MidnightCall Magazine
News From Israel MagazineTax Credits for Returning Home
If you’re thinking of making aliya, or you’re an Israeli living abroad who is thinking of returning home, the move is likely to get a lot cheaper. As part of the initiative to entice people to come back to Israel, a new government plan, developed jointly by the Immigrant Absorption and Finance ministries, seeks to dramatically lower taxes for olim and returnees.The plan will simplify the complicated tax breaks offered from overseas income. Currently, the law offers five years of no taxation for “passive income,” such as stipends, dividends and rent, along with four years of breaks for overseas businesses of which the oleh had ownership for more than five years before making aliya. The law also includes 10 years free of taxes on the sale of investments or properties that were the sources of the overseas income.The new plan values simplicity: All overseas income of all types will be tax-free for 10 years, the government revealed.The plan was developed by the Tax Authority and the Absorption Ministry, and was recently approved by Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On. It will need to be legislated to go into effect, but an Absorption Ministry representative predicted it would easily pass into law in the current Knesset session.Absorption Minister Ya’acov Edri expects the plan to double the number of returnees, noting that it “creates a combination of the Zionist incentive and the economic incentive.”For Bar-On, the plan is an investment in Israel’s human capital, and “the removal of a bureaucratic obstacle that hampers our economic development.”The new plan will even remove the requirement to report non-taxable overseas income.-Jerusalem Post, 27 March 2008, Pg. 8Israel continues to make Jews feel at home in their own country and support them with enticing tax-saving packages.
The reason given primarily is Israel’s population, which must increase and not decrease through emigration. We believe that there is another reason, namely Israel’s preparation for taking dominion of planet Earth. Although statistics show that Jews have returned to Israel from over 90 countries, Israelis are to be found in virtually all countries of the world: that would be over 200 countries. Keep in mind that Deuteronomy 15:6 has yet to be fulfilled: “For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.” Furthermore, the words of Zechariah will also come to pass: “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you” (Zechariah 8:23).
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