The campaign by new immigrants against certain parts of the tax reform package is getting into high gear. The political party Yisrael B\'Aliyah, working with other new-immigrant movements, is spear-heading the drive to remove the \"detrimental\" clauses from the package that otherwise appears to be well on its way to becoming law.
Eli Kazhdan, Executive Director of Yisrael B\'Aliyah, explains that the new tax package includes a new tax on retirement funds and passive income such as rent: \"We are trying to avoid a situation in which olim [new immigrants] make plans to live in Israel based on a certain annual income, make the move, and then find that they have much less than they thought they had. The Finance Ministry people say to us that the olim must be aware that sometimes tax laws change, so we say to them, \'Fine, but give them an adjustment period. Let the new laws take effect ten years from now, not immediately.\'\"
Kazhdan told Arutz-7 that the maximum new-tax rate on pension funds would be 15%, and that it was agreed that in any event it would not be higher than what the country of origin would have taken: \"If, for instance, you have a pension that in the U.S. would have been taxed at 10%, but in Israel was not taxed at all - Israel will now charge you the same 10%. That\'s better than 15%, of course, but still an unexpected blow to a new immigrant\'s chances for a successful aliyah.\" He confirmed another drawback in the proposed regulations - quoted here yesterday in the name of Atty. Yitzchak Heimowitz - that capital gains that are taxed in the country of origin at, for instance, 10%, could be levied up to another 25% in Israel.
\"Double taxation would unfairly and severely harm the economic situation of Western olim... At a time when the Prime Minister calls for \'an additional million olim\', it would behoove the Government to act in a fashion that would encourage aliyah from Western countries, and not discourage it.\" These are the words of the on-line petition organized by Yisrael B\'Aliyah here.
Eli Kazhdan, Executive Director of Yisrael B\'Aliyah, explains that the new tax package includes a new tax on retirement funds and passive income such as rent: \"We are trying to avoid a situation in which olim [new immigrants] make plans to live in Israel based on a certain annual income, make the move, and then find that they have much less than they thought they had. The Finance Ministry people say to us that the olim must be aware that sometimes tax laws change, so we say to them, \'Fine, but give them an adjustment period. Let the new laws take effect ten years from now, not immediately.\'\"
Kazhdan told Arutz-7 that the maximum new-tax rate on pension funds would be 15%, and that it was agreed that in any event it would not be higher than what the country of origin would have taken: \"If, for instance, you have a pension that in the U.S. would have been taxed at 10%, but in Israel was not taxed at all - Israel will now charge you the same 10%. That\'s better than 15%, of course, but still an unexpected blow to a new immigrant\'s chances for a successful aliyah.\" He confirmed another drawback in the proposed regulations - quoted here yesterday in the name of Atty. Yitzchak Heimowitz - that capital gains that are taxed in the country of origin at, for instance, 10%, could be levied up to another 25% in Israel.
\"Double taxation would unfairly and severely harm the economic situation of Western olim... At a time when the Prime Minister calls for \'an additional million olim\', it would behoove the Government to act in a fashion that would encourage aliyah from Western countries, and not discourage it.\" These are the words of the on-line petition organized by Yisrael B\'Aliyah here.