According go The Honolulu Advertiser, of the 3269 people who applied for a new tax credit that caps the taxes of property owners, only 1688 benefitted. OK, I can see the state at least trying to help out people who own property, but as you can see, it isn’t helping at all. In fact, of the 3269 people who applied, 2496 qualified, but only 1688 benefitted.

So how do you qualify but not benefit from the tax break? Basically, if you earn $50,000 or less, you qualify (along with other requirements). But the new credit only caps the property tax at $2000 or 4% of your income (ie. if your income is $40,000, the tax break caps at $1600; at $50,000 the tax break caps at $2000). If your property tax is less than 4% of your income, you won’t benefit from the tax credit. You only benefit if you meet the requirements AND your property tax is OVER 4% of your income.

Why doesn’t the state just lower the property tax? As you can see, this tax break didn’t help many people at all. With the property taxes doubling and tripling during the past few years, it’s definitely getting harder to live in the islands.

I think the state should realize that we aren’t making that much money, especially compared to the mainland, and the cost of living here is too high. This combination should give us more benefits to help us out, since it doesn’t seem that our incomes will be increasing anytime soon.

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