HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-04-22 Bill 121 April Lee From: April Lee, Kohala Real Estate&2nd Home
To: LPCtestimony
Subject: Suggestion for the challenges of Bill 121
Date: Monday,April 22,2024 8:52:38 PM
Aloha Honorable Chairperson and Members of The Leeward
Planning Commission,
I do think that I failed to say a couple things that could provide
an opportunity to alleviate some of the problems with the
complaints and with the verification of who is not paying
TAT, that is due The County. I think that a group of TA property
owners who want to solve the problems of providing fair
governance over this whole situation and alleviate the massive
numbers of complaint calls to the County, could help. They would
be trained in mediation and do the initial research on what
property is involved & collect necessary information that would
help determine the issues. Then, when that is collected, the
County employee meets with everybody (online or at County
offices to see what the solutions might be. With a similar
vacation owner advocacy group there could be volunteers going
onto these websites, AirB&B sites, Vacasa, VRBO, etc. randomly
units are selected in all price ranges. They would note the
bookings on the calendar. First, the unit is checked to make sure
it's registered and then a couple months later, those
rents/income that we're logically received from those bookings
are checked to make sure the TAT tax was paid. If the situation
with owners not reporting their rental income is taxing the
County, then the County needs to enlist the help of those who
want to continue to enjoy generating it and stave off the more
onerous aspects of the bill. I don't believe you would have
to make them employees. I'm sure an Attorney can figure out
how to make them an advocacy group and even pay them a
stipend or for their service to the County in this regard.
Once word gets around the regulations are being enforced (not
the ominous $10,000 penalty without a fair hearing in a court of
law), there will much more motivation to comply with the
regulations. I have not thought of a solution for the resident
vendor who rents for less than 6 months strictly for employment.
I do hope you can apply your brains to make it easier for our
ohana to avoid the TAT if their rental is work-related so they can
save the 1 .5+- hour drive 2X/day.
I also suggest that for an accurate payment of TAT, it should be
required to be paid every month to easier complete the audit of
those taxes. With greater ability to collect this money, the County
has more money in receipt to pay a more employees to manage
the advocacy groups, fix this employee time drain, as well as
have more funds to pay its employees it needs the manage this
income-generating job.
.Aeric
April K. Lee, RB, BA, CCIM, ABR E-Pro,
NAR Green Realtor
P.O. Box 190705; Hawi, HI 96719-0705
Office! 808.889.5505 Fa-Y! 866.521.5750 0-11. 808.989.5995
Email: KohalaRealEstateand2ndHomegi2m.me
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