting next year for tax year 2018). If you wish to e-file your Individual Income Tax return, you will need to go through third party software. If your adjusted gross income is less than $66,000, you may qualify for free file software. To get started, go to https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp to use the Internal Revenue Service’s Free File Software Lookup Tool to find out which free file software you can use.  

 

Tax forms and instructions on how to file are available on the Department’s website at: https://tax.hawaii.gov/forms/ 

 

If you have already filed your individual income tax return, you may check on the status of your refund online at https://tax.hawaii.gov. Current processing times are 2-4 weeks for e-filed returns, 4-6 weeks for paper returns, and an additional 2 weeks processing time for paper refund checks.

 

 

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Deborah Kwan | State of Hawaii – Department of Taxation

830 Punchbowl Street, Rm 221, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

(808) 587-1540 | https://tax.hawaii.gov