Israelis who did not report large amounts of money abroad will be able to do so on their own initiative and settle for a reduced penalty

Those who did not report large amounts of money abroad will probably be able to do so on their own initiative and settle for a reduced penalty. The Tax Authority is currently planning a "voluntary disclosure" operation, but this time the confessors will also have to pay a ransom - albeit a relatively small amount. The intention is that the new procedure will come into effect Soon, however, the Tax Authority refused to provide details and stated only that an investigation is being conducted on the issue with the Ministry of Justice.
In the past decade, three similar "voluntary disclosure" operations took place, when the goal was to raise billions of additional shekels of taxes paid by Israeli citizens who held money abroad and in Israel and did not pay tax on it.
In recent days, the Tax Authority has examined with the Ministry of Justice the possibility of renewing the "Voluntary Disclosure" operation, due to the need to increase the state's income from taxes at this time, partly due to the fear that the government's expenses will increase in the near future and it will be necessary to increase the revenue side of the budget.
Even in the new operation, "voluntary whistleblowers" will not be criminally prosecuted in exchange for admitting to the tax offense, but as mentioned, they will have to pay a ransom, as required by the Ministry of Justice - which was not done in the past in similar operations, but only in serious cases.
The renewal of the "Voluntary Disclosure" program comes against the background of the expanded application of information exchange between tax authorities worldwide, and in light of the increased fight against black capital and the efforts of the Tax Authority to reveal the unreported capital in Israel and abroad, as well as following the success of the "Voluntary Disclosure" procedures that were carried out in the past and brought in billions Shekels to the state treasury.
The purpose of the procedure is to allow Israelis who broke the law and did not report as required all of their income and fraud to carry out a "voluntary disclosure" procedure, to immediately pay the taxes legally owed to them and thus avoid criminal proceedings.
According to the provisions of the procedure, a taxpayer will be able to disclose his assets and declare his unreported income, pay the tax derived from them and this if he meets the conditions detailed in the procedure. Among the other conditions, the requirement that the disclosure be true, complete and in good faith, as well as that at the time of the application, no inspection or investigation is conducted by the Tax Authority in the case of the applicant.
As part of the voluntary disclosure procedure, the applicants will immediately pay legal tax as required by the disclosure. In return, the Tax Authority will undertake, with the approval of the State Attorney's Office, that no criminal proceedings will be taken against those taxpayers who comply with the conditions of the procedure and pay the full tax derived from the disclosure procedure. Requests for "voluntary disclosure" will be submitted via e-mail.
Through "voluntary disclosure" procedures in the last decade, tens of billions of shekels held in foreign currencies in various countries, mainly in continental Europe, were revealed to the tax authorities in Israel.