Hawaii Tax ID Number Changes

The Department of Taxation is moving to a new integrated tax system as part of the Tax System Modernization program. As of August 14, 2017, this system supports the following business tax accounts:

  • Corporate Income Tax (CO)
  • General Excise/Use and County Surcharge Tax (GE)
  • Franchise Tax (FR)
  • Public Service Company Tax (PS)
  • Rental Motor Vehicle, Tour Vehicle, and Car-Sharing Vehicle Surcharge Tax (RV)
  • Seller’s Collection (SC)
  • Transient Accommodations Tax (TA)
  • Use Tax only (UO)
  • Withholding Tax (WH)

Taxpayers will benefit from faster processing and Hawaii Tax Online, a new website for managing these tax accounts. Hawaii Tax Online will provide improved access to account information and free e-filing options.

When tax accounts move to the new system, existing Hawaii Tax ID numbers will be replaced with a new number and format. The new Hawaii Tax ID number format makes it easy to distinguish between customer ID and Hawaii Tax ID account numbers. Hawaii Tax ID number prefixes also make it possible to know the associated tax type at a glance. To avoid inconveniencing taxpayers, the Department will continue to process returns and payments received with old Hawaii Tax ID numbers.

Licenses and certificates of registration reflecting new Hawaii Tax ID numbers were mailed to taxpayers with active GE, RV, SC, TA, and UO accounts in August 2016. Federal Employer Identification Numbers (FEIN) continue to serve as the primary identifier for CO, FR, and PS tax accounts. Taxpayers should provide new Hawaii Tax ID numbers to financial institutions and other businesses as needed. This will help prevent any future confusion when encountering the new format.

Old Hawaii Tax ID Number Format New Hawaii Tax ID Number Format
W########-## ??-###-###-####-##

Example:

W12345678-01

Example:

GE-987-654-3210-01
Note: Account numbers for cigarette & tobacco, fuel, and liquor tax types will remain the same until July 2019. The first two characters represent the tax type using the abbreviations in the list above.

See also:

Page Last Updated: May 4, 2021