• Business
• news

"Blacklist" for denial of the Corona grant

54,000 people have been notified that they will not be eligible for the state grant because they have not submitted 2018 income tax returns. Social Security asks the tax authority to authorize those people to transfer funds immediately

• Corona
• Benjamin Netanyahu

These are Levi-Weinrib

"According to the information received from the income tax, you are not entitled to a grant for every citizen, since you have not yet submitted the annual income tax report for the tax year 2018. This is according to section 5 of the Economic Assistance Plan Law (New Corona virus - one-time grant) 5720-2020. For inquiries, you can apply to the income tax through a representative or a system of public inquiries on the Tax Authority's website. "

This announcement has been received in the last two weeks by 54,000 citizens who were denied eligibility for the social grant that the state decided to distribute to all citizens. Citizen "At the very last minute and determined that anyone who did not file income tax returns in 2018 or did not pay the tax liability for that year (yes, two years before the outbreak of the corona crisis) is not eligible for the new grant. The main problem with denial of grants is that many of those tens of thousands of citizens are eligible Were excluded from the list of recipients of "income guarantee" from the National Insurance Institute - the weakest population in the country.

Denial of entitlement from benefit recipients was revealed in Channel 12's "Savings Plan", and now "Globes" reveals that the National Insurance Institute is already working to approve some of the citizens whose eligibility has been denied the grant, despite the section of the law denying eligibility.

"We went to the tax authority a list of recipients of income support entitlement grant was revoked following non-filing of income tax for 2018, and asked us to move them to approve the funds as soon as possible", said the CEO of the National Insurance Institute, Meir Spiegler.

Return to step back into the solemn declaration of the Head Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a "grant for every citizen." After changes, the main thing being to make the grant differential (more money for the poorer and more changes), the grant plan was published, according to which a "child grant" of NIS 500 per family will be distributed to every child under 18 The fifth onwards is an additional NIS 300, and an "adult grant" of NIS 750 or NIS 1,500 for those entitled to an increased grant - recipients of income support and benefits. The

Social Security acted quickly and within eight days (including Friday and Saturday) paid 90% of the grants The remaining? The National Insurance Institute began to receive complaints from citizens who did not receive grants, including recipients of subsistence allowance, mothers receiving alimony from the National Insurance Institute, etc. It turned out that the Tax Authority sent the Social Security a kind of "blacklist" : One, citizens whose income is higher than NIS 643,000 and not Are entitled to a grant under the law; And the second - citizens who did not submit an income tax report for 2018 and / or did not pay tax for that year.

More on Walla! NEWS

Not everything that fits Instagram is also suitable for work

To the full article

"Social grant is a basic right"

From the "130,000 list", there were about 54,000 who were denied eligibility for the grant due to non-reporting to the income tax. A closer examination of the data revealed that among them there are a significant number of Social Security benefit recipients, some of whom are "poor" in the vernacular or "one of the weakest populations in the country," in the language of Social Security. The absurdity is that these are mainly those who were supposed to receive a double grant from the state, due to their difficult situation, and instead their eligibility was denied. Among other things, there are 2,000 recipients of income support, 5,900 recipients of disability benefits, about 500 mothers who receive alimony from the state, 1,100 recipients of nursing allowances and another 520 recipients of old-age benefits. In 2020, everyone is perceived as in need by the National Insurance Institute, but the grant law for every citizen is not really interesting. The law denied them eligibility because in 2018 they were independent, and did not file a report.

According to Meir Spiegler, CEO of the National Insurance Institute, "After we transferred over 90% of the payments to all residents of the State of Israel within eight days, quite a few residents started contacting us claiming that they did not receive the grant they were entitled to, and it turned out that we received a report from the tax authority. That anyone who has not submitted the 2018 reports is not eligible to receive the grants. When we searched we found something that disturbed our peace, according to which a significant part of those included in the list of the tax authority are people who receive benefits from us. By law they are really not eligible, because these are people who were self-employed in 2018 and did not submit reports and have probably since changed their status to employees, but that does not make sense to us. This is a situation that can lead to the law of souls. If we do not help them, there will be no one to help. "

According to Spiegler," The tax authority is sensitive and understands the matter, and is working collaboratively to find a solution now, within a few days. "We are now covering advice on how to address this population first and only then think about how to handle the reports for 2018. We must act quickly."

"It is not enough that the grants for the self-employed pile up difficulties and in the end they receive a small amount, so even in this grant do they try to deprive the self-employed of their eligibility for no reason?", Says one of the self-employed whose eligibility has been denied.

According to CPA Iris Stark, president of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and one of the leaders of the independent struggle during the Corona period, this is a mixture of non-gender sex. "We do not understand the connection between the financial statements and the tax payment for 'cash per citizen' grant. This is a one-time assistance grant that is not a business grant, which is due to every citizen and every child, and therefore the restrictions related to the requirement to submit a report or pay a tax debt are irrelevant. Once it is a social grant, it is a basic right that must not be conditioned on the submission of income tax returns or the payment of an income tax debt. We know, and I say this with regret, that those who are in these difficulties also often have not taken the time to deal with filing reports and tax payments because they are engaged in a war of subsistence. There are enough options and sanctions in the law that can be taken against those who did not submit reports and did not pay the tax liability. "The

tax adviser (attorney) Shahar Shabi also believes that the denial clause is out of place. "The condition of receiving the grant that claims to be called a 'grant for every citizen' in submitting a tax report is nonsense and does again for the umpteenth time in the Corona crisis, discrimination and discrimination between employees and the self-employed. Only in my office did I receive three applications from citizens "It was filed and there is a kosher assessment for that citizen. The problem is even worse because there is no one to turn to. There is no information center and there is no synchronization between the income tax and the National Insurance Institute."

Factors who were involved in drafting the "cash for every citizen" law do not understand at all what the fuss is about. According to them, a "cash for every citizen" grant is not a social grant, but a grant to encourage consumption, and therefore there is no relevance to the claim that the law should not include provisions for the denial of a grant that are not essentially social. In addition, they said, there have been lengthy discussions around the enactment of Section 5 of the Act and it has been clearly explained why this section is necessary. The background to the enactment of the section was the need to ensure that those with a high income of approximately NIS 643,000 per year (approximately NIS 50,000 per month) would not be entitled to the grant, as determined by law. In the case of self-employed persons, in order to ensure that the income of those eligible did not exceed the ceiling, it was determined that 2018 reports would be examined and accordingly, those who did not submit a report would not be eligible to receive the grant until they submitted the report. In fact, according to the same sources, the self-employed who did not submit these reports are perceived by the state as criminals because they are breaking the law that requires them to file a report for about two years. Still, say the same sources, whoever did not submit the 2018 report does not completely lose his eligibility, and if he submits the report now and it turns out that his income was lower than 643 thousand - he will be eligible to receive the grant.

When asked what the connection is between the revenue in 2018 and the situation of that person in 2020, a source who was involved in the legislation answered that this was the only way to examine the revenue and this is the way stipulated in the law.

The problem remains - people who receive benefits in 2020, and are perceived as poor by the state in the eyes of Social Security and the most stringent law, are not entitled to the grant on the days they need it most, due to lack of information about their income about two years ago.

The Ministry of Finance stated in response that "in accordance with the provisions of the law regarding the one-time grant, a condition for receiving it is a total annual income of less than NIS 643,000 for 2018. In order to check compliance with this condition, the legislation requires an individual to file an annual report." "In addition, if an individual falls in income in 2019 below the said threshold, he will be entitled to submit an annual report to the tax authority and then apply for the grant. It is important to note that even today, whoever submits the missing report and meets the income threshold will receive the grant immediately."