Moving Hawaii licenses and permits to your new LLC

One question decides each license: who holds it

Every license a Hawaii business holds was issued either to a person or to a business. The conversion only touches the second kind.

A license issued to you by name stays exactly where it is. Nothing about forming an LLC changes it, and most boards will tell you so plainly if you ask.

A license issued to the business is attached to the entity the state recorded when it issued the license. Your LLC is not that entity. It was formed after the license existed, so the license's record does not point at it.

So the work is an inventory first. Write down every license and permit, and against each one write the two things that decide its treatment: the issuing board, and the name the license actually carries.

If you never held a state trade license, this guide is short for you. The general excise tax license is the one registration every Hawaii business needs, and it has its own walk-through on taxes after the conversion.

Hawaii's Business Action Center states that all persons doing business in Hawaii must obtain a general excise tax license. — Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Business Action Center, retrieved 2026-09-29

The contractor license: the entity must apply anew

The contractor license is the clearest case, because the Contractor License Board writes the rule down. If a sole proprietor forms a contracting entity, an LLC among them, the entity must apply for a new license.

Your sole-proprietor license does not vanish. The board converts its status to responsible managing employee, and from then on two licenses must be maintained, the entity's and the RME's.

There is a conversion path in the board's paperwork rather than a full restart, at $25 with application CT-15. The filing attaches a file-stamped copy of the new entity's Articles of Organization, a certificate of conversion from the Business Registration Division, and riders for the liability insurance, workers' compensation, and any bond.

The entity application itself carries a $50 non-refundable fee, and the entity cannot be licensed at all without a responsible managing employee in its employ. The board also wants a financial statement and credit reports.

If your trade holds the C-13 electrical classification, the electrician's page covers what stays personal: electricians converting to an LLC. Landscapers holding the C-27 classification have their own page.

Hawaii's Contractor License Board states that a sole proprietor who forms a contracting entity must have the entity apply for a new license, with both licenses then maintained. — Hawaii DCCA, Professional and Vocational Licensing, Contractor License Board, retrieved 2026-09-29

$25The board's conversion to another entity path costs a $25 fee with application CT-15, attaching the new entity's Articles of Organization and insurance riders. — Hawaii DCCA, Professional and Vocational Licensing, Contractor License Board, retrieved 2026-09-29

$50The contractor entity application carries a $50 non-refundable fee, and an entity cannot be licensed without a responsible managing employee in its employ. — Hawaii DCCA, Professional and Vocational Licensing, Contractor License Board, retrieved 2026-09-29

The tax clearance has to match the license name

Here is the trap in the middle of the conversion. The Contractor License Board requires active entity licensees to hold a current tax clearance with the Department of Taxation, and it states that the DOTAX name must match the contractor's PVL license name exactly.

So the LLC's general excise tax license has to be in place, in the LLC's name, before the license record is clean. A new entity license issued under a company whose tax registration still says the old name is a mismatch the board has written a procedure for.

The order that avoids it: form the LLC, register the LLC's GET license, then move the trade license. EIN and tax IDs after converting covers the registration steps.

Contractor licensees renew by September 30 of every even-numbered year, at $338 active for an entity or a sole proprietor, so the two-year window you land in decides how much time the re-issuance has to finish.

Hawaii's Contractor License Board requires active licensees to hold a current DOTAX tax clearance, and requires the DOTAX name to match the PVL license name exactly. — Hawaii DCCA, Contractor License Board, retrieved 2026-09-29

September 30Contractor licenses renew by September 30 of every even-numbered year, with the active renewal at $338 for both entity and sole-proprietor licensees. — Hawaii DCCA, Contractor License Board, retrieved 2026-09-29

Health permits name the owner, so they are done again

The Department of Health's food establishment permit application asks for the business owner by name and type: corporation, LLC, partnership, or sole owner. The permit is issued against that entry.

When the owner entry changes from a sole owner to an LLC, the permit has to be applied for again under the company's name. The application warns the fee is not refundable, so the new application is a real cost, not a name edit.

The fee schedule runs by establishment type and risk category. A mobile establishment pays $300 at risk category 1, $200 at category 2, and $100 at category 3. Mobile units list their support kitchen's address on the application, which means a truck that rents kitchen space has that agreement in play as well.

The food truck page walks the whole permit set, including what happens to the truck itself: food truck owners converting to an LLC.

Hawaii's food establishment permit application records the business owner by type, corporation, LLC, partnership, or sole owner, and states application fees are non-refundable. — Hawaii Department of Health, Food Safety Branch, 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 mobile units list their support kitchen's address on the application. — Hawaii Department of Health, Food Safety Branch, retrieved 2026-09-29

Shop licenses are business licenses even at the barber board

The Board of Barbering and Cosmetology licenses the person and the premises separately. A beauty operator license belongs to its holder, and renews on its own calendar, $146 active, by December 31 of every odd-numbered year.

The beauty shop license is the business license. It is the one the conversion touches, because it is the one issued against the shop rather than the operator.

The board's own framing helps here: its pages are written for the individual practitioner or the registered firm. The proprietorship was neither, strictly, and the LLC will be the firm. The board's application pages are where the shop license in the LLC's name starts, and the renewal for an active shop license runs $176.

What cannot be moved is the operator license, and the salon page keeps the two apart through the whole conversion: salon owners converting to an LLC.

$176Hawaii's Board of Barbering and Cosmetology licenses operators separately from shops, with the shop license renewing at $176 active and the operator license at $146, by December 31 of odd years. — Hawaii DCCA, Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, retrieved 2026-09-29

What follows the person: electricians and pesticide applicators

Some credentials never move, and knowing that saves you a filing.

The electrician's own license, the journeyworker or supervisor card issued through the Board of Electricians and Plumbers, belongs to the licensee. It renews triennially by June 30, $306 active, regardless of who signs the paychecks. What the LLC needs is the contractor side, and the C-13 electrical classification rides on the entity license covered above.

The pesticide applicator's certificate is the same shape. Commercial categories require the Core exam first, exams run $50 each, and certifications are valid for five years. The certificate belongs to the applicator, not to a company name.

None of that means the company side is empty for those trades. The company still needs its own contractor license if it holds out for construction work, and its own GET license, and its own insurance. The landscaper page is the worked example: landscapers converting to an LLC.

$306Hawaii electrician licenses renew triennially by June 30 at $306 for an active license, regardless of the licensee's employer. — Hawaii DCCA, Board of Electricians and Plumbers, retrieved 2026-09-29

$50Hawaii's pesticide applicator certification requires the Core exam before any commercial category, exams cost $50 each, and certifications are valid for five years. — Hawaii Department of Agriculture, Pesticides Program, retrieved 2026-09-29

Keeping the calendar alive through the gap

Re-issuance is not instant. The contractor board meets monthly except December, and a complete application has to reach the board's office before the first Tuesday of the month, two months ahead of the meeting that reviews it.

An application that does not complete its process within a year is abandoned under the board's statute, and reapplication follows. That is a hard ceiling on how long a half-finished conversion can sit.

So do not stack the dates. Form the LLC, get the tax clearance in the LLC's name, then file the license paperwork, and keep renewing whatever is current while the new license is in process. A lapse in between is a period you cannot legally take the work that pays for the rest of this.

When every license is re-issued, the rest of the move is commercial paper: contracts and insurance, then the year-one dates on the conversion checklist.

12 monthsA complete contractor application must reach the board's office by the first Tuesday of the month two months before the reviewing meeting, and unfinished applications are abandoned after a year. — Hawaii DCCA, Contractor License Board, retrieved 2026-09-29

Questions