2012

Negative Income Tax – 2012 stipend

Moshe

This week is the last week to file for a 2012 tax year negative tax stipend !

Hurry before it’s too late and check your eligibility today ! Dec 28th 2013 is the last day to file !

Here is a link to the simulator, on the Israel Tax Authority’s site: https://www.misim.gov.il/shmhshlili

The following are the basic criteria for eligibility:

1.  Age 23 and up with children (up to age 19) or age 55 and up with no children

2.  Aside from living quarters you (or your immediate family) do not own any other property.

3. If you have 1 or 2 children or if you are 55 yrs or older w/o children –  Total annual income as a salaried employee or as self-employed in 2012 divided by the number
    of  dependants in your care:  between 2,051 sh – 6,109 sh
    or if you have 3 children or more – between 2,051 sh and 6,717 sh

Youth employee ? Download new application to know your rights !

Moshe

The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor has launched an application that can be downloaded for free to an Iphone and will soon be available for smartphones too. If you are between the ages of 14-18 and employed or if you have children or grandchildren who are, this is for them !

What will this enable users to do ?
1. Know your rights and the employer’s lawful responsibilities towards youth
they employ.

2. Enable youth to keep track of their hours in an organized manner.

3. Salary calculator to figure out what you are owed.

4. Contact details for complaints to the Ministry’s labor law enforcement dept.
if they feel their employer is not obeying the laws.

5. Enable users to define a goal to save for, and enable them to track how many
more hours of work they need to reach their goal.

 

For now this application is available only in Hebrew.

It is downloadable from the Ministry’s website, here:

http://www.moital.gov.il/NR/exeres/46273C9D-B2FF-4DB3-A4ED-8D80E5BAC62F,frameless.htm

Employee sexually discriminated against

Moshe

The municipality of Petah Tikva started a project for police patrol service via a security company. The service was to operate 24/7 via foot-patrol and motorized patrol.

Noa was invited to an interview and accepted to this position along with 16 others. She was the only female in the group. Noa was slotted in to do only the foot patrol on all her watches. She asked the person in charge of scheduling the shifts to put her on some motor-patrols as well, but was turned down, according to Noa “because people don’t want to see a woman driving a jeep…”

She was requested to pass an internal driving test to show she is capable of “navigating in the area” before she would even be considered for a motorized patrol, even though none of the other employees were required to do so.

Noa submitted a formal complaint to the labor court against her employer demanding 100,000 sh in damages pertaining to non-compliance with the equal opportunity in employment law, loss of income and tarnishing her good name and aggravation.

The labor court issued the following verdict:

The equal opportunity in employment law clearly states in section 2a that it is forbidden to discriminate due to sex, among other things, in accepting a candidate for employment, in training a candidate, in firing an employee, etc.
The law passes over the responsibility to the employer to prove their was no foul play and discrimination in his decision.

The court found that Noa wasn’t scheduled for motorized patrols simply because she is a woman. Also the fact that she was required to take extra tests as opposed to the men. Noa also submitted  taped conversations between herself and her employer to back her claims. The court ruled that this is indeed invalid discrimination and although no monetary damage was proved, the court still believed that this type of behavior needs to be curbed harshly and therefore fined the employer 55,000 shekels.

Minimum wage update – Oct 1st 2012

Moshe

Great news for all salaried employees who earn minimum wages. After the govt. raised the v.a.t. and the latest price hikes in almost everything we buy, The minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, Shalom Simchon announced today that the minimum wages will be raised from October 1st, 2012. This is the last update according to the last labor agreement signed two years ago between the Histadrut Haklalit and the Israeli Government and the Industry Union. The last update of the minimum wage was in July 2008.

The new hourly rate will be 23.10 sh (prev. 22.04)

The new monthly rate will be 4,300 sh (prev. 4,100)  – a 4.9% increase.

This also effects the hourly rate for youth, as follows:

up to age 16 – 3,010 sh

up to age 17 – 3,225 sh

up to age 18 – 3,569  sh

 

This notification was issued early, prior to the Jewish new year (Rosh Hashana) and according to the Central Bureau of Statistics will effect about 600,000 employees in Israel.

 

 

Company officers and executives can be prosecuted !

Moshe

If you are a company executive or officer and your job entails employing workers  this post is for you,

It is your responsibility to be updated, to know and be familiar with the latest laws, regulations and court verdicts in this field.

You must control, oversee and issue directives in order to notify the company where you are employed that they are acting legally or not.

New regulations will be coming into effect on June 19th 2012 which call for closer control and inspection by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Employment for violations of mandatory labor laws in Israel.

Violators will be prosecuted, including company officers or executives, personally ! This is a criminal offense and can be punished with administrative fines of up to 35,000 shekels for each offense or even jail time.

