2014 Hawaii Revised Statutes
TITLE 14. TAXATION
237D. Transient Accommodations Tax
237D-1 Definitions.

§237D-1 Definitions. Whenever used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

"Department" means the department of taxation.

"Director" means the director of taxation.

"Fair market rental value" means an amount equal to one-half the gross daily maintenance fees that are paid by the owner, are attributable to the time share unit, and include maintenance costs, operational costs, insurance, repair costs, administrative costs, taxes, other than transient accommodations taxes, and other costs including payments required for reserves or sinking funds. The taxpayer shall use gross daily maintenance fees, unless the taxpayer proves or the director determines that the gross daily maintenance fees do not fairly represent fair market rental value taking into account comparable transient accommodation rentals or other appraisal methods.

"Gross rental" or "gross rental proceeds" means the gross receipts, cash or accrued, of the taxpayer received as compensation for the furnishing of transient accommodations and the value proceeding or accruing from the furnishing of such accommodations without any deductions on account of the cost of property or services sold, the cost of materials used, labor cost, taxes, royalties, interest, discounts, or any other expenses whatsoever. Every taxpayer shall be presumed to be dealing on a cash basis unless the taxpayer proves to the satisfaction of the department of taxation that the taxpayer is dealing on an accrual basis and the taxpayer's books are so kept, or unless the taxpayer employs or is required to employ the accrual basis for the purposes of the tax imposed by chapter 237 for any taxable year in which event the taxpayer shall report the taxpayer's gross income for the purposes of this chapter on the accrual basis for the same period.

The words "gross rental" or "gross rental proceeds" shall not be construed to include the amounts of taxes imposed by chapter 237 or this chapter on operators of transient accommodations and passed on, collected, and received from the consumer as part of the receipts received as compensation for the furnishing of transient accommodations. Where transient accommodations are furnished through arrangements made by a travel agency or tour packager at noncommissionable negotiated contract rates and the gross income is divided between the operator of transient accommodations on the one hand and the travel agency or tour packager on the other hand, gross rental or gross rental proceeds to the operator means only the respective portion allocated or distributed to the operator, and no more. For purposes of this definition, where the operator maintains a schedule of rates for identifiable groups of individuals, such as kamaainas, upon which the accommodations are leased, let, or rented, gross rental or gross rental proceeds means the receipts collected and received based upon the scheduled rates and recorded as receipts in its books and records.

"Lease", "let", or "rental" means the leasing or renting of living quarters or sleeping or housekeeping accommodations in hotels, apartment hotels, motels, condominium property regimes or apartments defined in chapter 514A or units defined in chapter 514B, cooperative apartments, rooming houses, or other places in which lodgings are regularly furnished to transients for a consideration, without transfer of the title of such property.

"Occupant" means an owner of a resort time share vacation plan or other person occupying the resort time share vacation unit.

"Operator" means any person operating a transient accommodation, whether as owner or proprietor or as lessee, sublessee, mortgagee in possession, licensee, or otherwise, or engaging or continuing in any service business which involves the actual furnishing of transient accommodation.

"Owner" means any person who owns a resort time share vacation interest; provided that to the extent and for those purposes provided in an agreement of sale, the vendee under the agreement of sale shall be considered the owner of the resort time share vacation interest.

"Plan manager" means a person who undertakes the duties, responsibilities, and obligations of managing a resort time share vacation plan or is required to act for a resort time share vacation plan under this chapter.

"Resort time share vacation interest" means any interest in a resort time share vacation unit or plan which entitles the owner thereof to the use, occupancy, or possession of a resort time share vacation unit on a periodically recurring basis.

"Resort time share vacation plan" means any plan or program subject to chapter 514E in which the use, occupancy, or possession of one or more resort time share vacation units circulates among various persons for less than a sixty-day period in any year, for any occupant. The term resort time share vacation plan includes both resort time share vacation ownership plans and resort time share vacation use plans, as follows:

(1) "Resort time share vacation ownership plan" means any arrangement whether by tenancy in common, sale, deed, or by other means, whereby the purchaser receives an ownership interest and the right to use the property for a specific or discernible period by temporal division.

(2) "Resort time share vacation use plan" means any arrangement, excluding normal hotel operations, whether by membership agreement, lease, rental agreement, license, use agreement, security, or other means, whereby the purchaser receives a right to use accommodations or facilities, or both, in a resort time share vacation unit for a specific or discernible period by temporal division, but does not receive an ownership interest.

"Resort time share vacation unit" means the actual and promised accommodations, and related facilities, which are the subject of a resort time share vacation plan.

"Transient accommodations" means the furnishing of a room, apartment, suite, or the like which is customarily occupied by a transient for less than one hundred eighty consecutive days for each letting by a hotel, apartment hotel, motel, condominium property regime or apartment as defined in chapter 514A or unit as defined in chapter 514B, cooperative apartment, or rooming house that provides living quarters, sleeping, or housekeeping accommodations, or other place in which lodgings are regularly furnished to transients for consideration. [L 1986, c 340, pt of §1; am L 1988, c 65, §2 and c 241, §2; am L 1990, c 185, §3; am L 1998, c 156, §15; am L 2004, c 164, §§8, 35(5); am L 2005, c 93, §7; am L 2008, c 28, §5]