Israel-US Tax Treaty Articles - Expat Tax (2024)

Given the lure of the historical rising value of Israel property, it is important to consider that Israel real estate investments could have potential US tax ramifications. The United States taxes its citizens on income earned worldwide. Profit from rental or sale of real property located outside the United States is no exception and is subject to US taxation. The income or loss from rents or sale of Israeli property is thus included on a US citizen’s annual income tax return. According to the US-Israel tax treaty, Israel has first rights to tax income related to Israel real property. Therefore, taxes paid to Israel can be used as a credit to directly offset a person’s US tax liability. However, not always do Israeli taxes paid cover US taxes due; resulting in a potential US tax liability.

Rental income: For US purposes, real property rentals are accounted for like a business. Meaning, an individual allowed to deduct all ordinary and necessary expenses incurred to maintain his real estate rental activity. A major expense is usually depreciation which is the mechanism for recovering the cost of the property over its expected life. US law mandates that depreciation must be taken once the property is ready and available for rent. The cost of Israel property compared to rents received is generally very high. And therefore very often a person’s net rental income from the activity will be nil. Not always is this to the benefit of the taxpayer. (See sale of property, below). In a situation where the rental activity results in a net gain, the profits are taxed at ordinary graduated income rates. Which means, depending on your tax bracket, you could be paying between 10-37% tax on net profit from rental activity.

The Israel Tax Authorities allow taxpayers three different methods to account for rental property activity. Each year a person can choose which method would be most tax advantageous for him and account accordingly. If a person has multiple properties he can choose a different method for each property. The first method parallels the US method above and treats the activity as a normal business activity, taxed at ordinary graduated income tax rates. However, one major difference is that depreciation is lower for Israel purposes. *** And the tax rates vary between 10-47%. The second method is similar to the first method except that if the gross rental monthly income is 5,030 NIS or less (total for all rental properties owned), it is exempt from Israeli taxation and reporting. If gross monthly rental income is more than 5,030 NIS, the excluded portion is reduced by the excess amount and the resulting gain is taxed at no less than 31%. **** The third and very popular method is to account only for gross rental income. No expenses are allowed as deductions. The gross amount received is taxed at a flat 10% rate and no tax credits can be applied.

As you can see from above, because of the varying methods of taxation there could be situations where taxes paid to Israel will not offset parallel US taxes. For example, this could come into play with older/inherited property investments. Generally speaking, depreciation expense would be very low or non-existent for these properties and other expenses may be minimal. For US purposes, a high earning individual could be left with a 37% tax bill on net income earned from these properties. Whereas, for Israel purposes he could be taxed at a 10% rate and will thereby be left with an insufficient amount of Israeli taxes paid to offset the US liability.

Sale of Apartment: Another situation which often times may lead to a US tax obligation, is when the property is ultimately sold. Depreciation of a property decreases the cost basis of the property and thus results in a higher recognized gain when the property is sold. Remember, the US tax code forces a person to depreciate their rental property. Therefore, if for Israel purposes a person consistently chooses to tax his property at the 10% flat rate or his income was completely exempt from Israeli taxation, the gain for US purposes will be considerably higher than for Israel purposes. Additionally, the IRS imposes depreciation recapture which taxes the portion of the gain that was allowed as a depreciation expense as ordinary income. Thus, for US purposes a large portion of the gain will be taxed at regular 10-37% rates instead of the 0-20% preferential rates for gains on sale of long term capital assets. Another variable which often gives rise to discrepancies between US and Israel tax amounts is that for Israel purposes, if a person sells his rental property and he owns no other property, he will be exempt from tax upon sale. However, for US purposes, if he did not live in the house for two out of the five years prior to sale, the sale is fully taxable. *****

Taking all of the above into consideration, we highly advise consulting with a US/Israel tax accountant before deciding to invest in Israel real estate.

*This article specifically addresses residential real property. Commercial real estate investment is out of the scope of this article.

** The recovery period for foreign properties follows MACRS, Alternative Depreciation System which is 30 or 40 years depending on when the property was purchased. The depreciable portion of the property is usually not the entire amount paid for the property. The amount paid for the property usually includes both the cost of the land on which the property is built and the cost of the building structure. Amounts paid for land are not depreciable.

***The useful life of a property for Israel purposes is 50 years.

**** Expense amounts incurred must be apportioned to the taxable and exempt income amounts. Only the expenses allocated to the taxable portion can be utilized to offset the gain.

*****For situations where this is not the sole property owned by the individual, Israeli taxes could be as high as 25%. However, there are various laws and circ*mstances which could help to reduce the Israeli tax liability and an Israeli attorney must be consulted.

Earned income is generated by performing services. It is important to note, that income from a US employer does not necessarily mean that the income is sourced in the United States and exempt from Israel tax during the first ten years post-Aliyah. In order to be considered eligible income, the income must be earned while the person who was performing the serviceswas physically located outside of Israel. It does not matter where the client or employer is located or where the funds are coming from initially. Therefore, if you have a home office in Israel and continue to service your prior employer or clients in the US, this income will be 100% subject to Israeli taxation even during the first 10 years after making Aliyah.

Recently, the Israel Tax Authorities added an additional caveat to this exception. In order for the income to be considered earned abroad and not be subject to Israeli tax, the individual must spend at least 60 days of the tax year working outside of Israel. If a person works outside of Israel for less than 60 days, none of the income is exempt from taxation during the first ten years post-Aliyah.

It is very common for anoleh chadashto continue working for a US employer; having a tax effective system in place is essential. As mentioned above, since the US citizen will be performing the services while physically present in Israel he not only has to report the income on his annual US income tax return but must also report this income to the Israel tax authorities.

The US-Israeltax treatyprovides tax exemptions and deductions to eliminate the double income taxation. Israel, however, does not have atotalization agreementwith the US to alleviate the double taxation with respect to social security taxes. Therefore, the only element for the most part of double taxation will be related to US self-employment tax and Israeli national insurance,bituach leumi. For the US citizen residing and performing the services while physically in Israel, the Israelibituach leumiwill have to be paid on this income and structuring oneself in a way where the US self-employment taxes are avoided is the key to eliminating the double tax burden.

Social security tax– The employer will pay out of their own pocket on behalf of the employee approximately 7 ½% Social Security tax and Medicare, and the employee will have approximately 7 ½% withheld from their paycheck for Social Security and Medicare.

Income tax withholding- The taxpayer should notify his employer that as a resident of Israel, performing the services while physically in Israel he is first subject to Israeli income tax on this income and will likely not owe any US income tax, therefore the employer should stop withholding any federal income tax on behalf of the employee. (If more than 60 days of the work is performed while physically in the USA a person may be subject to US income tax and exempt from Israel taxation for the first 10 years after making Aliyah.)

Filing an Israeli tax return– A person will be required to file an annual personal Israeli income tax return to report this income and will be subject to Israeli income tax and the Israeli equivalent of Social Security tax,bituach leumi, on this income. The amount of Israelibituach leumithat will need to be paid varies depending on the levels of income but very often it ends up being an effective rate of approximately 15% for many taxpayers.

Double taxation– There is an element of double taxation as it relates to Social Security tax andbituach leumi. This scenario is extremely limited with solutions.

Social security tax-This income will be reported as business income, on schedule C of the personal annual federal income tax return and will be subject to approximately 15% US self-employment tax.

Filing an Israeli tax return– A file will need to be opened with the Israeli income tax authorities. The individual will need to file a personal annual Israeli income tax return to report this income. Israel has first rights to the income tax and the foreign tax credit and/or the foreign earned income exclusion will be able to be utilized on the related US income tax return to avoid double taxation from income tax.

Double taxation-The Israeli equivalent of Social Security tax,bituach leumi,will be required to be paid on this income to the Israeli tax authorities. This situation results in double taxation from the US Social Security and Israelibituach leumivantage point.Therefore, this set up is not an ideal set up for a US citizen residing in Israel since they will end up paying approximately 30% in social security taxes (15% US self-employment tax plus 15% Israelibituach leumi), even before paying any income tax to Israel. There are solutions to this problem in which the individual will still have to pay Israelibituach leumibut will not having to pay any US self-employment tax.

It is important to note that a salaried employee in Israel who is working for an Israeli employer getting paid with an Israeli paystub is not subject to any US self-employment or Social Security tax on this income.

Social security tax-This person is considered self-employed for both US and Israeli tax purposes. The business income and expenses must be reported on schedule C annually and will be subject to approximately 15% in US self-employment tax.

Filing an Israeli tax return– The business must be registered with Israeli income tax authorities and an Israeli annual personal income tax return must be filed. Israeli income tax andbituach leumiwill be calculated on the income net of expenses.

Double taxation– As discussed, there should be no income tax double taxation but the income will be subject to both Social Security tax and Israelibituach leumipayments. A common solution to avoid the double taxation in this scenario is to run the business through an Israeli Corporation and to withdraw the share of profits as a monthly salary via Israeli paystubs. Since the taxpayer will now be considered a salaried employee of an Israeli company/Israeli employer, he will no longer be subject to any US self-employment tax or US Social Security tax on this income hence avoiding double taxation.

In addition to avoiding the double taxation, there are also other benefits to opening up and running a business through an Israeli Corporation.

Capital gains are first taxed in the country where the one selling the stock is located. Therefore, a US citizen residing in Israel selling US corporate shares will first pay taxes to Israel (normally at a flat 25% rate). Israeli income taxes paid will be utilized as a foreign tax credit to offset the US taxes owed on this income.

Many new immigrants to Israel are often under the impression that they should sell their US stocks within the ten-year tax holiday so as not to subject the capital gains to Israeli income taxation. However, this is a common misunderstanding.

The Israeli tax code specifically addresses this situation and gives clear guidance that only the percentage of appreciation in the stock that happened after the 10-year holiday will be subject to Israeli income tax. The total amount of capital gain is divided by the number of years that the stock was held and only the percentage of the holding period that was post the 10-year tax holiday will be subject to Israeli income tax. The remainder will be exempt from Israeli taxation even though the capital gain was triggered after the 10-year holiday passed.

The US-Israeltax treatyspecifically states that a US citizen who is residing in Israel will be exempt from both US and Israeli income tax on Social Security benefits from the United States.

You can continue to receive their Social Security payments even after moving to Israel. You can even request that the payments be deposited into a local Israeli bank. You are also able to apply to receive the Social Security payments online if you retire while residing in Israel. In addition to going through the online application process, someone from Social Security will usually call the applicants to verify their identification before finalizing and approving the application. In some cases, the applicants are requested to go to the consulate for verification.

As per the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), if a person receives benefits from a non-covered pension which is any pension paid from an employer who does not withhold social security taxes, the monthly social security payment will be reduced. The difference between the regular monthly benefit and the monthly benefit after taking WEP into consideration cannot exceed half of the monthly non-covered pension amount.

In the past, WEP applied to individuals receiving the Israeli equivalent of US Social Security retirement income frombituach leumi. In a class action suit filed against the US government in 2015, the US government lost and WEP no longer applies to recipients ofbituach leumibenefits.

Most Olim have spent many years working in the US prior to moving to Israel and have been paying into various US pension plans over the years. The most common types of pensions are either traditional IRAs or 401(k) plans. Both of these types of pensions are made from pre-tax contributions and are therefore subject to full US income taxation upon withdrawal.

After the ten year-grace period, Israel has first rights to taxation of pension income. The Israeli tax code has a special rule in Seif 9(3) which states that taxes will need to be paid to Israel first but only at the maximum rates that would have been due to the United States on the same income, if the income was taxed in a bubble. Meaning the amount of tax will not exceed that amount that would have been otherwise owed to the US assuming that the pension income was the taxpayer’s only income.