Internet shopping..good or bad?

Nowadays if you have a question, looking for information, or just curious the best thing to turn to is …the internet.
For example, my dog eats rather quickly and I want him to enjoy his food. This caused me to wonder if there are toys “out there” that can slow down his eating whilst making me feel good thinking this will force him to “enjoy his food”.
So what did I do? “flick” turned on the computer and asked google what items are available to purchase.
It’s interesting how originally my intention was to spend 20 minutes researching,
turned into at least double that time.
Since internet is readily available, companies want to offer all the information
a consumer is looking for and beyond what they are looking for, we end up spending
more time than expected and may end up spending more than initially expected.
This does not include all the side advertisements that “bling” on the side, attracting your attention to click on their “awesome deal”.
Maybe BEFORE entering the internet world, one should arm themselves with well
thought out intentions so as not to get sucked into the internet shopping world
and your credit card maxed out. 🙂

Bill by MK Karin may help disabled people

Mk Karin Elharrar who is physically disabled due to Muscular dystrophy proposed a bill helping disabled people receive a mortgage from banks .
This bill that passed on Sunday does not allow the banks to deny disabled people a mortgage on the basis of lacking life insurance.
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved the requirement of the government to prefer using
companies that employ disabled people. There are 900,000 disabled adults and over half of them are unemployed.
As Robert M. Hensel said ” There is no greater disability in society, than the inability to see a person as more .”

How to care for 2 parents ….

This article is meant to  give ideas to children who have elderly parents or parents that can’t care for themselves. I am not sure if the ideas in this article is ideal. Owning a home is a goal we all try to achieve, at least in Israel. To consider a reverse mortgage one must weigh its merits heavily.The new trend in purchasing a home or apartment is having a smaller unit attached to the property so it can either be rented out or used to care for elderly parents.

How to care for two parents at once  without going broke

YOUR MONEY

By Chris Taylor

New York (Reuters)- For years, Madeleine Smithberg has been at the forefront of American comedy as cocreator of The Daily Show and a talent coordinator for Late Show with David Letterman.

That sense of humor was especially handy during the last few years. That is because Smithberg had to cope with not one but two elderly parents in rapid decline.”It’s heartbreaking”, says Smithberg, 56 who has a production company in Los Angeles. “And yet it’s invisible, because nobody talks about it”.

Dealing with one aging parent is challenging enough, whether you are helping navigate the complex health-care system,  paying for an assisted-living facility or struggling with cognitive decline as the parent slips away. But the emotional and financial stress can be more than double if you are caring for both parents at he same time.

Israelis switch to online food shopping during wave of attacks

By Ilanit Hayut

GLOBES

The current wave of terrorist attacks has officially hit supermarket sales. Nielsen figures show that consumers bought 7 percent less food and groceries during the first two weeks of October as more Israelis choose to stay home because of the security situation.

Online sales,however, rose by double digits. But their jump did not suffice to make up for the overall gap from the drop in store sales. In that same period, online orders increased 30%.

The increase focused on several categories frequented by parents of young children and on perishable goods. For example, sales of baby formula jumped 151%.

The ongoing produce shortage, which was strongly felt during Succot, and the high prices of vegetables have also affected sales.

Sales of fruit and vegetable dropped (21%), as did cottage cheese (17.8) and bread (12.6%).

Other products that recorded a notable drop included dairy (6.5%), packaged salads (5.5%), oil and vinegar (6.2%) and fresh milk (5.5%).

Supermarkets that deliver in Beit Shemesh:

Supersol – 02-991-5219

Shop online and have it delivered to your home. This system allows you from the comfort of your home ,shop , pay and , have your food arrive at your home without leaving your home.

Super Hatzlacha- 02-991-4337

Shop what you need and have your food delivered to your home. If you live in a building that has lots of stairs, this is awesome. What’s great about this system? If you need or forgot an item last second, you can always throw it into your cart before you fill in your delivery information.

 

Budget proposals target olim

YOUR TAXES

By Leon Harris

Now that the Israeli election is long forgotten, government officials have circulated their decisions on what state budget proposals should be presented to the cabinet for approval and submission to the Knesset for enactment. Some of these proposals take aim at olin in an unpleasant way.

According to the proposals, a survey of the Global Forum on transparency and exchange of information has rated Israel “partially complaint.” This is apparently considered a low rating. Consequently, the European ban of Reconstruction  and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank apparently have announced they will stop cooperating with Israel if these “defects” are not remedied by the end of October.

