Hawaiʻi has a Taxpayer Bill of Rights. It’s an official document from the state Department of Taxation, printed on government letterhead, with the state seal emblazoned over it. The director of taxation begins with these words: “Taxpayer rights are at the heart of good tax administration.”

The document promises you something specific. Under Section XI, labeled “Collections,” it guarantees you have “a right to have all other collection actions exhausted before a seizure of a taxpayer’s assets takes place.”

Read that carefully. It’s not ambiguous. It’s not a suggestion. It’s a promise. Seizure is the last resort, not the first.

Let me be direct: this is a lie.

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Not because the document says something dishonest. It doesn’t. But because what Hawaiʻi’s Department of Taxation actually does is the opposite of what it publishes. And worse, the department knows it.

In December 2024, Hawaiʻi’s District Tax Manager for Collections sent a letter explaining the department’s actual policy. Here’s what it said: the department “takes a more aggressive stance on collecting delinquent tax accounts through the issuance of levies and liens sooner rather than later.”

Think about that. The department publishes a “Bill of Rights” promising that seizure is the last resort. Simultaneously, the Department admits its actual practice is to use seizures as a first resort — “sooner rather than later.”

This is not a misunderstanding. This is not an employee who got out of line. This is a documented policy contradiction written in an official letter.

A government cannot say one thing publicly and then do the opposite.

You may think this is just about tax collection procedures. You’d be wrong. This is about whether government can publish solemn commitments to citizens and then ignore them entirely, making a mockery of not only the state seal but also our laws. It’s about whether “rights” published by the state actually mean anything.

Consider what the department’s position amounts to: When DOTAX tells taxpayers they have “the right to have all other collection actions exhausted before a seizure,” it creates no enforceable obligation. The promise is nice language but legally meaningless. If you read it and believed it — well, that’s your problem.

That’s not tax administration. That’s systematic deception.

The harmful effects are real. When the department seizes someone’s entire bank account without warning — especially someone actively working with the department to resolve their tax obligation — the financial consequences are immediate and devastating. Mortgage payments bounce. Utilities shut off. Medical expenses go unpaid.

And the reversal process, once the department realizes its mistake, can take months. Or not at all if the taxpayer doesn’t know how to push back.

What Needs To Change

I have drafted a bill to fix this problem and am in discussions with lawmakers now about the new bill. The bill does several things:

First, it codifies into actual law what the Taxpayer Bill of Rights currently promises but doesn’t enforce. It establishes a mandatory escalation process that the Department must follow before imposing any bank levy. The Department has to send written demand letters. It has to offer payment plans. It has to document every step. And it has to follow this process before seizing a single dollar.

Second, it establishes proportionate levies. Instead of seizing 100% of a taxpayer’s account, the Department would be limited to levying a proportionate amount — allowing the taxpayer to continue operating. If the department needs more aggressive action, it proves it hasn’t followed the escalation process.

Third, it creates an independent Taxpayer Advocate Office with real authority to review collection actions, suspend improper levies, and investigate complaints. Right now, no independent office exists. Complaints about the Department of Taxation go nowhere.

Fourth, it requires the department to publish quarterly reports showing how many levies it’s imposing, how many are being reversed, and how long the reversal process takes. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. When the numbers are public, the behavior changes.

Why This Matters Beyond Taxes

This isn’t just about a specific government function. It’s about a basic principle: if a government agency publishes rules or rights, those rules and rights have to mean something. They can’t be window dressing.
Hawaiʻi taxpayers deserve a Department of Taxation that follows its own published standards.

They deserve a collection process that actually prioritizes working with taxpayers before destroying their finances. They deserve to know that when their government publishes something titled “Bill of Rights,” it’s not just marketing copy.

Our legislators have a chance to make this right. They can pass the Hawaiʻi Taxpayer Protection and Collection Reform Act and turn the Department’s published promises into actual law.

They can establish procedures that work for both the state and taxpayers. They can prove that in Hawaiʻi, when government makes a promise, it actually means something.

The choice is theirs. But Hawaiʻi’s taxpayers deserve to know the truth: right now, they’re being lied to by their own government. And it’s time our elected leaders fixed it.