Arnona Discount for Low-Income Households in Israel

Israeli municipalities may cut arnona (ארנונה, the municipal property tax) by up to 90% for a household whose average gross monthly income is below a national table set by household size. For 2026 the table has four bands, up to 90%, 70%, 50% and 30%, measured against average income in 2025: a person living alone qualifies for the top band with up to ILS 3,513 a month and for some discount up to ILS 5,857, and a household of four up to ILS 8,996 and ILS 14,994. The discount is not automatic and not guaranteed. Each council decides whether to give it and at what rate, and you have to apply every year. The rules below come from the Arrangements in the State Economy (Arnona Discount) Regulations 5753-1993 as amended in April 2026, checked on 29 October 2026.

Is the low-income discount automatic?

No. The regulations say a council “may” grant this discount, which makes it a discretionary discount (הנחת רשות), not a mandatory one. A municipality can refuse it, grant it only in part or add conditions of its own, and it publishes its choice each year in its arnona order. Since April 2026 a council may also approve discretionary discounts only if the lost revenue will not push its budget into a running deficit, after its treasurer gives an opinion. That is why two neighbouring cities can treat the same household differently.

The discount is also a claim, not a refund that arrives by itself. You apply to your municipality for each year, and the application is handled by the municipal treasurer (גזבר, gizbar) or the arnona department acting for the treasurer.

Whose income counts?

Income means the gross income, from any source, of the registered holder of the property and of everyone living with them, including a foster child. It includes payments from Bituach Leumi (National Insurance) unless they are on the list below. So the income test looks at everyone living in the flat: a spouse or partner’s salary counts in full, and so does the income of other adults who live there, subject to the rules for sons and daughters.

What is not counted

• Bituach Leumi child allowance and old-age and survivors’ pensions (the benefits paid under chapters 4 and 11 of the National Insurance Law), and the disabled-child benefit.
• Half of the monthly income of a son or daughter who lives with you. For one son or daughter only, income up to the monthly minimum wage (as updated on 1 January of the discount year) is not counted at all, and if that child earns more, the part equal to the minimum wage is left out.
• Rent you receive for letting your own flat, up to the rent you pay for the flat you live in.
• The special and additional compensation paid to reservists under the Reserve Service Law.

Everything else counts. For 2024 and 2025 a council could also decide to leave reserve-duty pay from Bituach Leumi out of the calculation; that temporary rule has expired and the regulation no longer offers it for 2026.

How the monthly average is worked out

For an employee, the average is gross monthly income over the 12 months before the year of the discount, so a 2026 claim uses January to December 2025. For most years up to 2025, a temporary rule let employees use October to December of the previous year instead, or the full 12 months on request; for 2026 there is no such rule, so only the 12-month average applies.

For the self-employed, the average is the taxable income in the latest annual income-tax assessment you have, divided by 12 and adjusted to the average consumer price index of October, November and December before the discount year, plus average income from other sources that the assessment does not include. The regulations do not say how to treat someone who is both employed and self-employed, so ask the municipality how it will read your papers.

The 2026 income table

Find the number of people living in the home, then the column your average gross monthly income for 2025 falls into. The column heading is the most the council may give; it can choose a lower rate.

For households of 10 or more, take the nine-person limit for the band and add the amount shown for each person beyond nine. For example, a household of 11 qualifies for the top band with income up to the nine-person limit of ILS 15,743 plus twice ILS 1,125.

The amounts are now indexed: from 2026 the regulation updates them every 1 January by the change in the minimum wage, and the Interior Ministry publishes the new table in the official gazette. The table for 2027 claims was published in July 2026 and corrected in August, so check the 2027 figures with your municipality when you apply in January.

Worked example (illustration)

A family of four: two parents with combined gross pay averaging ILS 9,500 a month in 2025, a son of 22 earning ILS 5,000 a month, and a daughter earning ILS 3,000 from a part-time job. They also receive child allowance. The child allowance is not counted. The son’s pay is below the minimum wage, so as the one child whose income is disregarded, none of it counts. Half of the daughter’s pay counts, ILS 1,500. Counted income is ILS 11,000, just above the four-person limit of ILS 10,996, so the family falls in the up-to-50% band. If the daughter did not work, the counted ILS 9,500 would sit between ILS 8,996 and ILS 10,996 and the family could get up to 70%. These figures are made up to show the method; your municipality applies its own rate and checks your documents.

What changed in 2026

The Interior Ministry replaced the table in April 2026, with effect from 1 January 2026. Until 2025, households of one to six people had bands of up to 80%, 60%, 40% and 20%, and only households of seven or more had 90%, 70%, 50% and 30%. From 2026 every household size has the same four bands of up to 90%, 70%, 50% and 30%, and most income limits rose: the ceiling for any discount for a household of four went from ILS 11,640 in the 2025 table to ILS 14,994. For one person and for households of eight or nine the top limit moved slightly down, though their rates went up. The Finance Ministry’s chief economist estimated in July 2026 that the change adds about ILS 1.1 billion a year in discounts and about 100,000 eligible households, and warned that the lost revenue falls hardest on weaker municipalities.

Other routes for people on benefits

Compare the disability route without adding headline percentages. The disability-discount guide distinguishes recognition and benefit categories, the family-member rules and a separate further-refund procedure for eligible special-disability cases.

