Reaction to Proposed Timeshare Tax Increase in Hawaii February 4, 2011
Posted by John Stephens in : ARDA, Hawaii timeshare, News & Events , trackbackLast week, I blogged about the Governor of Hawaii’s call to increase taxes on timeshare in the Aloha State. More information has since surfaced regarding the proposal and it didn’t take long for reaction from the industry – in full force against the idea of any additional taxes on timeshare.
According to the American Resort Development Association’s Resort Owners’ Coalition (ARDA-ROC), legislation has been introduced in the state House of Representatives and the state Senate which would increase the accommodation tax rate from 7.25% to 9.25% and increase the amount subject to the tax from 50% to 150% of the daily maintenance fee.
To put this into perspective, ARDA-ROC uses the following example that “under current law, a timeshare owner with a $1000 maintenance fee pays a TAT (transient accommodation tax) of $36.20. Under the new legislation, the TAT payment for the same owner would be $138.70. For an owner with a $2,000 maintenance fee, the TAT would go from $72.50 to $277.50.”
“Enough is enough,” said ARDA-ROC Chairman, Ken McKelvey. “We have a responsibility to the more than 1 million timeshare owners who contribute to ROC and the hundreds of Home Owners’ Associations (HOAs) who volunteer and financially support ARDA-ROC for this very reason – to make sure that ’the tax the visitor rather than voter’ mentality doesn’t overtake the rights of timeshare owners.”
This is not only a feeble attempt to help close the $700million state budget deficit, but it’s just a bad business decision. Since when is it a good idea to make a tourism-related product more expensive during an economic downturn?
Oh yeah, I forgot. The economists tell us we’re no longer in a recession. I guess that settles it, then.
ARDA has been fighting against increases to the accommodation tax since its inception in 1998 and has a battle on its hands this time.
The ARDA-ROC Executive Committee has requested that ARDA staff and legal counsel make recommendations of a course of action to fight this legislation and says it will pursue all options to fight this proposal, including litigation.
We applaud the efforts of our industry trade association to fight against these tax increases and ask Hawaii timeshare owners to lobby the state legislators in their resort’s districts to vote against these proposals. You can find information at www.ardaroc.org about how to get involved in the debate.
If you own Hawaii timeshare, don’t be discouraged about these proposals since they have been successfully defeated for a number of years now. Hawaii timeshare is still one of the most sought-after vacation ownership products in the world, with a number of great deals available on the BuyaTimeshare.com website. Click here for more information.
Comments»
Hawaii is the only state charging tax on top of real estate taxes for timeshares. Please do not pass additional taxes. These taxes on timeshare owners should be done away with. No wonder values have dropped, maintenance fees increased and taxes increased.