Caselaw

Appeals Committee (Haifa) 26310-08-21 Ashdar Construction Company Ltd. v. Haifa Real Estate Taxation Administration - part 56

February 5, 2026
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"From this we will further learn that the more comprehensive the authorization to use the land, and the more the owner of the right is entitled to determine the general use that will be made of the land (of course, according to its nature and within the framework of legal restrictions), the closer his possession (for the purposes of the Betterment Tax Law) is to the possession of a "lease". 

                        ...

                        Therefore, the "power", the powers, the responsibility, the taking of risks, etc., will lead to an economic conclusion that indicates the status of the owner of the right (the contractor) in relation to the land (the status of the owner), so that the parties will be subject to betterment tax and purchase tax, while the proprietary characteristics in themselves may not attest to the sale of "ownership ownership" in the land at that time.  By analogy from the aforesaid, and in light of the addition to the definition of a right in real estate in the provision of Amendment No. 15 to the Law, it seems that Even with regard to rent (which is under the Betterment Tax Law) and the imposition of betterment tax in the case of the sale of a lease of the type of long-term lease, it is appropriate to expand the framework of the above characteristics to include economic characteristics such as "power", powers, responsibility, risk-taking, the degree of the economic connection that has been created between the land and the tenant and the degree of economic disconnect that has been created between the landlord and that real estate."

  1. Moreover, case law made a clear distinction between a transaction that essentially sells (and purchases) a right in real estate, and a transaction of ordering construction services. In the meantime, The case law referred to the format of the examination and determined that a decision on this question will be made from a comprehensive view of all the terms of the engagement between the parties and with a substantive examination of it, as opposed to a technical and narrow form.

In other words, the "full picture" reflected in the totality of the contractual terms is what determines, and not a partial situation reflected in one document or another, or in one title or another given to the transaction by the parties or any of them.

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