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How to Dissolve a Corporation in Hawaii (Articles of Dissolution, $25)

Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: a Hawaii for-profit corporation dissolves by filing Articles of Dissolution under Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 414-382 to 414-387 (Part XV, Subpart A, Voluntary Dissolution) for $25, and Hawaii does not gate the filing on a tax clearance certificate.

The filing, and what Hawaii calls it

A corporation dissolves voluntarily by first having its board of directors adopt a resolution proposing dissolution and recommending it to shareholders (HRS §414-382), then obtaining shareholder approval (majority of shares entitled to vote for corporations incorporated on/after 7/1/1987; three-fourths for those incorporated earlier). After authorization, the corporation files Articles of Dissolution (Form DC-13, HRS §414-383) with the DCCA Business Registration Division stating the corporation’s name, the date dissolution was authorized, and the shareholder vote tally. The corporation is dissolved on the effective date of the articles (up to 30 days delayed effectiveness allowed).

The tax clearance question

Hawaii does not gate the Articles of Dissolution on a tax clearance certificate. Hawaii’s DCCA Business Registration Division (which accepts the Articles of Dissolution) does not require a Department of Taxation tax clearance certificate as a precondition to filing or accepting Form DC-13. The Department of Taxation’s own tax clearance program exists for other purposes (state/county contracts, vendor compliance, loans, licensing) and is issued on request; it is not referenced anywhere in the corporate dissolution statute (HRS §§414-381 to 414-390) or in DCCA’s dissolution filing instructions/FAQ. (Not applicable to voluntary dissolution filing; general tax clearance program described at Haw. Rev. Stat. Title 14 (referenced by tax.hawaii.gov)) That does not erase the corporation’s final tax filings; it just means the Secretary of State’s office is not the one checking for them before accepting the paperwork.

Creditors and the claims window

Hawaii makes available, but does not require, a formal notice-to-known-and-unknown-creditors procedure, with a 120-day claims-bar window. A dissolved corporation may (not must) dispose of known claims by giving written notice to known claimants; the notice must set a claims deadline of not fewer than 120 days from the notice’s effective date, after which unresponded claims are barred. Separately, the corporation may publish notice for unknown claimants, which bars claims not brought within 5 years of publication (HRS §414-387). (Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 414-386 (known claims), 414-387 (unknown claims))

What the filing costs

The Articles of Dissolution carries a $25 filing fee. Filing fee for Articles of Dissolution (Form DC-13) is $25.00, nonrefundable, payable to the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs; a separate $25 fee applies to Articles of Revocation of Dissolution (Form DC-12) if revoking within 120 days.

What this page does not answer

Dissolving the entity at the state level and closing it out with the IRS are two separate processes. A final federal return, IRS Form 966 in some circumstances, and canceling the EIN are governed by federal law, not by Hawaii’s corporation statute, and this cluster does not source them. We have the state-filing answer at primary and the federal-closeout answer not at all.

This page sells nothing and links to no filing service. Dissolving a corporation is a filing-desk task with a statutory answer, and the answer is either in the state’s code and the Secretary of State’s own instructions or it is not.

This page covers a for-profit business corporation. If you are closing an LLC in Hawaii instead, the filing, fee and statute are different: see dissolving an LLC in Hawaii.

Sources

Every citation on this page is statutory or the Secretary of State’s own official filing instructions. No formation service, no registered-agent marketing page and no aggregator is cited anywhere in this cluster; those are the only publishers of the competing versions.

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