Appeals Committee (Haifa) 26310-08-21 Ashdar Construction Company Ltd. v. Haifa Real Estate Taxation Administration

Judgment

Committee Chair, the Honorable Judge Orit Weinstein:

Introduction:

1. This judgment deals with a decision on three appeals, the hearing of which was consolidated according to a decision of February 7, 2022: two of them - Appeals Committee 26310-08-21 and Appeals Committee 72884-10-21 - Submitted in relation to the decisions of the Haifa Real Estate Taxation Administration (hereinafter - Respondent 1), while the third – Appeals Committee 10167-11-21 - Submitted on the decision of the Central Real Estate Taxation Administration (hereinafter – Respondent 2), whereas according to the Supreme Court's decision of July 6, 2022 (Miscellaneous Applications 725/22The Honorable Judge A. Stein), the hearing of the aforementioned appeal was transferred from the Appeals Committee of the Central District Court of Lod to the Appeals Committee.

For the sake of convenience, respondent 1 and respondent 2 will hereinafter be referred to jointly as the respondent.

2. The appellant, Ashdar Construction Company in a Tax Appeal (hereinafter – The Appellant), filed the appeals under consideration due to the Respondent's decision to reject motions, filed on its behalf on December 2, 2019, to amend the purchase tax assessments (hereinafter: The Request to Amend an Assessment), in connection with its winning of the "Buyer's Price" tenders in Tirat HaCarmel, Haifa - Kiryat Eliezer and Kiryat Ono (the request to amend the assessment was attached As Appendix A to the amended statement of appeal).
3. The appellant reported in the framework of its self-assessments, which were submitted during 2016, after winning each of the "Buyer's Price" tenders relevant to the appeals in this case and within the framework of the date prescribed by law, on the purchase of rights in the land and paid purchase tax according to its aforementioned self-assessments (the appellant's self-assessments were attached as Appendix E to the amended appeal).
4. In the framework of the motion to amend the assessment, the appellant requested the respondent to determine that her engagement with the Israel Lands Authority (hereinafter – ILA), after winning the tender in the framework of the "Buyer's Price" project, does not constitute the purchase of a "right in real estate" in the sense and in accordance with Section 9 of the Real Estate Taxation Law (Appreciation and Purchase) 5723-1963 (hereinafter – Real Estate Taxation Law or The Law), and therefore it is not liable to pay purchase tax. The appellant therefore asked the respondent to approve the correction of the reports submitted by it and the return of the purchase tax amounts paid by it.
5. In a decision dated June 20, 2021, the respondent rejected the request to amend the assessment on the grounds that none of the grounds for amending the assessment were met under Article 85 The law, and on the merits of the matter, determined that the claim that the acquisition of a "right in real estate" does not contradict the appellant's own consent to the essence of the transaction, constitutes a breach of the terms of the tender, and in any case the claim is inconsistent with the language of the tender and the agreements signed by the appellant (the respondent's decision in the application to amend the assessment was attached as Appendix C to the amended statement of appeal).

The Ottoman Settlement [Old Version] 19166.       I will preface by noting that although this judgment is decisive in the three consolidated appeals as stated above, dozens of appeals were submitted to the Appeals Committee of the Haifa District Court by many other entrepreneurial real estate companies, which won the "Buyer's Price" tenders and also submitted requests to amend the assessment similar, if not identical, to the request to amend the assessment submitted by the appellant here, on the same grounds and for identical reasons.  and their application was rejected by respondent 1.