Some households qualify through a benefit or a hardship route instead of the table. You get only one discount, the highest you qualify for, so compare them.

• Nursing benefit (גמלת סיעוד, gimlat siud). A person entitled to Bituach Leumi’s long-term care benefit may get up to 70%, at the council’s discretion, with no cap on the area.
• Income support (הבטחת הכנסה, havtachat hachnasa) since before 2003. Recipients who began receiving it before 1 January 2003, with no break of six consecutive months since, may get up to 70%. People who started later go through the income table above.
• Maintenance (alimony) from Bituach Leumi since before 2003. The same closed-group rule applies, again up to 70%.
• Hardship (נזקקות, nizkakut). The council’s discounts committee may give up to 70% to a holder who had exceptionally high medical costs for themselves or a family member, or whose finances worsened sharply after an unexpected event. This route looks at the actual situation, so it can help a household whose 2025 income no longer reflects reality.

Seniors have separate pension-based discounts, explained in our guide to senior benefits in Israel, and new immigrants have their own arnona discount covered in olim housing rights.

Renters, roommates and students

You do not have to own the flat. The discount is given to the holder of the property, and a tenant registered as the holder can claim it on the same income test. Tel Aviv-Yafo’s arnona page, for example, explains that a tenant on a lease of at least 12 months can be the holder once a written notice is given to the municipality; until then the owner normally stays the holder on the account. When you work out the full monthly cost of renting, a discount you are likely to get can make a real difference.

The regulations say nothing about shared flats. Some municipalities give an eligible roommate a discount on their share of the area, others do not, so ask the arnona department before you count on it. Being a student does not by itself give an arnona discount: there is no student category in the regulations, and a student with a low income applies through the same table. Our guide to renting by household type covers the student and shared-flat side in more detail.

How to apply

In Tel Aviv-Yafo, for example, the municipality’s English arnona page asks people applying for a discount to bring their documents to the Municipal Service Center at 69 Even Gvirol Street, and gives *3013 for questions and a link to an online application form in Hebrew (checked 29 October 2026). Other cities have their own forms, routes and dates.

Tel Aviv-Yafo’s current Hebrew discount forms, checked on 12 November 2026, ask applicants to book an appointment on the city website or by phone on *3013. The printed service hours are Sunday to Wednesday from 08:00 to 15:30 and Thursday from 08:00 to 15:00, and the forms advise checking the city website in case the hours change. For the income-based discount, employees attach payslips, the self-employed attach the income-tax assessment for the previous year, and applicants choose between National Insurance certificates and a signed confidentiality waiver that lets the city obtain them from National Insurance. A declaration on the form says that untrue or incomplete details cancel the discount and require repayment with interest and linkage differences.

How to keep the discount

• The discount is given only if the rest of the year’s arnona is paid in advance, by standing order or under a payment arrangement the municipality accepts.
• If the remaining balance for the year is not paid in full by 31 December, the discount is cancelled from that day and added back to the bill.
• One discount per person: if you qualify on several grounds you get the highest one. If one holder already gets a discount on the property, no other holder of the same property gets one, and a person holding two properties gets a discount on one only.
• If you held the flat for only part of the year, the discount is given in proportion to the months you held it.

Earlier years and retroactive claims

The regulations do not give a right to claim past years. Some municipalities consider a late claim for an earlier year under their own rules, and if yours does, the income table of that year applies. These were the tables for 2025 and 2024.

If the municipality refuses

Ask for the decision and its reasons in writing, check that your income was calculated with the exclusions above, and ask whether the hardship committee can look at your case. A formal objection (השגה, hasaga) covers mistakes in the bill itself, such as the area, the zone, the use or who is recorded as the holder; our arnona guide explains objections, deadlines and every other discount in one place. For a refused discount, a legal adviser or a rights organisation can tell you what route is open in your city.

Questions people ask

Does my partner’s salary count if the flat is in my name?

Yes. The test counts the gross income of the holder and everyone living with them, including a spouse or partner.

Do my working adult children count?

Partly. Half of a son’s or daughter’s income counts, and for one of them nothing is counted up to the minimum wage.

Is child allowance income?

No. Child allowance, old-age and survivors’ pensions and the disabled-child benefit are left out.

I rent. Can I still get it?

Yes, if you are the registered holder on the arnona account and your household meets the income test.

What if I start paying late in the year?

Clear the full remaining balance by 31 December. If you do not, the discount for that year is cancelled.

Sources

1. Arrangements in the State Economy (Arnona Discount) Regulations 5753-1993, consolidated text, including amendment No. 2 5786-2026 (Reshumot KT 12366, 20 April 2026, in force from 1 January 2026): regulations 2(a)(7), 2(a)(8), 7, 15 to 17, 20 to 22A and the First Schedule. Checked 29 October 2026.
2. Ministry of Interior, types of arnona discounts (file dated 22 November 2023): rows for the nursing benefit, hardship committee, and pre-2003 income support and maintenance recipients.
3. Ministry of Finance, Chief Economist Division, “The 2026 reform of the arnona discount structure”, published 5 July 2026.
4. Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, Arnona and City Taxes, checked 29 October 2026.

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