Tax Authority to Move Against Yeshivot Over Donation Benefits

Israel’s Tax Authority is expected to soon begin a campaign to revoke tax benefits from ultra-Orthodox nonprofits that fund yeshiva students who evade military service, according to a report Wednesday on Kan News. In the coming weeks, the authority is set to approach yeshivot whose donations currently qualify for tax breaks and demand that they declare whether students considered draft dodgers are studying there.

At the same time, the yeshivot will be required to submit student lists for comparison with army records. If a yeshiva is found to include students classified as draft evaders, it will lose its tax privileges. The value of those benefits is estimated at tens of millions of shekels a year.

The move comes about a month after Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara issued guidance saying donors to yeshivot whose students do not enlist would not be entitled to tax benefits. The instruction triggered strong anger from ultra-Orthodox parties, which said the expected damage could reach tens to hundreds of millions of shekels annually.

Kan News also reported that even before the attorney general filed her response to the High Court of Justice, she instructed the Tax Authority and professional officials to prepare policy work to halt state subsidization of donations to ultra-Orthodox yeshivot.