How to Run a Legal Vacation Rental Condo on Maui: Taxes, Licenses, Management and a Checklist

A legal vacation rental condo on Maui is a real business with real paperwork. Before your first guest arrives you need a Hawaii general excise tax license, a transient accommodations tax license, a named local contact on the island, and listings that display your registration number. After that you file taxes to two governments on a set schedule, and you decide whether to hire a management company or run it yourself. None of it is hard once it is set up. Most of the owners I see get into trouble skipped a step at the start.

This guide covers condos that can already rent short term legally. Getting a single-family home approved as a short-term rental is a separate process with its own permit, and I will cover it in its own post.

Step one: is the unit actually allowed to rent short term?

Everything else depends on this. On Maui, a stay of less than 180 days counts as transient, and transient rentals are only allowed where the zoning or a specific county approval permits them. For condos that comes down to two things.

The zoning. Condos in a hotel district can rent to visitors. Older apartment-zoned condos on the county's Minatoya list have been allowed to rent short term as well, but Bill 9 (Ordinance 5909) phases that out: January 1, 2029 in West Maui, and January 1, 2031 everywhere else. Some of those buildings are being considered for rezoning into the new H-3 and H-4 hotel districts. I keep the current status, building by building, on my Maui short-term rental law page, and I keep a list of hotel-zoned condos that are not on that countdown.

The building's own documents. Even when the zoning allows it, the association's declaration, bylaws and house rules can set minimum stays, require guest registration, charge rental fees, limit parking, or ban short-term rental outright. Read them before you buy, not after.

If a building fails either test, no amount of good management fixes it. The county fines illegal vacation rentals by the day, and it has stepped up enforcement.

What licenses and registrations do I need?

Here is the full setup, in the order I would do it:

1. Hawaii GET and TAT licenses. File Form BB-1 with the Hawaii Department of Taxation, online through Hawaii Tax Online. One application covers both. You need these even if a manager handles your filings.
2. Maui County TAT account. There is no separate county license. The county account is tied to your state TAT number, and you file and pay through the county's online portal on the same schedule as your state TAT returns.
3. A local contact on Maui. State law requires every transient rental to name an individual or business located on the same island who can respond to guests. It does not have to be a licensed agent. It does have to be someone who will actually answer the phone.
4. Listings that show the required information. Every advertisement, including every online listing, has to display your registration number (or a link to it) and the local contact's name, phone number and email.
5. Registration posted in the unit. Display your TAT registration certificate in the unit, or post a notice telling guests where they can see it, with your local contact's details in the same place.
6. Association paperwork. Most rental-friendly buildings have their own forms: owner and manager contacts, guest registration, parking, and sometimes a rental program agreement.

The fines for getting items 3 through 5 wrong are steep: $500 a day for a first violation, $1,000 a day for a second, and $5,000 a day after that. This is the cheapest part of the business to get right, so get it right.

How much tax does a Maui vacation rental pay?

Three taxes apply to the rent itself, and together they come to about 18.5 percent. Most owners pass them on to the guest as a line item.

The state raised the TAT on January 1, 2026, from 10.25 to 11 percent. Older guides and old spreadsheets still show the lower rate, so check yours.

How do I get a GET and TAT license?

1. Go to Hawaii Tax Online (hitax.hawaii.gov) and file Form BB-1, the State of Hawaii Basic Business Application. Check the boxes for both general excise and transient accommodations tax.
2. Pay the one-time $20 registration fee.
3. You receive a GET license and a TAT certificate of registration, each with its own number. The TAT registration identifies the rental property, so tell the department about every unit you rent.
4. The department assigns your filing frequency based on how much tax you expect to owe. For GET, more than $4,000 a year means monthly returns, $4,000 or less allows quarterly, and $2,000 or less allows semiannual.
5. Your Maui County TAT account uses the same TAT number. There is no second application. You file it through the county's page on the state's TAT payment portal.

Put both numbers on every listing before you take a booking.

How do I pass the taxes on to guests?

You are allowed to pass all three taxes on to the guest, and nearly every Maui rental does. The rule that matters is that the taxes have to be visibly passed on: quoted up front and shown as separate lines on the bill. The Department of Taxation is clear on the consequence. If you charge a flat, all-in price without stating the taxes separately, you owe GET and TAT on the entire amount, taxes included.

Two details from the department's own guidance:

• TAT that is visibly passed on is not subject to GET, and it is not counted as rent for TAT.
• GET that is passed on is itself taxable income for GET. That is why the maximum GET you can pass on in Maui County is 4.712 percent, not 4.5.

Here is roughly what a guest bill looks like for $1,000 of rent (nightly rate plus cleaning fee):

Your tax preparer or your manager's software will confirm the exact GET base for your setup, but the principle holds: show every tax on its own line.

Does the cleaning fee count as rent?

Yes. This is one of the most common mistakes. The Department of Taxation counts mandatory fees as part of the rent for TAT, including cleaning fees, maintenance fees, management fees and mandatory resort fees. Listing the cleaning fee on its own line does not take it out of the tax. It simply gets taxed along with the nightly rate.

A few other charges, and how they generally work:

• Optional extras a guest can choose to add, like mid-stay cleaning, beach gear rental or early check-in, are generally not rent for TAT, but they are still income subject to GET.
• A refundable damage deposit is not income while you hold it. If you keep some of it for damage, that part becomes income.
• Pet fees and other fees every guest in that situation must pay should be treated as rent unless your tax preparer tells you otherwise.

How and when do I file and pay?

State returns are filed and paid on Hawaii Tax Online. The county TAT is filed on the county's TAT portal. File every period even when you had no bookings, because a missing return is treated as a missing return, not as zero.

