Sag Harbor

Realtors in Hawaii underpaying their taxes

Hawaii state tax department officials have found more than 100 realtors who were underpaying their taxes.

The state tax director said the realtors weren’t targeted because of any particular complaint, but because their transactions made it easy to tell when excise tax was paid. After auditing the big real estate firms, they came up with their first 12 suspects.

Eventually the tax department said it found more than 100 realtors were underpaying the excise tax.

More than 20 have been charged with criminal tax evasion with fines that are double the unpaid taxes. No one has received any jail time or permanent criminal records.