HRS §414D-271
When a foreign corporation must get a license to do business in Hawaii
A foreign corporation cannot do business in Hawaii until it gets a certificate of authority from the state. Certain routine activities do not count as doing business, like going to court, holding internal meetings, keeping bank accounts, or selling through independent contractors. The list of exempt activities is not complete.
businesses
The statute, as written — Authority to transact business required
(a) A foreign corporation may not transact business in this State until it obtains a certificate of authority from the department director. (b) The following activities, in addition to others, do not constitute transacting business within the meaning of subsection (a): (1) Maintaining, defending, or settling any proceeding; (2) Holding meetings of the board of directors or members or carrying on other activities concerning internal corporate affairs; (3) Maintaining bank accounts; (4) Maintaining offices or agencies for the transfer, exchange, and registration of memberships or securities, or maintaining trustees or depositaries with respect to those securities; (5) Selling through independent contractors; (6) Soliciting or obtaining orders, whether by mail, through employees, agents, or otherwise, if the orders require acceptance outside this State before they become contracts; (7) Creating or acquiring indebtedness, mortgages, and security interests in real or personal property; (8) Securing or collecting debts or enforcing mortgages and security interests in property securing the debts; (9) Owning, without more, real or personal property; (10) Conducting an isolated transaction that is completed within thirty days and that is not one in the course of repeated transactions of a like nature; (11) Transacting business in interstate commerce. (c) The list of activities in subsection (b) shall not be limited to the activities listed.
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