Israel apparently has notified OECD it will act to amend the law to facilitate information exchange according to international standards.

What is proposed?

First, it is proposed to enable the government to exchange tax information with other governments. Currently Israel’s tax treaties allow this mainly to prevent double taxation regarding specific taxpayers, not as part of a general campaign (“no fishing expeditions”). Now it seems fishing expeditions will be allowed. Also, Israel ma now sign up to multilateral tax treaties , such as the upcoming OECD common reporting standard.

Second, it is proposed to allow the Israel Tax Authority (ITA) to obtain more information electronically from Israeli financial institutions about business and private clients’ accounts. The information will be passed to a special ITA unit that will have 45 days to review it and either delete it or pass it on to investigative tax officials if income or payments appear to have been under-reported by NIS 500,00 for the purposes of income tax, VAT or land-appreciation tax.

Third, changing are proposed regarding new Israeli residence and so-called senior returning residents (who lived abroad 10 years)- collectively referred to as olim.

Currently, olim are exempt from Israeli tax on overseas income and gains for 10 years. They are also exempt from DISCLOSING overseas income and assets to the ITA for the same 10 years. Under the proposals, the tax exemption will stay, but the disclosure exemption will be curtailed for olim who arrive in Israel on or after January 1, 2016.

In the year of arrival and the following tax year, olim would only need to disclose of foreign income and assets if a foreign body demanded this from ITA. Thereafter, olim would need to disclose their foreign income and assets each year anyway.

Comments 

Two years ago, similar disclosure proposal were included in the budget and caused a howl of protest until they were dropped. Now it seems they are back.

The new proposal may not increase the tax olim pay- just increase disclosure and bureaucracy. But many potential olim may rightly or wrongly assume a repeal of the tax exemption is around the corner.

Olim thinking of moving to Israel after January 1, 2016, might consider going through the aliya process before that date before they value their privacy. It is hard to believe that olim are mainly responsible for Israel’s woes with he Global Forum, the OECD the EBRD and the World Bank. Olim appear to be a scapegoat. To sum up, the Israeli budget proposal. are not boring, and they may be controversial. It remains to be seen what will be legislated.

As always, consult experience tax advisers in each county at an early stage in specific cases. 

leon@hcat.com

Leon Harris is a certified public accountant and tax specialist at Harris Consulting & Tax Ltd. b

Public transportation fares to Tel Aviv to be cut

By Hedy Cohen

GLOBES

Public transportation fares will be slashed as part of an effort by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon to contend with the work on the light rail in Tel Aviv and to encourage drivers to leave their cars at home. The projected costs of the plan stand at NIS 120 million.

The planned reform of the system would institute unified pricing for each of the major metropolitan areas: Tel Aviv , Jerusalem, Haifa, and Beersheba. It would radically decrease costs by allowing passengers 90 minutes to transfer between different modes of transportation – bus, train,light rail, and MetroFi rapid bus transit systems without paying an additional charge, as long as they remain within the designated area.

The plan also calls for significantly reducing the prices of monthly hybrid passes that allow unlimited rides on both trains and buses throughout the metropolitan area.

For example, under the new regulations, a monthly pass for rail and bus use between Tel Aviv and Rishon Lezion would cost NIS 252 instead of NIS 400, a decrease of 37 percent. Between Tel Aviv and Rehovot, the cost of the pass would fall to NIS 286 from NIS 491, down 42%, while commuters making the journey between Tel Aviv an Netanya would save 30%.

 

Unemployment rate rises slightly

By Kobi Yeshayahou

GLOBES

Israel’s unemployment rate was 5 percent in May, 0.2% higher than April’s 4.8% rate, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported Monday.

The number of participants in the labor force among those aged 15 and over reached 3.833 million in May, of whom 3.643 million were employed and 190,000 unemployed. There were 1.925 million employed men, compared with 1.921 million in April and 1.717 million employed women, compared with 1.718 million in April.

 

The statistics bureau also reported that the number of those employed full-time (35 hours a week or more) was 5.95 higher than in April (136,000 more employees), while the number of part-time employees (less than 35 weekly hours) declined by 3/5% compared with April (34,000 fewer employees).

5

Gasoline prices set to rise NIS 0.10 on Thursday night

By Hedy Cohen

Globes

The price of a liter of 95-octane gasoline at self-service pumps in Israel is set to rise NIS 0.10 to NIS 6.62 on Thursday night at midnight, May 1, sources in Israel’s energy market believe. The rise is caused by higher oil prices on global markets.

