Indirect Taxation

The firm’s tax department has expertise in indirect taxation.

The services provided include consulting, handling and advice on a variety of indirect tax issues, including: value added tax, purchase tax and customs duties.

Areas of expertise

VAT services

The tax department renders a range of VAT-related services to individuals and companies. The VAT issues include the following:

• Tax opinions
• Petitioning the tax authorities to obtain a pre-ruling
• Problem solving and representation in dealings with the tax authorities, including tax assessments
• Filing requests for VAT refunds in respect of bad debts
• Consulting on VAT liabilities under debt arrangements, compensation and other payments
• Optimization of VAT reporting
• Zero-rate VAT, etc.

Compiling a comprehensive plan regarding direct and indirect taxes

When dealing with complex local or international transactions, we assist our clients in compiling comprehensive plans in advance, combining direct tax aspects and indirect tax aspects, guaranteeing optimization of tax payments.

Entitlement to zero-rate VAT

One of the more complex issues in the area of VAT is entitlement to zero-rate VAT. On this matter, the tax department will assist you in planning an operating structure and, when necessary, we will provide the client with an expert opinion and/or help you file a request for a pre-ruling on the issue, with a goal of reducing or eliminating the risk of future tax liabilities.

Input tax credits

In many instances, taxpayers are unaware of the rules and conditions for receiving a tax credit in respect of input taxes and they belatedly discover that the tax authority rejected their entitlement to receive a refund in respect of input taxes that they paid during the course of business, resulting in the need to pay tax differentials in significant amounts.

For example, holding companies may have business dealings which are tax-exempt and, as a result, they are not entitled to a 100% refund on input taxes deriving from their business activity. In such cases, we provide advance tax planning with a goal of avoiding future tax liabilities.

Bad debts

We specialize in filing requests for VAT refunds in respect of bad debts, beginning with the preparation of initial material, submitting the notification to the tax authority, and culminating in receipt of the actual VAT refund.

Customs duties and purchase tax

Notwithstanding the reduction in the rates of customs duties and purchase tax in Israel, the importing of many products into Israel is still subject to import taxes, VAT, customs and purchase taxes.

We assist importers and exporters in planning of payment of import and export taxes, with a goal of reducing the tax on imports, and we assist clients on claims for refunds of customs duties that were paid. For example, claims for refunds in respect of import taxes paid on raw materials used for export and various dealing with the authorities.

Preparing for tax audits

We assist clients on how they can properly prepare themselves in advance of audits carried out by the Customs and VAT Division, including the carrying out of a “mock” audi, with a goal of assessing the degree of preparedness in advance of the real audit.