What permits do you need to open a contractor or trade in Maui County?

There is no single figure, and any site quoting one is rounding away the part that matters. Of the 16 records listed for a contractor or trade in Maui County, HI, 3 apply to every business of this type and 13 are conditional. Adding every fee on the page together would overstate what most operators pay, because it would include permits they never need.

Of the 3 that always apply, 1 carry a flat fee, coming to $50.00. That is a floor, not a total. 5 of the 16 are charged as a range or a formula set by the issuing agency, and 3 have no fee published at all. The ones that vary:

Commercial Building Permit: Valuation-based schedule per Maui County Code §16.25.109: $30 for work valued $1-$500; for $501-$2,000, $30 for the first $500 plus $3 for each additional $100 or fraction, to $2,000; for $2,001-$25,000, $75 for the first $2,000 plus $10 for each additional $1,000 or fraction, to $25,000; for $25,001-$50,000, $305 for the first $25,000 plus $9 for each additional $1,000 or fraction, to $50,000; for $50,001-$100,000, $530 for the first $50,000 plus $7 for each additional $1,000 or fraction, to $100,000; for $100,001-$500,000, $880 for the first $100,000 plus $5 for each additional $1,000 or fraction, to $500,000; for $500,001-$1,000,000, $2,880 for the first $500,000 plus $6 for each additional $1,000 or fraction, to $1,000,000; for $1,000,001 and up, $5,880 for the first $1,000,000 plus $10 for each additional $1,000 or fraction thereof.

Building Plan Review Fee: 35% of the Building Permit fee, due with the building permit application, per Maui County Code §16.25.109.2.1.

Fire Plan Review Fee: 17.5% of the Building Permit fee, payable to the Department of Fire and Public Safety's Plan Review, Processing and Inspection Revolving Fund, per Maui County Code §16.04E.060.

Special Management Area (SMA) Permit: A genuinely tiered, currently-published fee schedule under the Maui, Molokai, and Lanai SMA Rules (Table A, public hearing required): $3,206 for a new single-family dwelling on one lot; $4,686 for a new subdivision (single-family or multi-family), a new commercial/industrial project up to 50,000 square feet, a hotel with up to 100 guest units, a hotel renovation up to 50,000 square feet, or mixed use up to 15 acres; $5,786 for a larger commercial/industrial project (50,000+ sq ft), a hotel renovation of 50,000-99,999 sq ft, or mixed use of 15+ acres; $6,886 for a hotel with 100 or more guest units; $7,616 for a hotel renovation of 100,000 square feet or greater; $688 for a boundary amendment. A separate Table B (no public hearing required) prices minor permits, exemptions, and emergency SMA determinations at $206, and Shoreline Setback Approvals/Determinations at $688 each.

Use Determination (Zoning Verification): $297–$4,206 one-time — $297 if handled administratively, $4,206 if it is not

Permits for a contractor or trade in Maui County, HI come from 6 separate offices: County of Maui, Department of Finance, Division of Motor Vehicles and Licensing, County of Maui, Department of Public Works, Development Services Administration, County of Maui, Department of Fire and Public Safety, Fire Prevention Bureau, County of Maui, Department of Planning, Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Business Registration Division, Hawaii DCCA, Professional and Vocational Licensing Division. No single office issues them all, which is why an opening means filing in several places rather than one.

