The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved this morning (Monday) the bill to grant a VAT benefit of 0.3% to first-time home buyers upon purchase. The proposal, which was claimed to harm the Haredi and Arabs, underwent changes following the intervention of Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein.<\/p>\r\n
According to the proposal, a first-time home buyer who meets the criteria detailed in the bill will be entitled to a significant benefit in the form of VAT cancellation on the payment for the apartment. The benefit will apply to transactions made according to the criteria starting from September 1, 2014.<\/p>\r\n
The original bill formulated criteria, one of whose clauses limited the benefit to military and civilian service veterans, which prevented its application to most apartment buyers in the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors. Finance Minister Lapid declared that the law does not harm ultra-Orthodox apartment buyers, since all young ultra-Orthodox people have to do to be eligible "is enlist in the IDF or do civilian service.".<\/p>\r\n
However, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein made it clear to Lapid that the bill would not pass the High Court of Justice test and that he would not be able to back the proposal. Despite the Finance Minister's statements that he did not intend to change his proposal, the new amendments proposed by Weinstein were accepted and the proposal was approved today.<\/p>\r\n
The main changes stipulate that those who have not served in the army or in civilian national service will be eligible for a benefit when purchasing an apartment worth up to NIS 950,000, not NIS 600,000, as stated in the original memorandum of the law. Those who have served in the army, as well as the disabled, will be able to enjoy the benefit when purchasing an apartment up to a maximum national price of NIS 1.6 million. Another change to the law stipulates that soldiers who have served for 12 months, and not two years as required by the original proposal, will also be eligible for the full benefit. This change is relevant to quite a few ultra-Orthodox soldiers who served in the various IDF units for only 16 months.<\/p>\r\n
Despite the approval, real estate experts state that the number of people eligible for the benefit is much greater than the number of new apartments available on the market, which can be purchased at reasonable prices and benefit from the benefit.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ministerial Committee approved the bill to zero percent VAT on a first apartment \u2022 Despite the Minister of Finance's statements, changes were made to the law in favor of the Haredi sector, for which the Attorney General is responsible \u2022 Experts: There is a shortage of apartments at reasonable prices on the market","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2451,2510,773,5009,324,3235],"class_list":["post-36808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4","tag-2451","tag-2510","tag-773","tag-5009","tag-324","tag-3235"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n