This would be the third consecutive month that fuel prices have risen in Israel after falling sharply to their lowest level in five years in February.

On global markets, the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) has reached a three – month high of $57.15, and a barrel of Brent crude is selling for $65.28, a three-month high. Prices are influenced by growing demand, dwindling supply and Middle East tensions.

The price of gasoline fell by NIS 0.63 per liter at the beginning of January, by NIS 0.15 at the beginning of December and by NIS 0.27 at the beginning of November due to the decline in the price of oil on world markets.

Foreign banks exp3ct BoI to cut interst rate eventually

By Amiram Barkat

Globes

Leading foreign banks are convinced that the Bank of Israel will lower the country’s benchmark interest rate to zero in the next three months and subsequently launch quantitative easing.

Merrill Lynch expects the Bank of Israel Monteray Committee, headed by Governor Karnit Flug, to cut the interest rate from 0.1 percent to zero when it announces the interest rate for May on Monday. “The Bank of Israel loves to surprise investors, so it may well be that the interest-rate cut will be postponed,” Merrill Lynch said.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said it is likely that the Bank of Israel wont cut the interest rate at Mondays meeting. But RBS does expect a rate cut in the coming three months. RBS said the shekel exchange rate against the worlds major currencies is only 0.5% less than when the Bank of Israel cut the rate 15 basis points to its current historic low at the end of February.Furthermore, RBS said macroeconomic indicators for March show weakness in export orders, suggesting that the shekel is too strong.

HSBC has repeated its forecast last month that the Bank of Israel will cut the interest rate and launch quantitative easement. HSBC had predicted a bond-buying program of between NIS 27 billion to NIS 72b.

Merrill Lynch forecast that Israeli inteest rates will remain at zero at least until the second quarer of 2016.It will only begin rising again in May 2016 and will end 2016 at 0.25%, Merrill Lynch said. In its previous forecast, Merrill Lynch predicted a 0.75% interest rate at the end of 2016.

Very interesting article about taxes on food and homes written on December 1,2014

Netanyahu calls for eliminating duties on food imports, taxing multiple-home owners

PMO: Imported milk 55%more expensive because of tariffs

By Niv Elis

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on Finance Minister Yair Lapid to reduce or completely do away with import duties on food products, while proposing that owners of three or more homes be taxed to cover resulting budgetary shortfalls.

“This is a step that would immediatly create competition and lower prices,” Netanyahu said during a strategic discussion on the Israeli ceconmy with his office’s National Economic Council.

The Prime Minister’s Office found that duties on some items significantly increased the price to consumers such as the 55 percent tariff on milk and 40% on milk-based drinks, which are being passed on directly to shoppers. Import taxes added 28% to the cost of yogurt; 36% to the price of soft cheeses; 41% to butter; 30% to eggs; 17% to olive oil; and 12.1%-21.7% on frozen chicken, according to the PMO.

Lapid and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett already have reduced import tariffs on certain dairy products and meats, and the government has approved their plan to reduce duties on pasta, cereals, and grain imports, which is set to go into effect in 2015

Food prices have become a persistent political problem for the government over the past few years. In 2011, the high price of cottage cheese paved the way for massive street protests on the cost of living, and more recently, a viral Facebook posting comparing the high price of local pudding snack, Milky, to the price of a similar product in Germany sparked outrage.

Lapid has responded by calling for more products to be placed under price supervision, which would regulate their sale price.

Sunday’s declaration took place during a meeting with PMO Chief Economic Adviser Eugene Kandel on preparing Israel’s labor force for the future and increasing human capital.

“We must put people center with an emphasis an emphasis on imparting fitting skills and redesigning the relationship between labor and the economy based on the north European model,” Kandel said.

Kandel’s reference to north Europe was to a model of investing directly in human capital, as opposed to one that focuses on investing in the work place, which he ascribed to countries such as Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain.

In a survey of future labor- market expectations, Kandel said manual or repetitive jobs, such as broker, insurance agent and dispatcher, were at  high risk for disappearing.The more promising fields were those that relied on creativity, emotional intelligence and the ability to respond to changing circumstances such as research, caregivers and managers.

The fear is that the narrowing out of mid-level jobs would create greater inequality, leaving an abundance of jobs at the low and high ends of the wage spectrum.

Most of the recommendations focused on education, training and creating tools to help people change and advance their careers.