Ultimately, the Ackerman case was decided, as stated, in favor of the Real Estate Tax Administration on the basis of the purchase group alternative only, regardless of the existence or non-fulfillment of an undertaking on the part of the sellers to finish the construction.
- About the Judgment Ackerman No appeal was filed (and as noted, the appeal was in fact decided according to the issue The Other, the Purchasing Group Alternative).
- A few years have passed and the question of"Undertaking on the part of the seller" She again came to the courts, this time to the Appeals Committee before the Central-Lod District Court, in an appeal Appeals Committee 59441-10-17 Mary Lesman et al. v. Central Real Estate Taxation Director, given on April 27,2020. The appellants there received as a gift rights in the land for which there was an undertaking by a developer to build apartments as part of a combination transaction. There was no undertaking by the givers to finish the construction of the apartments. The Chairman of the Appeals Committee, the Honorable Justice A. Gorman, adopted a more expansive approach than was applied in the matter Ackerman. It was noted that "... There is no dispute that the appellants received from the gift givers an asset that includes an undertaking to complete the construction of the apartments by the developer... There was an undertaking by the developer to complete the construction and to deliver residential apartments whose construction had been completed, and that in accordance with the combination agreement, this undertaking of the developer towards the transferors was assigned to the purchasers" (From the introduction and paragraph 7 of the judgment).
- We will quote the rest of the words of the Honorable Justice Gorman in detail:
"... In accordance with the definition set forth in Section 9 of the Law regarding Purchase Tax, an 'apartment on paper' may also be considered a residential apartment...
Again, the emphasis is on the planned future use of the land. And when this use is residential, the property will be considered a residential apartment (even though, objectively, at the time of the sale, we do not yet have a residential apartment).