Home and utilities

Watch the clock here

• Claim your arnona (municipal tax) discount

  A 90% discount for 12 months, which you must use within your first 24 months. It is opt-in and never automatic.

• Use your purchase tax (mas rechisha) benefit before it lapses

  The reduced oleh rate applies to a home bought from 1 year before aliyah to 7 years after. On a NIS 3M apartment the gap is roughly NIS 181,000.

  Worth roughly ₪181,000 if you use it

• Pay your purchase tax within 60 days of signing

  Once you sign a purchase contract the mas rechisha clock is separate and much shorter than the 7-year eligibility window: payment is due to the Israel Tax Authority within 60 days.

• Plan your shipments around the 3-in-3 customs allowance

  You may bring three tax-exempt shipments within 3 years of aliyah. How you split them decides whether the exemption holds.

Your plan turns these into real dates counted from your aliyah day.

The steps in this domain (7)

• 1
  In person

  Find and rent an apartment

  Where the real inventory is, why private listings beat agents, and the guarantor and post-dated-cheque demands that catch olim off guard.

• 2
  Solve the arev (guarantor) problem

  The single biggest rental blocker for olim. Landlords want an Israeli co-signer with local credit history, and you have no one to ask.

• 3
  Your local municipality

  Claim your arnona (municipal tax) discount

  A 90% discount for 12 months, which you must use within your first 24 months. It is opt-in and never automatic.

• 4
  Israel Tax AuthorityIn person

  Use your purchase tax (mas rechisha) benefit before it lapses

  The reduced oleh rate applies to a home bought from 1 year before aliyah to 7 years after. On a NIS 3M apartment the gap is roughly NIS 181,000.

• 5
  Israel Tax AuthorityIn person

  Pay your purchase tax within 60 days of signing

  Once you sign a purchase contract the mas rechisha clock is separate and much shorter than the 7-year eligibility window: payment is due to the Israel Tax Authority within 60 days.

• 6
  Set up electricity, water, gas and internet

  Mostly doable by phone or online, which makes this one of the few genuinely easy steps. The gas safety inspection is the exception.

• 7
  Israel CustomsIn person

  Plan your shipments around the 3-in-3 customs allowance

  You may bring three tax-exempt shipments within 3 years of aliyah. How you split them decides whether the exemption holds.

Resources (37)