Business Development and Support Division

In addition to Hawaii’s tax incentives, we have various programs that are advantageous to business, including the Enterprise Zone and Opportunity Zone Programs:

Enterprise Zone Program – The Enterprise Zones (EZ) partnership is a joint state-county business effort to stimulate—via tax and other incentives—certain types of business activity, job preservation, and job creation in areas where they are most appropriate or most needed. The program includes: a seven year exemption from general excise taxes on gross proceeds; an 80% first year income tax abatement (decreasing 10% each year) and an income tax credit equal to 80% of unemployment taxes paid the first year (decreasing 10% per year).

Opportunity Zone Program – The recently passed Federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 authorized a community economic development program called the Opportunity Zones Program. This initiative provides incentives for investors to re-invest unrealized capital gains into Opportunity Funds in exchange for temporary tax deferral and other benefits. The Opportunity Funds will then be used to provide investment capital in certain low-income communities.  To learn more about Hawaii’s Opportunity Zones go to our Opportunity Zone webpage.

Foreign Trade Zone #9 – Foreign Trade Zones provide duty-free treatment for items that are processed in FTZ and then re-exported. Duty payment is also deferred on items until they are brought out of the FTZ for sale in the U.S. market. It helps to offset customs advantages available to overseas producers who compete with domestic industry.]