Judge
Judge Alex Stein:
- I agree with the conclusion reached by my colleague, Justice Grosskopf.
- My path to this result is much shorter than that of my friends.
- The imposition of a tax on undivided profits in primary legislation does not infringe on the constitutional right to property. This is because the basis of the tax is the taxpayers' profits, its calculation maintains horizontal justice - in the sense that identical profits are taxed at the same rate - and since it is not a case of expropriation of the individual's property. This was decided more than a century ago within the framework of American constitutional law, in the shadow of which constitutional protection against damage to a person's property was established in our states (see: Brushaber v. Union P. Co. 240 U.S. 1, 24-25 (1916)), and I do not believe that this constitutional insight can be questioned. In the judgment given in the Brushaber case, it was held, inter alia, that it is inconceivable that the Constitution will say anything and the opposite by authorizing Congress to enact tax legislation, and at the same time to give citizens protection of their property, which includes a fundamental exemption from paying taxes. This is also the case here, since section 1 of the Basic Law: The State Economy, which authorizes the Knesset to enact tax laws, cannot be interpreted as a provision that ostensibly contradicts the protection of a person's property by virtue of section 3 of the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.
- I will therefore not respect the petitioners' desire to "reinvent the wheel". Instead, I will make do with referring to the Israeli sources that confirm my words.
First, I will quote the President's words M. Shamgar Other Municipality Requests 6821/93 United Mizrahi Bank in Tax Appeal v. Migdal Kfar Cooperative, IsrSC 49(4) 221, 333 (1995):
"The purpose of constitutional legislation in the field of property is not for the court to become the supreme regulator of economic and economic arrangements and to examine the wisdom of economic policy. There is no intention that within the framework of constitutional supervision, the court will reorganize the economic arrangements, in a way that it deems more just or wiser."