• County of Maui, Department of Finance, Division of Motor Vehicles and LicensingIssues 1 permit on this page: General Business License (not required by Maui County)110 Alaihi St., Suite 101, Kahului, HI 96732 · (808) 270-7363www.mauicounty.gov/1328/Motor-Vehicle-Licensing
• County of Maui, Department of Public Works, Development Services AdministrationIssues 4 permits on this page: Commercial Building Permit, Building Plan Review Fee, Certificate of Occupancy, County Contractor License (not found beyond the building permit process)110 Alaihi Street, Suite 214, Kahului, HI 96732 · (808) 270-7379www.mauicounty.gov/1208/Building-Permit
• County of Maui, Department of Fire and Public Safety, Fire Prevention BureauIssues 1 permit on this page: Fire Plan Review Fee313 Manea Place, Wailuku, HI 96793 · (808) 876-4690www.mauicounty.gov/1465/Fire-Prevention-Bureau
• County of Maui, Department of PlanningIssues 4 permits on this page: Conditional Permit, County Special Use Permit / Special Permit (State Land Use Agricultural and Rural Districts), Special Management Area (SMA) Permit, Use Determination (Zoning Verification)2200 Main Street, One Main Plaza, Suite 315, Wailuku, HI 96793 · (808) 270-7735www.mauicounty.gov/2980/Planning-Department
• Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Business Registration DivisionIssues 4 permits on this page: Articles of Incorporation, General Business Licence (not required by Hawaii), Articles of Organization (LLC), Annual Report335 Merchant Street, Room 201, Honolulu, HI 96813 · (808) 586-2727cca.hawaii.gov/breg
• Hawaii DCCA, Professional and Vocational Licensing DivisionIssues 2 permits on this page: Contractor Licence, Individual Electrician or Plumber Licence335 Merchant Street, Room 301, Honolulu, HI 96813 · (808) 586-3000cca.hawaii.gov/pvl

No fee applies. The County's own 'Starting A Business' page treats state General Excise Tax registration, recorded at the state layer, as the universal requirement and names no general county license. The Department of Finance's own currently-published annual fee ordinance names the complete, fixed set of individual licenses the County actually issues — Peddling Merchandise, Secondhand Dealers, Selling Firearm, Pawn Broker, Auctioneer, Bike Tour, Taxicab Business, Taxicab Drivers, Aquatic Life Operations, and an Electronic Gun Dealer License — none of them a general, catch-all business license, and none of them specific to any of this project's ten industries. Separately, the County's own Food Truck FAQs guide states that food truck operators 'need a business license/tax certificate in addition to any zoning-specific approvals' — language this project treats as most likely referring to the state General Excise Tax license recorded at the state layer, given the complete Department of Finance list above has no general or catch-all category it could otherwise mean.

This is a genuine, complete, currently-published valuation-based fee table — confirmed directly from the current fiscal year's own Appendix B fee ordinance, read in full — unlike the equivalent unpublished table this project could not retrieve for Honolulu. Starting work before a permit is issued doubles the fee or adds a flat $500, whichever is greater, per §16.25.109.4; projects located on the island of Molokai valued at $200,000 or less are exempt from the fee entirely, once per structure, under a standing enterprise-zone designation confirmed directly in this same ordinance. A separate Building Plan Review Fee (35% of this permit fee) and a $50 flat Certificate of Occupancy issuance fee are recorded as their own lines below.

Charged on every building-permit application requiring plan review, in addition to, not instead of, the Building Permit fee itself recorded above. The building official may authorize an expedited review process, in which case the applicant instead pays 50% of the building permit fee as the plan review fee. This 35% figure is genuinely distinct from the separate Fire Plan Review Fee (17.5% of the building permit fee) recorded below, which is billed by the Department of Fire and Public Safety rather than the Department of Public Works.

A flat $50 issuance fee, confirmed directly and currently, in addition to the Building Permit fee already paid. The Department's own current Building Permit page confirms a Certificate of Occupancy is created as part of the building permit application when appropriate, or can be applied for as a standalone application for a structure not associated with a building permit.

Charged whenever plans requiring fire-code review are submitted; where plans are incomplete or changed so as to require additional review, a further $30/hour applies. This is a separate, Fire-Department-administered fee from the Department of Public Works' own 35%-of-permit-fee Building Plan Review Fee recorded above — 17.5% is genuinely distinct from the percentage this project confirmed for either Honolulu (10%) or the equivalent process elsewhere, not assumed to match either.

The Department of Planning's own current page describes this as available 'for proposed uses that are similar or related to those uses permitted within the given use zone' and 'for a limited period of time' — Maui County's general conditional-use pathway, processed through the applicable Planning Commission. Whether a specific business needs it depends on the exact use and zoning district. A childcare facility whose proposed location is not a permitted use outright would use this same pathway, or the Special Use Permit recorded below, layered on top of, not instead of, Hawaii's own state Child Care Licence recorded at the state layer.

