Finance Commitee: Raise 1st home purchase tax threshold to NIS 1.6m

Most apartments in high demand areas cost more than NIS 1.2 million.
Knesset Finance Committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) told the government to raise the purchase tax threshold on a first home to NIS 1.6 million from the current NIS 1,139,000. He cited the fact that most apartments in high demand areas cost more than NIS 1.2 million. .

Ministry of Finance housing coordinator Reuven Kogan said that widening the purchase tax brackets and raising the threshold would affect tax revenuesand said that the median home price was NIS 865,000, so there was no genuine need to raise the tax threshold

. He further stated that, in 2010, 67% of buyers of a first home were exempt from the purchase tax, and that if the threshold were raised to NIS 1.4 million, the exemption would apply to 90% of buyers of first homes.