Hawaii New Employer Registration

Last reviewed: October 2026

Step 1: Get Your EIN

Everything downstream depends on this one number. Apply for a federal Employer Identification Number at irs.gov; the online application is free and takes about fifteen minutes, and you receive the EIN immediately at the end. Both Hawaii registrations below will ask for it, so get it done first.

Step 2: Register With DOTAX

Head to Hawaii Tax Online and open a withholding tax account with the Department of Taxation, either online ("Register New Business") or on the paper Form BB-1. This gives you a Hawaii Withholding Tax ID, and it's the account you'll use going forward to file Form HW-14 each quarter and deposit the state income tax you withhold from employee paychecks.

If your business already files General Excise Tax through Hawaii Tax Online, note that the login doesn't automatically include withholding. GET and withholding are administered under the same tax department, but they're separate account types, and you'll need to add the withholding registration explicitly rather than assume it's already active. If you are forming an LLC or corporation, that entity registration is a separate filing with the DCCA Business Registration Division, usually through its Hawaii Business Express portal.

Step 3: Register With DLIR

Unemployment insurance registration is a different agency entirely: the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Register online through the UI employer system within 20 days after you hire your first employee (paper Form UC-1 is no longer accepted). Registering opens a UI account and assigns you a new-employer contribution rate, applied against wages up to the state's annual taxable wage base. For 2026 that is 2.40% on the first $64,500 of each employee's wages. Check the DLIR Unemployment Insurance Division page for the current rate and wage base before you finalize a budget, since both figures are reviewed annually.

Once registered, quarterly wage reports (Form UC-B6) are due the last day of the month following each quarter. Employers who skip registration and get caught later owe back contributions for every missed quarter plus penalties, so it's worth handling this before the first paycheck rather than waiting for a notice from the state.

Step 4: Report New Hires

Hawaii requires every new hire and rehire to be reported to the state within 20 days of the start date. Reports go to the Child Support Enforcement Agency, which uses the data to help locate parents who owe child support; it's a federal mandate implemented at the state level, and it applies regardless of whether the position is full-time, part-time, or seasonal.

The report needs the employee's name, address, Social Security number, and first day of work, plus your business name, address, and EIN. The simplest way is to mail or fax a completed W-4 with your employer information to CSEA New Hire Reporting; larger employers can send an electronic file by SFTP. CSEA does not accept reports over the internet. See the CSEA employer information page for the address and fax number.

Step 5: Arrange TDI Coverage

Hawaii is one of the few states that mandates Temporary Disability Insurance, and it needs to be in place before your first employee clocks in, not arranged reactively after someone gets sick. Coverage is available from an approved private carrier, and larger employers who meet financial requirements can apply to self-insure through the DLIR Disability Compensation Division instead.

TDI is distinct from workers' compensation, which every Hawaii employer must also carry regardless of size. Workers' comp covers on-the-job injuries. TDI covers non-work-related illness or injury. Having one does not substitute for the other, and both need to be active from the start.

Hawaii's Prepaid Health Care Act adds a third coverage requirement. Once an employee has worked four consecutive weeks at 20 or more hours a week and earns at least $1,387 a month (the 2026 threshold), you must offer a DLIR-approved health plan, paying at least half the premium. The employee's share can't exceed 1.5% of their monthly wages.

A Note on General Excise Tax

Hawaii doesn't have a traditional sales tax; instead it has the General Excise Tax (GET), a broad tax on business gross receipts that applies whether or not you have employees. GET is unrelated to payroll withholding, but a new employer registering for the first time is often setting up both accounts around the same time. The GET license comes from the same Form BB-1 (or Hawaii Tax Online) registration and carries a one-time $20 fee. Keep the two straight in your bookkeeping: GET is a business tax on revenue, while withholding tax is money you collect from employee paychecks and pass through to the state on their behalf. Confusing the two on your books tends to create reconciliation headaches at tax time.

For a full walkthrough of what running payroll looks like after registration is complete, see our how-to-do-payroll guide. You can also try the Hawaii paycheck calculator to test a sample pay run, or point a new employee to the W-4 helper if they need assistance with withholding forms.

Frequently Asked Questions