The Knesset on Tuesday passed the Locked-in Profits Bill into law on Tuesday as part of the 2025 budget. The law was passed with a majority of only one vote, with 59 yeas and 58 nays.
Voting began with uncertainty regarding a majority after two coalition parties, Otzma Yehudit and Agudat Yisrael said they would oppose the bill.
Following negotiations, members of the Agudat Israel faction announced that they would abstain from the vote. Later, after a personal conversation with Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen announced that he would break from his party's stance and vote for the budget.
Due to the uncertainty, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center, where he is hospitalized post-surgery, to attend the vote. The decision was strongly opposed by Netanyahu's doctors. Many in the coalition were infuriated by Otzma Yehudit Chair Itamar Ben-Gvir's insistence to vote against it while causing the Prime Minister to risk his health to ensure the bill passed. "He's harming his health, it's unforgivable," said a member of the coalition earlier in the day.
Earlier on Tuesday, it was announced that Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, who is mourning his mother's passing, would attend the vote despite the tradition that mourners do not leave home during the week of mourning.
Otzma Yehudit claimed that it would oppose the bill since it "harms police officers, the Prison Service, and firefighters." Agudat Yisrael said it would oppose due to delays in passing a Draft Law.
The coalition numbers 68 MKs, but nine of them have declared that they will not vote for the "trapped profits" bill - three from United Torah Judaism's Agudat Yisrael faction, and six from Otzma Yehudit. Their declaration leaves the coalition with just 59 MKs supporting the bill, versus 52 MKs from the opposition, who are expected to oppose it on principle.
The trapped profits tax is intended to reduce the budget deficit — a law that also faces opposition from the business sector. However, sources in the treasury stated today that if the law is not approved, it would be necessary to find alternative ways to increase the state's revenues.