Hawaii
Residential and commercial cleaning in Hawaii are subject to the general excise tax (GET) under the general rule covering services. GET is a tax on the business's gross receipts, not a sales tax charged to the buyer, and subcontracted (wholesale) services are taxed at 0.5%. The minimum wage is $16.00 an hour, with $18.00 announced for January 1, 2028.
Hawaii's tax on cleaning is measured on the business, not added on for the customer. The general excise tax works from gross receipts, and the rate depends on whether the work is retail or wholesale. The wage side is steadier: $16.00 an hour now, with the next announced change on January 1, 2028. Below: GET, the employee test, payroll registration, the minimum wage, and what this means for your books.
Residential and commercial cleaning are both subject to Hawaii's GET under the general rule covering services. The retail rate is 4.5%, county surcharge included where it applies, and subcontracted (wholesale) services are taxed at 0.5%. This rests on the general rule; no Department of Taxation source naming cleaning or listing exemptions was checked. The detail is on my page on Hawaii's general excise tax and cleaning.
Source: Hawaii Department of Taxation, General Excise Tax (GET) Information
Source: Hawaii Department of Taxation, Tax Facts 37-1, General Excise Tax (revised May 2025)
For unemployment insurance, Hawaii uses a three-part ABC test under HRS 383-6, part of the Hawaii Employment Security Law. How a W-2 cleaner and a 1099 subcontractor each land in the books is covered in 1099 subcontractors vs. W-2 employees. Whether someone on your crew is an employee under the test is a legal question for your CPA or an employment attorney.
Source: Hawaii State Legislature, Hawaii Revised Statutes 383-6
Hawaii taxes wages, so employers withhold state income tax. Withholding is administered by the Hawaii Department of Taxation, with registration through hitax.hawaii.gov. Unemployment insurance is a separate account with the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Unemployment Insurance Division, which has its own employer registration portal.
Source: Hawaii Department of Taxation, Withholding Tax, For Employers
Source: Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Unemployment Insurance
Hawaii's minimum wage is $16.00 an hour, effective January 1, 2026. The next announced change takes it to $18.00 an hour on January 1, 2028.
Source: Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Wage Standards Division, Minimum Wage
Source: Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, History of Minimum Wage
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, State Minimum Wage Laws (updated July 1, 2026)
GET is figured on what comes in, so the books need to know which receipts are retail and which are wholesale. Retail jobs and subcontracted jobs go on separate income lines, and the GET owed on them sits in its own liability account until it's paid. I want every single dollar in that account to tie back to an invoice and the rate that applied to it. On the wage side, labor is recorded at what you actually pay, and the job profitability estimator shows what $18.00 would do to one job well ahead of 2028.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep retail and wholesale receipts apart and the GET liability tied out; which rate applies to a job, and how GET is reported, is a question for your CPA.
Rules checked against the sources above as of October 20, 2026. Rates and rules change; confirm current figures with the agency or your CPA.
About Figure Eight Financial
Figure Eight Financial is Dave Gordon’s bookkeeping practice for residential and commercial cleaning companies. I work with owners in Hawaii and across the country, and I’m a Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor.
Before bookkeeping I studied computer science at Penn State and spent a career at IBM as an engineer, so I build the books as a system: data comes in once, lands in the right place, and ties back to a statement. I’m a bookkeeper, not a CPA or Enrolled Agent. I keep the books your CPA works from, and the tax decisions stay with your CPA.
Credentials and memberships reported by Figure Eight Financial.
More about DaveHow I Help
GET is measured on gross receipts at two different rates, so retail and subcontracted cleaning land on separate income lines, and the GET owed sits in a liability account that ties back to your invoices. Payroll is recorded at the wage actually paid, which makes the 2028 increase easy to see coming. Book a short call below to talk through your Hawaii books.
The core service. Transactions recorded and categorized, every account reconciled so the books and the bank agree, and monthly reports that arrive explained, split by residential and commercial and sliceable per contract.
The full picture of how this works for a cleaning companyFor the months where nothing got entered at all. I fill in the missing periods from the ground up, pulling bank feeds, statements, and receipts until every month has a complete set of records.
How catch-up bookkeeping worksFor books that exist but can’t be trusted. I audit what’s there, fix the unreconciled accounts, duplicate transactions, and wrong categories, and tie every balance back to a statement.
How cleanup bookkeeping worksYour crews paid on time, every pay period, with each payroll run recorded in the books so labor shows up against the jobs it belongs to.
How payroll worksRecurring invoices that match your contracts, an aging report you can trust, and follow-up on slow payers handled by a process instead of your evenings. Built for net-60 commercial accounts.
How invoicing and receivables workA file built right for a cleaning company from day one, or rebuilt after the DIY version drifts, and then I teach you to run it. I’m a Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor, and this is honestly my favorite part of the job.
How a proper setup worksWe start with a short call about your business and where the books stand. The first conversation doesn’t cost anything.
I take a look at what you’ve got, your QuickBooks file, your spreadsheet, whatever exists.
You get a written proposal with the price, so the decision is yours with the number in hand.
Let's Connect
If you clean in Hawaii and want your GET and payroll straight in the books, send me a note. We'll go through it together, and the first conversation doesn't cost anything.
