Globes, Guy Lieberman, 16.02.2020
Shai Aharonovich from Givat Shmuel knows everything about you. It's not a big deal for someone who is a VP of Real Estate Taxation and exposed to an ocean of data, but he really wants you to know it - especially if you're investing overseas. "There is a phrase that says 'who wants to lie will keep his testimony.' People may think that if they invest abroad then the tax authority knows less. In recent years, we have a lot of collaborations abroad, including with Europe, and we get information about Israelis holding assets there, "he explains. In the same breath, Aharonovich adds, "I recommend to anyone who buys abroad to report here and sleep well at night." The conversation with Aharonovich, which we held as part of the Globes real estate investment podcast, "Money in the Wall , " was rolled out for overseas investments Overseas Investors - A worker comes out of raising the purchase tax to 8% of the property price.
Does the state have an agenda to smuggle investors from Israel?
"Agenda against real estate investors is a far-reaching statement.Certainly, when they came to investigate what caused housing prices to rise so much from 2005, the CBS data based on the tax authority's data showed an increase in the purchase of residential apartments by investors, "says Aharonovich, who wants to mention other days. "At the beginning of the decade we ended it, the amount of investors kissed 40 percent of all home buyers. When they came to investigate what caused a rise in prices, there was no doubt that buying apartments by investors was one of the reasons."
And the state wanted to lower their numbers?
"It was an agenda of the current finance minister," he says, adding that "once you raise the purchase tax to 8 percent, actually, for someone who buys an investment, you make the investment in a residential apartment worthwhile. Talking about investing in apartments of say NIS 1.5 million, or NIS 1.8 million, you make the tax heavy. " However, later in the conversation, Aharonovich reminds us that the decision to raise the purchase tax to 8 percent was made as part of a directive that expires in late 2020. The purchase on additional apartments of 5-6 percent is actually the fixed tax rate. "