Thus, if stateside prices increase, COLA rates overseas will decrease, the news release states. On Oahu, the GET tax rate is 4.5, and must be calculated on the GE Taxable Income. “The Department of Defense then uses this data and comparisons to pricing information to calculate the appropriate COLA rates for our location.” There are two types of taxes on rental income that go to the State of Hawaii: 1) GET General Excise Tax is due on all rental income (plus cleaning fees collected), regardless of the length of the rental term. “Teams then collect actual prices at the top two stores and/or businesses identified in the living pattern survey,” the news release states. service members stationed in Japan saw their cost-of-living allowance slashed to near zero in October, while at the same time enjoying the swelling buying power of a strong dollar against the yen.Ī cost-of-living survey is administered every three years for each overseas location to determine where service members are buying food, clothing, gas and services, Indo-Pacific Command said in its news release. The pandemic shut-down, surging inflation and fluctuations in world currencies, however, have skewed some long-held economic conventions. , one of many online sites that provide state-by-state comparisons of living costs, as of Thursday assessed Hawaii as having the highest average cost of living in the nation, beating out respective runners up District of Columbia, New York and California. Hawaii consistently ranks among the states with the highest cost of living, particularly the island of Oahu, home to Schofield Barracks, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Nicole Schwegman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense, said in an email Thursday. “The Department conducted a Living Pattern Survey in Hawaii from February through mid-March 2022 and the Retail Price Schedule data collection from March through June 2022,” Cmdr. Indo-Pacific Command, which is overseeing the redo, referred questions about the survey to the Pentagon. The timing of the first survey coincided with a water contamination crisis on Oahu that affected thousands of service members and their families, many of whom had to temporarily relocate to Waikiki Beach hotels for most of the winter.įor many of those affected by fuel-contaminated water, those months were consumed with filling out paperwork, shuttling kids between Waikiki and schools and dealing with health-related issues arising from tainted water. It is unclear whether the initial survey, conducted early this year, is considered to have been flawed or whether the current survey is being conducted differently. The overseas cost of living allowance is intended to equalize purchasing power for both goods and services with what they would experience if stationed in contiguous United States.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |