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A lawyer from Ramat Hasharon who was suspected of falsely claiming disability residency status to avoid paying NIS 450,000 in purchase property tax was released under restrictive conditions, the Rishon LeZion Magistrate's Court confirmed earlier this month.
Rafael Yitzhak was detained by the Tax Authorities on June 15, after being suspected of offenses under Israel’s Real Estate Taxation Law, and was released the next morning under certain stipulations, including a NIS 250,000 personal bail bond, a lien on the property in question, and a disposal prohibition order registered in favor of the Tax Authority.
Yitzhak was released from the Rishon LeZion Magistrate's Court with a NIS 250,000 bail, with the investigation still ongoing and being handled by the Central Investigation Assessor Unit.
About six months after Yitzhak purchased property in Ramat Hasharon in 2024 - for which he was liable for the purchase tax of approximately NIS 480,000, seeing as the property was an additional home beyond his primary residence - Yitzhak filed a request for a corrected assessment with the Netanya Real Estate Taxation Office.
Yitzhak invoked Regulation 11 of the Real Estate Taxation Law, which entitles disabled persons, blind persons, and victims of hostilities to a reduced purchase tax rate of 0.5%, provided the property was purchased for their own residential use.
Yitzhak fakes disability claim, residence documentation.
The Netanya office approved Yitzhak’s disability residency status application, which reduced his purchase tax bill from NIS 480,000 to NIS 30,000.
The approval triggered a routine audit to verify that Yitzhak was living in the property as he declared. The field inspection revealed that the property was being rented to another family, which prompted the Netanya office to contact Yitzhak for residence documentation.
Yitzhak provided property tax, electricity, and water forms, along with an ID card, all intended to support his claim of residency. However, investigators found that the address change had been made only after the tax office reached out, and that the rest of the suspect's family continued to live at his original home.
Following this, the Central Investigations Assessor Unit conducted searches, seized evidence, and questioned the suspect. Testimony was also collected from others involved in the case, according to the press release.