Honolulu Property Tax for Vacation Rental. Residential to Resort?

[Petra M.]

Does anyone have any experience reclassifying a legal vacation rental from residential to resort for property tax purposes?

The unit I purchases for a vacation rental is classified as a residential property with a 0.45% tax rate versus a resort with a 1.39% tax rate.  

According to this website, reclassifying a property from residential to resort results in paying the current and past years resort tax rate! 

- Since the Fiscal Year ends on June 30, is it better to reclassify on July 1 so I'm not paying for an extra year of taxes (2019, 2020) versus waiting (2020, 2021).

- Anyone run a vacation rental, pay the GET/TAT taxes under a residential property tax classification?  What's the likelihood of getting 'caught'.

Thanks so much!