The Tax Authority concludes a year of operational activity within the framework of Operation “Safe Route” and the national struggle to deal with crime in Arab society to strengthen governance and deterrence. Throughout the year, the Tax Authority operated in the Arab sector on four levels. On the first level, the investigative offices of the Income Tax and VAT worked in cooperation with various units of the Israel Police, to damage the economic infrastructure of the crime organizations and the main perpetrators of violence in the Arab sector, by seizing assets, locating tax offenses and using collection measures. As part of the activity on this level, The Tax Authority has assets worth approximately NIS 185 million under the Money Laundering Prohibition Law and 15 luxury vehicles were seized, 203 arrests were made, 1,212 suspects were interrogated and 49 demands were issued to open cases and 44 demands for capital declarations.
On a second level, the activity focused on enforcing compliance with bookkeeping instructions and the provisions of the law to reduce the use of cash among financial service providers, especially money changers, which were marked as a focus for money laundering for criminal elements. As part of this targeted activity, which was carried out in cooperation with the Israel Police, enforcement actions were carried out among 37 financial service providers and offenses of failure to register income in the total amount of approximately NIS 131 million and violations of the law to reduce the use of cash in the total amount of approximately NIS 28 million were discovered. As a result of the activity, assets worth approximately NIS 31 million were seized under the Money Laundering Prohibition Law and sanctions totaling approximately NIS 7 million were imposed under the law to reduce the use of cash.
Another level of activity was collection from debtors to the Tax Authority, which was conducted by the national collection enforcement unit of the Tax Authority (HOTSL) and the regional VAT offices, in cooperation with the Israel Police. As part of this activity, 838 vehicles were seized from 1,122 debtors who had accumulated debts of approximately NIS 420 million.
Finally, the activities of the tax authority also included increased enforcement among businesses in the Arab sector, carried out by the bookkeeping units in the regional income tax offices and the national bookkeeping unit. As part of this activity, 718 audits were carried out for businesses, and in 488 of them (67%) violations were discovered. The offenses included 264 offenses of failure to register income by the business owner, in a total amount of approximately NIS 9 million, 119 offenses of failure to maintain books and violations of the law to reduce the use of cash in a total amount of approximately NIS 428 thousand.
The Tax Authority emphasized that its activities on these four levels are aimed at achieving two main goals: to damage the economic infrastructure of the main perpetrators of violence, and to increase compliance with the law and cooperation with the authorities through vigorous enforcement of the tax laws.
According to the Director of the Tax Authority, Eran Yaakov, there is a close connection between the enforcement of tax laws and the fight against violent crime: “The activity of the tax authority in Arab society in the past year damaged the economic infrastructure that allows criminal organizations to operate and commit violent crimes. At the same time, the activity contributed to the strengthening of governance and the feeling that the law is the law and the State of Israel will enforce the laws everywhere and at any time. Creating trust among the public in the enforcement authorities and the rule of law is A decisive step in reducing crime in any form and the Tax Authority will continue to work in cooperation with other enforcement agencies to achieve these goals.”
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