Honolulu Lawmakers look to increase tax on house sales

February 17, 2005

Honolulu: Lawmakers look to increase tax on house sales

Some lawmakers want to increase tax on the sales of homes to help pay for affordable housing projects. One bill, mainly targeting real estate speculators, proposes to double the conveyance tax for houses over $600,000 and triple the conveyance tax for those over $1million. Currently, the conveyance tax is set at 10 cents per $100 of the sales price of a property. The rates would be even higher for properties that are purchased not as primary residences.

Another bill is aimed at changing the capital gains tax on property held for a short term. If a property is held less than six months the capital gains would be 60% and the penalty would decrease to 30% if the property is held between 6 and 12 months, and 15 percent for a property held from 12 to 24 months. The current short-term capital gain is 8.25% for properties held less than one year