On February 15, 2023, the temporary order that expanded the granting of income tax credit points to parents of children aged 6 to 12 will expire. This is a temporary order initiated by the previous Minister of Finance, Avigdor Lieberman.
The Union of Chambers of Commerce stated that “the time order is relevant to over 600,000 parents who receive a net salary increase of up to thousands of shekels per year. Until the installation of this temporary order, credit points were given to parents of children up to the age of 5 only. The temporary order corrected a historical distortion, since the cost of raising children does not end when they reach the age of 5, children and youth up to the age of 18 are usually next to their parents at the table. If the curfew is not extended, the net income of hundreds of thousands of households caring for children will be immediately affected by hundreds of shekels per month.
The Union of Chambers of Commerce is calling today on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to extend the curfew, to consider establishing it as a standing order and even to extend it to parents of children up to the age of 18. The union claims that in addition to making it easier for parents, it is a curfew that contributes greatly to encouraging economic activity in the economy. Its cancellation will harm thousands of businesses, including small and medium-sized businesses.
“The benefit increased the net salary for employees who are parents, without imposing a cost on the employers,” said Attorney Uriel Lin, president of the Association of Chambers of Commerce. In an appeal to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Lin claims that “the damage to household wages will also result in an immediate damage to the procurement of goods and services that characterize the needs of families with children, including clothing, footwear, toys and food, while harming output and employment.”
According to Lin, the additional meaning of canceling the curfew is the pressure that will be exerted on the employers for wage increases. “Many workers, those with families and small children will have to deal not only with an increasing cost of living, rising mortgages and electricity prices, but also with a cut of hundreds of shekels in their monthly income. As a result, pressure will be created on the employers to raise wages in order to compensate for the damage to the net wages,” says Lin.
The Association of Chambers of Commerce claims, as mentioned, that it is very important to act to extend the temporary order and even consider establishing it as a permanent order. In addition, the union calls on the Minister of Finance to consider extending it to parents of children up to the age of 18.