Hawaii County Ag Tax Dedication RPT Information

Hawaii County Real Property Tax (RPT)
Dedicated Agriculture Application
File anytime before 9/1 for next tax year

Most active coffee or diversified ag farms will likely qualify for the 10 year Ag Dedication as an “Orchard”. It’s the cheapest tax rate and you will qualify if you exceed $2,000 in annual farm income and/or meet other baseline standards. To double check, you can use their Decision Flowchart or their Tax Calculator. (Use your TMK on the Search page, link at top to get the values). The only drawback to the 10-Year is that if you sell, the new owner has to agree to continue with it or you pay back taxes, which frankly are not that much in the context of a sale.

Use the County’s Ag Dedication Form:

1. Enter your TMK in the top right.
2. Select Long-Term Dedication (10 years) if appropriate
3. Fill out ownership info (matching your deed info if a trust, LLC, etc), including residence and rental boxes
4. If you are a KS lessee,then check Recorded Lease and write Kamehameha Schools / Bishop Estates. KS will need to sign the paperwork.  Email your Land Manager to get their signature, which is generally not an issue.. The other info is for an unrecorded sublease.
5. Section 1: use their Farm Plan form, should take about 2 min to fill. A lot of this form will be NA or irrelevant. Put just your main orchard crops that you sell.
6. Section 2: Include last year’s State GET Tax form G-49 or IRS Schedule F to prove income
7. Orchards is your Agricultural Activity Acreage minus .25 for homesite.
8. On the map, draw farm shape, squares for house and ag buildings that they can see on google earth. Write Orchards large on the rest.
9. Submit by Sept 1! Mail in your form to the Address on the form, email it to cohappraisal@hawaiicounty.gov or walk it in to the County office.

The County will call you to do an inspection before the end of October to verify on your application in person. Tax Rate will kick in 7/1 of the following year.