Report Title:

Transient Accommodations Tax; Cruise Ship Cabin

Description:

Assesses the transient accommodations tax on cruise ship cabins based on the time the ship is docked at a Hawaii port.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	751
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO TRANSIENT ACCOMMODATIONS TAX.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  Section 237D-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding two new definitions to be appropriately inserted and to read as follows:

     ""Cruise ship" means any ship that docks at any port in the State that charges a fee for, and provides cruise ship cabin accommodations to transient passengers.

"Cruise ship cabin" means an accommodation or living quarter on a cruise ship that is provided to transient passengers."

     SECTION 2.  Section 237D-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definition of "transient accommodations" to read as follows:

     ""Transient accommodations" [mean] means the furnishing of a room, apartment, suite, cruise ship cabin, 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] or unit as defined in chapter 514B, cooperative apartment, [or] rooming house, or cruise ship that provides living quarters, sleeping, or housekeeping accommodations, or other place in which lodgings are regularly furnished to transients for consideration."

     SECTION 3.  Section 237D-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

     "(a)  There is levied and shall be assessed and collected each month a tax of:

     (1)  Five per cent for the period beginning on January 1, 1987, to June 30, 1994;

     (2)  Six per cent for the period beginning July 1, 1994, to December 31, 1998; and

     (3)  7.25 per cent for the period beginning on January 1, 1999, and thereafter;

on the gross rental or gross rental proceeds derived from furnishing transient accommodations[.]; provided that an operator of a cruise ship shall be assessed and pay a tax of 7.25 per cent on all gross proceeds derived from the use of each cruise ship cabin multiplied by the percentage of time spent at a Hawaii port."

     SECTION 4.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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