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12 Tishrei 5764 - October 8, 2003 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Local Tax Discounts for Large Families and Guaranteed Income Recipients Soon to be Cancelled
by Betzalel Kahn

Interior Minister Avraham Poraz (Shinui) issued a new decree last week, ordering the cancellation of local tax (arnonah) discounts for large and low-income families.

According to the new policy, which will take effect at the beginning of 2004, Income Support (Havtachat Hachnasah) and alimony recipients will stop receiving automatic discounts of up to 70 percent on local taxes. The new policy will not apply to those who began receiving Guaranteed Income before the beginning of 2003, assuming there was no interruption of six months or more in their eligibility for benefits. Those who began to receive benefits after the beginning of 2003 and reached the age of 50 will continue to receive the discount until the beginning of 2005.

Furthermore Minister Poraz decreed that Child Support Payments (Kitzva'ot Yeladim) will be defined as "income" in determining eligibility for the tax break since the income of the person filing the request is also taken into account. In his announcement last week Poraz said previously it had been decided to revoke the directives to include Child Support Payments as income, but now he has decided to incorporate this policy.

Until now eligibility for Income Support was a condition for receiving a discount, but now Minister Poraz is including this as income, which will cause considerable financial strain on the weaker economic rungs. In a press release last week Poraz said, "The aim of the reform is to cancel distortions in local taxes created over the years. These distortions were created because of unjustified exemptions, which are now being cancelled."

MK Rabbi Avrohom Ravitz (UTJ) said Poraz' reform will add poverty onto poverty and exacerbate the poverty of people who needed these discounts. "It suits Mr. Poraz well to make this decision. This is another move toward harming weak families that receive Income Support, which will now be forced to struggle more for their subsistence. This proves that we have before us an economic program in which anyone who ever had visions of how to ensure there will not be large families, chas vesholom, has come to power and has the ability to realize his furious dreams."

MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni (UTJ) says, "This man, Poraz, only cares about animals that walk on four legs. He has no feeling for sectors in a state of economic distress. Guaranteed Income recipients constitute the bottom tenth of the population in Israel, and when he comes and makes specific proposals to harm them, in addition to all of the harsh blows these weaker rungs have had from this evil government, this is indicative of malice, imperviousness, blunted feelings. This is a very serious decision; Poraz is deciding to add in Child Support Payments and to calculate it as earnings in order to strike another blow. These families will not have the money to pay the local tax. Perhaps Poraz will send in his private police to take hungry families to jail. I don't think there is a single local authority head in Israel who will agree to follow Poraz' evil path."

 

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