Hawaiʻi sales tax on jewelry: the GET on your receipt explained

Hawaiʻi has no sales tax. It has a general excise tax (GET), which is a tax on the seller’s gross receipts: 4% for the state plus a 0.5% county surcharge, so 4.5% on every island in 2026. Shops may add it to your bill, and because the tax is also due on the tax, the most they can add is 4.712%. Visitors get no refund, but if the seller ships your piece directly to an address outside Hawaiʻi, the sale is generally exempt, though your home state may then charge use tax.

Hawaiʻi has a general excise tax, not a sales tax

A sales tax is charged to the buyer and collected by the shop. The GET works the other way round: it is a tax on the business, charged on almost everything it takes in. The Department of Taxation’s Tax Facts 37-1 explains that a business may visibly pass the tax on to customers, but it doesn’t have to, and the tax is part of the price either way.

In practice you’ll see two kinds of receipt:

• Tax added at the register. The tag says $1,200 and the receipt adds a line for GET. This is the usual way in jewelry shops.
• Tax included. The tag price is what you pay. The shop still pays GET out of it; you just don’t see a separate line.

A shop that passes the tax on has to tell you, and it may not visibly charge more than the maximum rate below.

The 2026 rate on each island

Every county now adds the maximum 0.5% surcharge on top of the state’s 4%. Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi are part of Maui County, so they have the same rate as Maui.

County	Islands	State GET	County surcharge	Total	Most a shop may add to your bill	Surcharge in place
City and County of Honolulu	Oʻahu	4%	0.5%	4.5%	4.712%	2007 to 2030
Maui County	Maui, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi	4%	0.5%	4.5%	4.712%	2024 to 2030
Hawaiʻi County	Hawaiʻi Island	4%	0.5%	4.5%	4.712%	0.25% in 2019; 0.5% from 2020 to 2030
Kauaʻi County	Kauaʻi, Niʻihau	4%	0.5%	4.5%	4.712%	2019 to 2030

So in 2026 it no longer matters, for tax, which island you buy on. Before 2024 it did: Maui County had no surcharge, and Maui receipts showed 4.1666%.

Why your receipt says 4.712%

The GET is charged on the shop’s gross receipts, and the tax you hand over is part of those receipts. If a shop added exactly 4.5% to a $1,000 bracelet, it would take in $1,045 and owe 4.5% of $1,045, which is $47.03, not $45. To come out even it has to add a little more: 4.5% ÷ (100% − 4.5%) = 4.712%.

On a $1,000 piece, that’s $47.12 of tax on the receipt.

You may see two other rates:

• 4.4386% was the maximum on Hawaiʻi Island in 2019 only, when the county surcharge there was 0.25%. If a receipt shows it today, the register is using an old setting. You are paying slightly less than the shop could charge, not more.
• 4.1666% is the maximum where there is no county surcharge. It was the Maui County rate until the end of 2023.

If a receipt shows more than 4.712% for GET, ask about it. A shop can’t visibly collect more than the maximum.

Is there a tourist tax refund in Hawaiʻi?

No. Tax Facts 37-1 says there is no GET exemption for goods sold in Hawaiʻi to nonresidents, and the Department doesn’t issue exemption certificates to tourists. There is no refund desk at the airport and no form to fill in on the way home.

The Department’s Tax Information Release 98-5, written about souvenirs and gifts, sets the rule that matters: a sale is taxed where the buyer accepts delivery. If you take the piece out of the shop, or collect it at the airport, you have accepted it in Hawaiʻi, and GET applies.

What if the shop ships it to your home in another state?

If the seller ships the piece directly to you at an address outside Hawaiʻi, the sale is generally exempt from GET under HRS §237-29.5, which covers goods shipped out of the state to be used there. TIR 98-5 gives the example of a gift shop that ships candy to a visitor’s home: exempt, because the buyer never took possession in Hawaiʻi.

What that means at the counter:

• The seller ships, not you. If you buy the piece, take it to your hotel and mail it yourself, GET applies.
• Expect paperwork. The seller needs Form G-61, the export exemption certificate, or equivalent proof that it shipped the piece out of state. Some shops will ask you to sign one.
• Not every shop will do it. A seller can choose not to offer the exemption, or the cost of insured shipping may be more than the tax you save. Ask before you pay.
• Do the sum. On a $3,000 bracelet the GET is about $141. Fully insured shipping with a signature costs money too. Our guide to shipping jewelry home from Hawaiʻi covers what to ask for.

If you’re having a piece engraved and it won’t be ready before you fly, shipping is often the practical choice anyway. See engraving before your flight.

You may owe use tax at home

Most US states with a sales tax also have a use tax. It applies when you buy something out of state, don’t pay your state’s sales tax, and then use it at home. California and Texas both say a buyer who isn’t charged their tax by an out-of-state seller owes use tax on the purchase. Jewelry is no exception.

How it plays out depends on your state:

• Shipped from Hawaiʻi with no GET. Your state’s use tax most likely applies, at your local rate.
• Bought with GET and carried home. Some states give credit for sales tax paid to another state. Whether Hawaiʻi’s GET counts for that credit is up to your state, so check.
• Larger sellers. A business registered to collect tax in your state may charge your state’s sales tax at checkout instead of GET.

Visitors from Japan and other countries

The United States has no VAT and Hawaiʻi has no tax-free shopping scheme, so the tax-free counters you may know from Japan or Europe don’t exist here. You pay GET like everyone else unless the seller ships the piece to an address outside Hawaiʻi.

For visitors returning to Japan, Japan Customs sets a duty-free allowance of ¥200,000 per adult, counted on the overseas value of everything you bring back. Items worth under ¥10,000 aren’t counted. A single piece worth more than ¥200,000 gets no allowance at all: duty and consumption tax are charged on the whole value, not just the excess.

Jewelry posted to Japan separately can count toward the same allowance if you declare it as unaccompanied baggage when you arrive and mark the parcel “unaccompanied baggage”. Otherwise it may be handled as an ordinary import. Keep your receipt for both.

What to ask the seller

• Is the GET added at the register, or included in the price?
• What rate do you charge? (It should be no more than 4.712%.)
• If you ship it to my home address, will you take the GET off? Do you need me to sign Form G-61?
• What does insured shipping cost, and who is responsible until it arrives?
• Can I have an itemised receipt showing the price, the tax and the shipping separately?

Before you compare prices, check what’s included: two shops quoting the same number may differ by 4.7% if one adds GET and the other doesn’t. Our survey of Hawaiian jewelry prices shows what comparable pieces cost before tax, and where to buy Hawaiian jewelry covers the kinds of shop you’ll meet on each island.