incentives
foreign trade zone facilities
Hawaii offers one of the largest and most diversified foreign trade zone programs in the U.S. Maui houses one of Hawaii’s 12 zones, which help companies reduce the risks and costs associated with international business transactions.
- The Maui Research and Technology Park provides 59 acres zoned for research and high technology use
enterprise zone program
Maui County’s Enterprise Zone (EZ) program offers tax benefits to qualified businesses on the islands of Molokai, and Lanai, and in East Maui, West Maui and Greater Maui.
Benefits include:
- 100% exemption from the general excise tax
- 80% state income tax credit for the first year (declining by 10% each year for the next 6 years)
- An additional state income tax credit equal to 80% of the unemployment insurance premiums paid the first year (declining by 10% each year for the next 6 years)
- Priority Business Permit processing in Maui County
To qualify for the EZ program, businesses must earn half of their annual gross income from one of the following activities:
- Agricultural production or processing;
- Manufacturing;
- Wholesaling;
- Aviation or maritime repair or maintenance;
- Telecommunications switching and delivery;
- Information technology design and production;
- Medical research, clinical trials, and telemedicine;
- For-profit training programs in international business management or environmental remediation;
- Biotechnology research, development, production, or sales;
- Repair or maintenance of assisted technology equipment used by disabled persons;
- Certain types of call centers such as bill collection, technical support for computer hardware and software manufacturers, disease management services, product fulfillment services, or disaster management services;
- Wind energy producers
hub zone
The U.S. Small Business Administration has designated Maui County as a historically underutilized business zone, or HUBZone. The HUBZone program provides federal contracting opportunities to qualified small businesses.
regional center
Hawaii is a designated Regional Center, which offers foreign investors the opportunity to gain U.S. citizenship through investing in local business.
hawaii film office tax credit
The Hawaii Film Office offers a refundable tax credit based on a production company’s Hawaii expenditures while producing a qualified film, television, commercial, or digital media project.