Hawaii Used Car Sales Tax: GET, Use Tax on Imports and Weight Tax

Hawaii doesn't have a sales tax on used cars in the usual sense. Dealers owe the 4% general excise tax plus a 0.5% county surcharge on what they sell, and most pass it on, up to 4.712% of the price. A private sale between two individuals isn't taxed at all. If you buy a car from an out-of-state dealer and ship it in, you owe 4.5% use tax on its landed value, minus any sales tax you paid on the mainland. After that, the yearly cost is mostly weight tax.

I worked from the Department of Taxation's use tax brochure (revised August 2026), Form G-27 and its instructions, the GET exemptions page, the county surcharge page, the Department of Taxation's copy of HRS chapter 249, and Honolulu's motor vehicle pages, all checked on Oct 20, 2026. It took me longer than I'd like to admit to see how these pieces fit, mostly because the word "sales tax" doesn't appear where you'd expect.

Buying from a Hawaii dealer

The GET is a tax on the business, not on you. According to the Department of Taxation's county surcharge page, all four counties now add 0.5% to the 4% rate: Honolulu since 2007, Kauai since 2019, Hawaii County at 0.5% since 2020, and Maui since Jan. 1, 2024, all set to run through 2030. Businesses aren't required to pass the tax on, but if they do, the maximum pass-on rate is 4.712% in every county. On a $20,000 car that's $942.40.

Trade-ins help. The GET exemptions page treats a trade-in allowance as a price adjustment, so the dealer reports the price minus the trade.

Buying from a private seller

The same exemptions page says proceeds from a casual sale aren't taxed. That means an occasional, isolated sale of something the seller doesn't sell in the course of business. Selling your own car counts. A rental company selling off its fleet doesn't. So you owe nothing on the price, but Honolulu charges a $10 ownership transfer fee if you transfer within 30 days of the seller's date of transfer and adds a $50 penalty after that. The city's FAQ also says the title won't transfer until registration and safety inspection are current, and the transfer page says a new owner is assessed back taxes for any years the car wasn't legally registered. Our Hawaii private-sale title transfer guide covers the steps.

Shipping a car in from the mainland

The use tax brochure answers this exact case. A new or used car bought from a dealer in another state and imported to Hawaii is subject to 4.5% use tax on its landed value, which includes the purchase price, shipping, insurance and duty but not the other state's sales tax. Sales tax you paid elsewhere counts as a credit, up to 4.5%, and if it was more than the Hawaii use tax, nothing more is due. My example: a $15,000 car plus $1,800 to ship it is $16,800 landed, so the use tax would be $756 before any credit.

• If you bought it in a casual sale from a private owner, no use tax is due. You'll still file Form G-27 with the county registration office, checking box 2c and attaching the transfer of title.
• Other no-tax boxes on G-27 cover a car brought in with your household goods that you bought at least three months before the move while you were a nonresident, a genuine gift, and a car staying less than a year.
• The G-27 instructions say landed value can be reduced for depreciation from use outside Hawaii, using a schedule on Form G-26.
• The brochure says Form G-26 is due by the 20th of the month after the import.

Watch out for one trap the G-27 instructions call out: a Hawaii resident who buys a car on a mainland trip and then ships it home doesn't qualify for the household-goods exemption, however long the trip was.

The yearly costs: registration and weight tax

HRS chapter 249, as posted by the Department of Taxation, sets a $46 annual state registration fee, with a $50 surcharge for alternative fuel vehicles, and a state weight tax of 1.75 cents a pound up to 4,000 pounds net weight, 2 cents up to 7,000, 2.25 cents up to 10,000, and a flat $300 above that. Counties add their own weight tax. On Oahu, the Star-Advertiser reported in August that the passenger rate is 6 cents a pound and that Bill 47, which passed second reading 6-2, would cut it to 5.5 cents starting July 1, 2027. I couldn't find a record of final passage, so treat that as pending.

My example for a 3,200-pound sedan on Oahu: $56 state weight tax, $192 county weight tax and $46 state registration, or $294 before the county's other fees. Honolulu's online motor vehicle inquiry gives exact numbers for a car already registered there.

Before you pay

Cars move between islands and in from the mainland, so check where a car has been titled. Our post on Hawaii salvage title import risks explains why, and NMVTIS will show brands from other states. For comparisons with other states, see our used car sales tax overview.

CarVins is a licensed reseller of CARFAX and AutoCheck reports and isn't affiliated with them or with any Hawaii agency. As of late October 2026 a report was about $5.50 without an account and about $4.50 with a membership, with both reports around $6.75, compared with roughly $39.99 to $44.99 direct. Check the price at checkout.

Sources

• Hawaii Department of Taxation: An Introduction to the Use Tax (rev. Aug. 2026) and Form G-27
• GET exemptions and county surcharge and pass-on rates
• HRS chapter 249
• Honolulu: Vehicle ownership transfer and motor vehicle FAQs
• Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Aug. 13, 2026