A sole proprietor's Hawaii LLC conversion checklist

Before anything is filed

Answer four questions on paper before any filing, because each one changes what gets filed and in what order.

One: "will the LLC have members besides you? A second member changes the federal return shape and forces a new EIN. Two: will it have employees? Employees move the employment filings under the company's name and EIN from the first payroll."

Three: "who is the registered agent? Hawaii requires each LLC to maintain an agent with a business address in the state, and you can serve as your own. Four: does the brand need a trade name? A trade name registered to you has to carry the LLC as registrant, at the state's $50 application fee."

Then check the company's name in the state's business name search. Fees are not refundable on a rejected filing, and a name search is free.

$50Hawaii requires each LLC to maintain a Hawaii registered agent with a business address in the state, under HRS 428-107, and charges a $50 application fee to register a trade name. — Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Business Registration Division, retrieved 2026-09-29

The entity filing, done once

File Form LLC-1, the Articles of Organization, with the Business Registration Division. The fee is $50, online or on paper, and it does not refund on a rejection.

The Articles name the company, its Hawaii address, the registered agent, and the management structure. Nothing about the old proprietorship belongs in the filing, because the state never registered it and has nothing to convert.

Then write the operating agreement, with a dated schedule of the assets and obligations the company takes over. The agreement is not state-required, but it is the document that says the business belongs to the company rather than to you.

The EIN decision lands here. A single-member LLC with no employees and no excise tax can keep your existing number. The IRS issues a new one free and online if you need it, and warns against sites that charge for one.

$50Hawaii charges a $50 filing fee for Articles of Organization, Form LLC-1, for a domestic LLC, and the state's fee schedule states filing fees are not refundable. — Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Business Registration Division, retrieved 2026-09-29

$0The IRS states that an EIN never carries a fee, that an approved online application issues the number immediately, and that a single-member LLC with no employees or excise tax keeps the old EIN. — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-09-29

The money plumbing, opened in the company's name

Open the LLC's bank account with the filed Articles, the EIN letter if there is one, and the operating agreement. Every business dollar lands in it from the changeover date forward, and no personal spending leaves it.

Register the LLC's general excise tax license on Form BB-1, the Basic Business Application, with the one-time $20 fee. The state treats the LLC as a separate taxpayer with its own license and its own returns, whatever the IRS does with a single-member company.

Send payers a W-9 before the company's first invoice. A disregarded single-member LLC's W-9 carries the owner's name and taxpayer ID, not the company's own EIN, and getting this out early saves correcting 1099s after the fact.

Register the unemployment and withholding accounts if the company has employees, before its first payroll.

$20Hawaii's Form BB-1 instructions state that a disregarded single-member LLC must obtain its own general excise tax license and file its own state tax returns, with a one-time $20 license fee. — Hawaii Department of Taxation, retrieved 2026-09-29

The IRS states that a W-9 from a disregarded single-member LLC should provide the owner's SSN or EIN, not the LLC's EIN. — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-09-29

Trade credentials, sorted by who holds them

Sort every license and permit into two piles: issued to you, and issued to the business. The first pile moves nothing. The second pile is the re-issuance list.

A contractor license goes to the entity pile, and the Contractor License Board's rule is written down: a sole proprietor who forms a contracting entity must have the entity apply for a new license, with the individual's status converting to responsible managing employee, on application CT-15 at $25, attaching the entity's file-stamped Articles, the insurance riders, and the tax clearance.

A food establishment permit goes to the entity pile with the owner line on the application, the fee by risk category, $300, $200, or $100 for a mobile establishment. A beauty or barber shop license goes to the entity pile at the board. A pesticide applicator's certificate stays in the personal pile, and so does an electrician's card.

Each board keeps its own meeting calendar and its own application deadlines, so ask the board for its procedure and its dates the week you file the Articles. The full walk-through is the licenses guide, and the trade pages price each one.

$25The Contractor License Board requires a new entity license when a sole proprietor forms a contracting entity, via the $25 CT-15 conversion application with insurance riders attached. — Hawaii DCCA, Contractor License Board, retrieved 2026-09-29

$300A mobile food establishment's permit fee runs $300 at risk category 1, $200 at category 2, and $100 at category 3, and the application fees are non-refundable. — Hawaii Department of Health, Food Safety Branch, retrieved 2026-09-29

Commercial paper, moved together

Move the contracts, the certificates, and any bond as one dated package, because they answer for each other.

Per active counterparty, an assignment or novation letter: the LLC takes over from the stated date, the prior work stays with the old business, both signatures. Per lease and financing, the landlord's or lender's consent, asked for early because a new entity is what consent clauses were written for.

Per insurance policy, the change plus a fresh certificate of insurance in the LLC's name, effective the same day the contracts move. Per bond, the re-issue or rider in the company's name, which the contractor board's own filing requires for the license conversion.

The failure mode is a gap: the old certificate expires on the old insured while the new contracts name a company the policy never heard of. The contracts and insurance guide is the full procedure.

CT-09Hawaii's Contractor License Board publishes its own contractor bond form, CT-09, and its conversion filing states that where a bond is required, a rider or new bond must reflect the new entity's name. — Hawaii DCCA, Contractor License Board, retrieved 2026-09-29

Closing the proprietorship out

Once the company's registrations are live and its accounts are moving, close the old side out rather than leaving it idle.

The proprietorship's final GET return reconciles its receipts to the changeover date. Its tax licenses and permits are cancelled on Form GEW-TA-RV-1. Its bank account closes once the last payment clears it.

An idle GET license is not neutral paper: the state revokes inactive licenses for abandonment, and the board that checks tax clearance reads a mismatched or dead registration as a defect.

Keep the proprietorship's file: the final returns, the cancellation records, and the operating agreement's transfer schedule. Together they are the evidence that the move happened on a date, which is what anyone asking later is really asking.

Hawaii tax licenses and permits are cancelled on Form GEW-TA-RV-1 per the published Form BB-1 instructions, and a GET license remains active until closed, surrendered, or revoked due to abandonment. — Hawaii Department of Taxation, retrieved 2026-09-29

The recurring calendar, written down once

The conversion ends by writing down the dates that recur, because the LLC inherits a calendar the day it is born.

The annual report, $15, due on the last day of the quarter matching the formation date, with none due in the year of formation. The GET periodic returns, on the frequency the expected liability sets, 20 days after each period ends. The G-49 annual reconciliation, the 20th day of the fourth month after the year closes. The federal estimated payments, which never moved.

The trade renewals ride on top: contractor licenses by September 30 of every even-numbered year at $338 active, shop licenses by December 31 of every odd-numbered year at $176, electrician cards triennially by June 30 at $306.

Every fee on this page is priced with its date on the cost breakdown, and the money side of the first year is taxes after the conversion. The two pages together are the calendar, and this page is the sequence.

September 30Hawaii contractor licenses renew by September 30 of even-numbered years at $338 active, shop licenses by December 31 of odd years at $176, and electrician licenses triennially by June 30 at $306. — Hawaii DCCA, Contractor License Board, retrieved 2026-09-29

Questions