Other points that catch owners out:

• Property tax is the big fixed cost. A unit used as a short-term rental is taxed at the county's short-term rental rate, several times the owner-occupant rate. My guide to Maui property taxes walks through the classes.
• Nonresident owners file a Hawaii return. Rental income from Hawaii property is taxed in Hawaii no matter where you live.
• Hiring a manager does not transfer the responsibility. The department holds the owner responsible for every tax, whoever collects the money.

I am a REALTOR, not a CPA. Rates and filing rules change, so confirm them with the Department of Taxation and a tax professional who works with Hawaii rentals.

Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com or your own website?

Most well-run Maui condos list on more than one platform. Each one brings a different guest, and the tools to keep calendars and prices in sync (a channel manager or property management software) are standard now.

Fee structures change often, so check each platform's current host terms before you choose. The larger point is about taxes. The booking sites do not pay your Hawaii taxes for you. You set each listing up to charge GET, state TAT and county TAT to the guest as separate lines, the tax money arrives with your payout, and filing and paying it is on you or your manager. Set that money aside the day it lands. Platforms also report host income to the state, so your returns need to match what they report.

Direct bookings are worth building over time. A guest who loved your unit and books directly next year costs you no commission, but only once you are set up to take payments, collect every tax, and handle the rental agreement yourself.

Should I use a management company or self-manage?

This is the biggest decision you will make after choosing the building, and there is no single right answer. It comes down to how much of your own time you want to put in, and how far away you live.

On Maui, about 25 percent of rental revenue is the typical fee for full-service management. Some high-end resort programs charge considerably more. Either way, compare what each option actually covers. Two managers quoting the same percentage can leave you with very different results once cleaning, linen, supplies, credit card fees and maintenance markups are added in.

If you hire a manager, ask these before you sign:

• What is your Hawaii real estate license or condo hotel operator registration number? Anyone renting your unit for a fee generally needs one.
• What exactly does the percentage cover, and what is billed separately?
• Who files the GET and TAT returns, and do I get copies?
• How do you set nightly rates, and how often do you change them?
• How many units do you manage in this building, and what were their occupancy and average nightly rates last year?
• Who responds to a guest at 2 a.m., and how quickly?
• How do you handle maintenance, and do you mark up repairs?
• How much notice do I need to give to end the agreement, and who owns the listing and its reviews if I leave?

If you self-manage, build the team first. You need a cleaner you trust (with a backup), a handyman, and a local contact, who can be the same person as long as they respond. Plan your guest communication, keyless entry, and a way to check the unit between stays before you open the calendar.

What do successful Maui rental owners do differently?

The owners whose units perform well year after year tend to share a few habits:

• They price for the season. Winter and the holidays are peak, and early fall is usually the softest stretch of the year. Rates that stay flat all year leave money on the table in one season and sit empty in the other.
• They budget for the salt air. Appliances, fixtures and furniture wear out faster by the ocean. Set money aside for replacement every year instead of waiting for it all to fail at once.
• They keep a reserve for the building. Older Maui complexes are dealing with roof, plumbing and concrete work, and a special assessment can arrive in the middle of a good year. Read the association's reserve study before you buy.
• They carry the right insurance. The building's master policy covers the structure, not your interior, your furnishings or your liability to guests. Get an owner's policy written for short-term rental use, and do not treat a platform's host guarantee as insurance.
• They look after the neighbors. Your full-time neighbors vote on house rules. Guest rules on noise, parking and pool hours, printed in the unit, go a long way.
• They help guests care for the island. Maui County only allows mineral sunscreens to be sold, so stock the unit with reef-safe sunscreen and a short note on ocean safety and respecting the reef.
• They keep clean books. A separate bank account and monthly records make the tax returns, the annual reconciliations and any future sale much simpler.

The Maui vacation rental checklist

Before you buy

• Confirm the zoning and which county list the building is on, if any
• Read the declaration, bylaws and house rules for rental limits and fees
• Review the association budget, reserve study and any planned assessments
• Get past rental performance for the unit or similar units in the building
• Price insurance for short-term rental use
• Run the numbers with the short-term rental property tax rate and 18.5 percent in rental taxes

Before your first guest

• File Form BB-1 for your GET and TAT licenses
• Set up your Maui County TAT account under your state TAT number
• Name your local contact on Maui
• Hire your manager, or line up your cleaner, backup cleaner and handyman
• Put your registration number and local contact details on every listing
• Set up every platform to show GET, state TAT and Maui County TAT as separate lines, with cleaning fees included in the taxable rent
• Post your registration certificate (or a notice) and local contact in the unit
• Complete the association's rental and guest registration paperwork
• Set up a separate bank account for the rental

Every filing period

• File and pay GET (G-45) and state TAT (TA-1)
• File and pay Maui County TAT on the same schedule
• Match your returns to the income each platform reports
• File even when there were no bookings

Every year

• File the annual GET (G-49) and TAT (TA-2) reconciliations
• File your Hawaii income tax return
• Review insurance, pricing and your replacement budget
• Check for changes to county rental rules and your building's status

The short version

Start with the building, because the zoning and the association's rules decide everything else. Set up the licenses, the local contact and the listing details before the first booking, because the fines are daily. Then pick the management approach that matches how much of your own time you want to give it. If you want help finding a building where the rental numbers and the rules both work, that is most of what I do for rental buyers. For the other costs off-island owners tend to miss, see the hidden costs of owning on Maui.

Official sources: Hawaii Department of Taxation, renting residential property · Tax Facts 96-2, Transient Accommodations Tax · Tax Announcement 2025-03 on the 11 percent TAT · Maui County TAT portal · County of Maui Short-Term Occupancy List · Hawaii Real Estate Branch, condominium hotel operators