The current Appendix B fee ordinance prices both the general County Special Use Permit (MCC 19.510.010) and its parallel Special Permit for land in the State Land Use Agricultural or Rural district (HRS 205-6(a)) identically at $4,206, confirmed directly. This is the same product and fee the County's own Food Truck FAQs guide names as the pathway a food truck or trailer on agricultural land must use once it exceeds 1,000 square feet, sits within the Molokai community plan area, or is the 26th or later mobile food truck registered within the Hāna community plan area — disclosed here as background context rather than given a duplicate line.

Applies only to a proposed project on a property within the state-defined coastal Special Management Area, not islandwide. This project confirmed every tier of this schedule directly and currently from the Department of Planning's own fee ordinance rather than presenting only a single representative figure. A separate, genuinely distinct Shoreline Setback Variance ($5,666, or $4,865 for removal/demolition) and Shoreline Setback Appeal ($3,464) exist for the narrower shoreline-setback process and are disclosed here as confirmed background rather than given their own duplicate lines.

This is Maui County's closest confirmed analog to a zoning-verification service — a request that the Zoning Administration and Enforcement Division determine what use, or whether a specific use, is permitted on a given property. The current fee ordinance prices the administrative version at $297 and a non-administrative version (requiring further review) at $4,206, both confirmed directly under the same code citation.

No fee applies. The Development Services Administration's own current 'PS-FORM D' — the Contractor's Statement or Owner Builder Disclosure Statement filed with every applicable building permit application, read directly — requires the applicant to certify either that they are 'a bona fide contractor in the State of Hawaii' (naming a state license number) or that they are proceeding under the state's own owner-builder exemption at HRS §444-2.5, with no mention anywhere of a separate county contractor registration or credential. The Department verifies an applicant's state contractor licensing status as part of ordinary permit review rather than issuing an additional credential of its own. A Maui County contractor's local obligations are otherwise the same Commercial Building Permit, Plan Review, and Fire Plan Review fees recorded elsewhere in this file.

The same $51 as an LLC, once the archives fee is included, and the same $25 expedite option.

No fee, beyond the general excise tax licence every business needs anyway. Hawaii's own business action centre, the state's front door for opening a company, treats general excise tax registration as the universal state requirement rather than pointing to any separate general business licence, and no other state page describes one.

Fifty dollars for the filing itself plus a flat $1 state archives fee tacked onto every DCCA filing, for $51 in practice. Expedited processing adds a further $25. A corporation costs the same $51 to form.

There is no single shared filing date in Hawaii — the due date is set entirely by which calendar quarter an entity originally registered in. Register in February and the report falls due every 31 March afterward; register in August and it falls due every 30 September. This has held since 2003, so it is not a recent quirk. Two figures circulate for the fee itself, $15 on the published paper fee schedule and $12.50 in more recent online-filing guidance — filing online appears to be the cheaper channel, but confirm the exact current figure at checkout before relying on either number precisely. Two straight years of non-filing is grounds for involuntary dissolution.

A licence is required once a project's combined cost of labour, materials and taxes exceeds $1,000 — a strikingly low threshold compared with most states — unless the work needs no building permit and stands alone rather than as part of a larger project. General engineering, general building and specialty work each fall under this same board and this same fee, $338 to renew an entity or sole proprietor licence and $208 for a responsible managing employee, on a shared biennial cycle ending 30 September of even years regardless of when the licence first issued. Electrical and plumbing contracting sit inside this same system as specialty classifications rather than under a separate contractor board — but the individual electrician or plumber doing the work needs a further, separate licence from an entirely different board; see that record.

This is Hawaii's second, genuinely separate layer for these two trades. Where the contractor licence above covers the business that contracts for electrical or plumbing work, this licence covers the individual doing the hands-on work, issued by an entirely different board on a three-year cycle rather than the contractor board's two-year one. A business needs the first; the qualifying tradesperson it employs needs the second — holding one does not substitute for the other.