New Corona Restrictions?

Do not rush to compensate business owners

Some of the business owners' demands for compensation for Corona's limitations do not reflect a desire to work and earn a decent living, but rather hope to get a little more for sitting at home.

It may not be popular to defend the state's position, but some business owners act like farmers praying for drought instead of rain.

Nir Kipnis

25/12/2021

Saturday, 25 December 2021, 10:02 Updated: 10:25

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The new restrictions have not yet been imposed on the panic caused by the omicron, the variant that actually heralds victory over the corona and turns it into a disease that can be lived alongside (but this is already a topic for another column), and here the business owners' plight has risen: Excellent reason: The isolation policy in combination with the green label, is like a partial closure, which will harm businesses - and therefore a cure for the blow must be announced in advance and a clear outline must be announced that will compensate them for the expected damages.

This argument sounds so logical at first glance that it takes time to break it down into components and understand that what motivates business owners (in general of course) is not the hope that the restrictions imposed on businesses will be as light as possible, but rather: they hope for a full closure. Compensate for them. A bit like farmers (again, in general), during a balmy winter, do not pray for rain but for an official declaration of a drought year, which will guarantee them compensation.

I, too, am independent, and therefore aware of the injustices that exist in the law - and no less seriously in the attitude - towards the self-employed in Israel: in the eyes of every tax official you are a criminal until proven otherwise. The inflated Social Security contributions you pay every month never come back to you. The IRS is able to disqualify your books because of the iodine tip - and we have not yet said a word on issues like pensions or unemployment benefits. I mean, I understand very well what it means to live in an "independent country."

Still, it must be said that the compensation scheme for the self-employed that was introduced in the days of the previous government, even if it faltered at first and made us jealous of the Germans for example "first pay and only then check" as some business owners were happy at the time. Businesses in Israel were generously compensated for the losses incurred by the corona.

Perhaps this is the place to sharpen: Business owners who legally reported to the tax authorities all their income during the years leading up to the outbreak of the plague were properly compensated.

I must admit that for a large public of self-employed, probably their silent majority, there was also a moment of contentment here: for years they watched some of their colleagues hide income and felt suckers, and here came an order day in which all those who hid piles of cash without paying tax remained With the invoice book in hand ...

More on Walla!

MR.

Something lounge - Japanese in a suit in Old Jaffa

In conjunction with zap rest

Closed in Cologne, Germany, January 2021. Business owners have demanded compensation in the "German" model, but now refuse to repay excess payments (Photo: AP, AP)

Is it allowed to profit from the corona?

But with your permission we will return to the main issue at hand: the compensation required (or not) in view of the relatively minor, but tangible, restrictions that are now imposed on businesses. And here the picture is fundamentally different from what it was in March 2020.

It seems that the canvas will be shortened from counting the differences. So it was a complete and complete closure that prevented all stores from opening, except for retail chains and pharma. Any business owner can now open his store, even if the restrictions reduce the number of buyers.

Next: My eyes are not narrow, God forbid, but there are businesses that the invisible hand of the free economy has compensated them with even greater generosity than the government has compensated them.

Not to be outdone are some restaurateurs (i.e., those who survived. Fairness must mention that there are many who failed the first closures) that in 2021 they compensated themselves for the corona losses already in the middle of the year.

The same is true of some of the hotels, especially those that have been quick to raise prices whenever restrictions have been placed on Israelis going abroad:

I would like to say that, except in very certain cases where heavy damage was caused to specific industries and businesses, the situation today is that those who want to work and earn a living, and those who suffer slight losses, may take solace in memories of the end of previous closures. More than those remembered from before the Corona.

Remember the pre-Corona fashion store owners' complaint that trade sites rob them of a livelihood?

Well, after months of closures (for which they were compensated!) They have risen to a new reality where international shipping is having a hard time recovering, which has brought a large portion of shoppers from Amazon, Ali Baba and Asus back to fashion stores in Israel.

The "Zev Mall" parking lot in Rishon Lezion, August 2021. The corona that brought closures (and compensation) also brought prosperity to businesses (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Pray for the drought

I mean, Corona has created a new business reality that in some cases is very good for some business owners, alongside a new reality where another part of them has to understand that what was will not be (e.g. tour guides made headlines due to the media dispute with the finance minister) Paid and veterans where a retirement plan is respectful, but not continued compensation for sitting at home that may last several years, given a tourism market that will not recover soon).

I promised to return and address Germany, the object of envy of many self-employed in Israel in the first weeks of closure. The business owners' claim at the time could be refined into one sentence: "Compensation now, inquiries later." In the end, the state, after unnecessary twisting, did as they requested and it was good that it did.

It now turns out that many who received funds, but in retrospect it turned out that they did not meet the criteria, now refuse to return them. The state has already come a long way towards them and is willing to accept back the wrong compensation in a long spread of payments, but even that is not acceptable to some business owners (the matter will be decided next week in the High Court hearing) and likely Interest and

linkage.It is true that in the background there is a constant frustration from his knowledge that if it were coalition funds and not funds for the working people who produce them, the state would pay in the blink of an eye.

This is a statistic that always underlies the complex relationship between taxpayers and the state (almost everywhere, certainly in Israel where it turns out with every government coup that no salvation will come from those who just yesterday cried out "Corrupt are tired!" Just to replace the previous corrupt with their peacemakers).

Certainly when it comes to a year in which state tax revenues also broke any previous record, including those of the months before the plague.

But this figure is fixed in the equation.

Therefore, when it is neutralized, there is no choice but to determine that those who are now suing for compensation that will precede the imposition of restrictions, such as farmers who instead of praying for rain, are praying for drought.

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