It is your duty to do everything in your power to make sure that the law is adhered to. Do not play around with employee’s rights, it is not worth the risk of the good name of your company.

The Ministry has allocated a special tab on the menu of their website where they will publish the names of all employers who have violated the law !

Potential employees who are searching for a job can check this site to see if the employer is listed – they might get an indication whether they want to work for such an employer or not.

 

 

 

 

 

Tightening of Enforcement of Labor laws

Moshe

Effective on June 19,2012 The Administration of Enforcement & Regulation in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Labor will be stepping up their efforts to enforce labor laws by spot checking employers. Any discrepancy can lead to fines of thousands of shekels for each offense and for each employee. In addition, CEO’s will be held personally responsible for failure to implement the laws. The fine issued to a CEO cannot be paid for by or refunded by the company and in extreme cases can result in criminal charges and even possible jail sentence. The only way a CEO can legally fight the fines and charges in a court are if he has proof of existing policies and procedures and that he has done all in his power to enforce the labor laws.
For example, a company who hires a manpower agency to provide cleaning workers or guards, can be held responsible if the manpower agency doesn’t pay them minimum wage, overtime, allow them to sit or take a break, are tardy in paying. The company needs to check the manpower agency’s calculations and payslips to ensure they pertain to the labor laws.

All employees need to have time-sheets, they can be an actual swipe card electronic clock, a computerized program, via a cash register or an internet time-sheet. It must have start and end times for each day worked and be able to track absences and overtime. The only exception are employees who work outside, on the road, etc in which case the pay slip needs to say “hours not able to be tracked”

 

New !!! tax reconciliations on-line !

Moshe

It seems that the Israel Tax Authority is trying to keep up with technology.

As from the year 2012, employees who are employed simultaneously by at least two and up to six employers with a total income of no more than 188,544 shekels (gross) can file their request for a tax reconciliation (teum mas) via the internet. (This is instead of filling out a 166 tax form, going in to your local tax office and waiting in line while losing valuable work hours)

You are able to print out a copy of what you reported for your records and the Tax Authority will send the employee, to the address you specify, the required letters for each of the employers with instructions on how to deal with the tax from what each of them are paying via payroll. This is usually done within a few work days and can save you the trouble of going in each year to renew the letters for your employers.

Note: You can only file online one time during the tax year. If there are any changes you will need to go personally to your local tax office to update the letters for the employers.

They have a simulator for taxes without a need to submit the information.

The taxes are not final, pending filing year end taxes for all the employee’s earnings. This is done by the employers, employees are exempt from this unless they have income other than salary. In any case, to check whether you are required to file taxes it is advisable to consult an Israeli certified CPA or Tax advisor.

You need to be very careful to correctly fill out all the information requested, as any mistake will result in wrong output. Before you attempt to do this make sure you have the last payslip from all employers on hand. The payslip has the employer’s name, address and tax ID number as he is registered with the Tax Authority.

You will first need to download and install a Toolbar for Government forms and you need to be using  Internet Explorer (versions 6,7,8,9) or Firefox (versions 3-11) and either Windows or Linux OS

http://forms.gov.il/forms/Resources/DowloadSetup/AGFormsDownloadToolbarEnglish.htm

Garnished Wages – updated

Moshe

As of Jan 1st, 2012 the amounts exempt from  garnished wages have been updated as follows:

single – 2,093 sh

widower/divorced/single parent + 1 child – 3,384 sh

widower/divorced/single parent + 2 or more children – 4,221 sh

couple – 3,139 sh

couple + 1 child – 3,641 sh

couple + 2 or more children – 4,143 sh

 

Notes:

1) The above amounts do not apply to garnished wages for alimony.

2) Should the above amounts be more than 80% of the monthly salary (after deductions for income tax and social security and health tax) the amount exempt shall be reduced to 80% of the actual monthly salary.

 

source: protection of salary law, 1958 update 2012

 

 

New Tax Brackets for 2012

Moshe

In 2012, the tax rates (%) and amounts in each bracket have been revised.

The new tax rates for 2012 are as follows:

monthly gross pay               tax rate in %                        tax

up to 5,200                                              10                                     520

8,880                                                          14                                    1,035

14,430                                                        21                                   2,021

21,780                                                       30                                    4,046

41,830                                                        33                                     11,022

each additional shekel                         48                                      ——

 

Personal credit points have been updated as well to 215 shekels each (from 209 shekels in 2011).

Note: the taxes are gross (prior to credits). All amounts are in shekels. Since taxes are configured annually the following table is for a monthly salary only. In certain situations other restrictions or laws may apply. The above information is meant as general information and in any case of contradiction, the existing tax laws and regulations are the deciding factor.