July 29, 2020

Finance C'tee approves investment home purchase tax cut

Globes, Amiram Barkat, 29.07.2020

Yesterday evening, the Knesset Finance Committee approved for second and third readings the immediate reduction in purchase tax for buyers of investment properties proposed by Minister of Finance Israel Katz. The motion submitted by Katz was approve together with sections of the bill on the economic program to deal with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. This was despite Finance Committee chairperson Moshe Gafni's objections. Gafni demanded that the purchase tax cut should be dealt with separately.

After the measure passes the Knesset, the temporary order initiated by the previous minister of finance, Moshe Kahlon, raising purchase tax for buyers of investment properties to 8%, will be cancelled, and the level of purchase tax for investors will revert to its former level of 5%.

Katz seeks to bring investors back to the real estate market in Israel, but the move has been criticized as liable to inflate home prices, thereby harming the less well-off.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 29, 2020