When you buy or sell property in Israel, you file a declaration with the Israel Tax Authority’s Real Estate Taxation office (מיסוי מקרקעין, misui mekarkein) within 30 days and pay the purchase tax (מס רכישה, mas rechisha) or capital gains tax (מס שבח, mas shevach) you calculated within 60 days of the transaction date. The office then has 8 months to accept your figures or issue its own assessment (שומה, shuma). If it asks for more, you pay the balance within 15 days of receiving the assessment notice, or you file an objection (השגה, hasaga) within 30 days and pay only the amount you do not dispute. Late filing costs ILS 310 for every two weeks in 2026, and late payment adds 0.2% a week plus linkage and interest. The rules below come from the Real Estate Taxation Law (Capital Gain and Purchase) 1963, the Tax Authority’s 2026 guide for sellers and buyers, its instruction 1/2026 and its online service pages, all checked on 29 October 2026.
This page is about what happens after you sign: paying, the penalties for being late, and what you can do when you think an assessment is wrong. How much tax you owe in the first place is covered in our purchase tax guide for buyers and our mas shevach guide for sellers.
Source: Israel Tax Authority, guide for sellers and buyers of real estate rights 2026, assessment and payment chapters, checked 29 Oct 2026.
How an assessment is made
The declaration you file (or your lawyer files) is your self-assessment. Within 20 days of filing, the office sends you a notice of the tax due under your own declaration, and that notice counts as an assessment notice. Within 8 months of the declaration, an assessment inspector at the regional office either approves your self-assessment or, if there are reasonable grounds to think the declaration is wrong, sets the sale date, values, gain and tax by best judgment (מיטב השפיטה, meitav hashfita). A best-judgment assessment must give its reasons and the way it was calculated, and you must get a reasonable chance to make your case first. In practice the inspector invites you or your lawyer to a discussion, often by video or phone.
If no declaration was filed at all, the director can demand one and, if you still do not file, assess you on the information the office already has. An incomplete declaration is treated the same way and also triggers the late-declaration penalty.
You can check online whether and when the office has handled your assessment, free, through the Tax Authority’s assessment status system (מסמ”ק, Masmak). You log in with a smart card and enter the regional office, the tax type and the assessment number.
Deadlines after you sign
Most buyers and sellers in Israel meet these dates through their lawyer, but the tax is yours and so are the penalties. The clock for each one starts on a different day, so it helps to see them together.
| What | Deadline | Counted from |
|---|---|---|
| File the declaration (self-assessment) | 30 days | The sale or purchase date |
| Pay the tax you calculated | 60 days | The transaction date. If the section 51 deferral applies, the tax is due on the date for the section 76 notice instead |
| Tell the office a section 51 deferral condition has ended | 14 days | The day the condition stopped (for example the buyer paid more than 50% of the price for purchase tax, or 40% for mas shevach, or took possession) |
| Pay the balance in an assessment notice | 15 days | The day the assessment notice was delivered to you |
| File an objection | 30 days | The day the assessment notice was delivered to you |
| Pay the undisputed amount if you object | 30 days | The day the assessment notice was delivered to you |
| Pay the tax set in the objection decision | 15 days | The day you receive the decision |
| Appeal to the appeals committee (ערר, arar) | 30 days | The day you receive the objection decision. The undisputed amount is then due within 30 days of that day |
| Appeal to the Supreme Court, on a point of law only | 45 days | The day the committee’s decision was given |
| Ask for a correction of the assessment | 4 years | The day the assessment was made |
Source: Real Estate Taxation Law 1963, sections 51, 73, 76, 78, 85, 87 to 91, and the Tax Authority guide 2026, payment chapter, checked 29 Oct 2026.
The section 51 deferral is common in sales paid in stages: the tax waits until possession passes, an irrevocable power of attorney is given, or enough of the price is paid. It never moves the 30 days filing deadline, and linkage and interest still run from day 60. Our guide to signing a property contract in Israel explains how these dates fit into a purchase, and sellers can see how they fit a staged deal in the payment schedule for selling.
Penalties for filing or paying late
Most penalties apply to buyers and sellers alike, and some reach people who owe no tax at all but still had to report. The two-week amounts are updated every 16 January; the figures below apply from 16 January 2026 to 15 January 2027.
| Penalty | Amount | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Late declaration | ILS 310 for every two weeks of delay | The declaration was not filed within 30 days (section 94A) |
| Late section 76 notice | ILS 250 for every two weeks of delay | You did not report within 14 days that a section 51 deferral condition ended |
| Late payment | 0.2% of the unpaid amount for every week | Any amount due under the law and not paid on time (section 94B). Not charged for a period already charged with the late-declaration penalty |
| Linkage and interest | Consumer price index rise plus 4% a year | Tax not paid within 60 days of the transaction, even when payment was deferred under section 51 (section 94) |
| Deficiency penalty | 15% of the deficiency, or 30% if deliberate | The tax finally due is higher than the declared tax by more than 50% of the tax due, and the director believes it came from the seller’s negligence or a missing declaration (section 95). Linkage and interest are added |
| Administrative fine | 5% of the tax due, plus linkage and interest | A buyer or seller who owes tax and filed late without a justified reason |
| Administrative fine, exempt deals | 0.2% of the value of the right sold, plus linkage and interest | Someone exempt from tax who filed late without sufficient reason |
Sources: Israel Tax Authority, Real Estate Taxation instruction 1/2026 (2026 amounts), 18 January 2026, and the Tax Authority guide 2026, payment chapter, checked 29 Oct 2026.
What a late payment costs: a worked example
Illustration only, using the current weekly rate: you owe ILS 100,000 under an assessment notice and pay it six weeks after the late-payment period began. The penalty is 0.2% × 6 weeks × ILS 100,000 = ILS 1,200. Linkage and interest come on top and are calculated separately. For an assessment, the late-payment period starts 14 days after the assessment was delivered to you; for a self-assessment, from the day it became final. The real figure on your account can differ, so check the debt shown in the payment system before you pay.
Waivers, allocation and the right to a trial
- The director may waive the late-declaration penalty if the delay had justified circumstances, and may waive the late-payment penalty, the deficiency penalty and linkage and interest, in whole or in part, for sufficient reason. Ask in writing and explain why.
- A payment toward a tax debt is split proportionally between its parts (mas shevach, purchase tax, linkage and interest). You cannot choose to pay off the tax first and leave the interest.
- If you receive an administrative fine you may decline to pay it and tell the regional office within 30 days that you want to stand trial instead.
- Collection of tax, linkage, interest and penalties follows the Taxes Ordinance (Collection), and the regional collection department handles liens and payment arrangements.
How to pay
The Tax Authority’s online payment service for real estate taxation takes payment vouchers and debts for mas shevach, the buyer’s advance on account of the seller’s mas shevach, sales tax and purchase tax, and can produce a voucher for paying at the Postal Bank. From 1 June 2026 card payments to the Tax Authority are capped at ILS 50,000 a month in total, under the Accountant General’s agreement with the card companies. The notice gives the cap as a cumulative monthly amount and does not say whether it is counted per card or per payer, so check the payment methods on the payment page well before a large payment is due.
Payment also decides when the sale can be registered. The Land Registry (Tabu) registers a sale only once the director confirms it is exempt from mas shevach or that the tax due under the assessment was paid, or, before an assessment is made, against a bank guarantee or other security for the difference between 20% of the price and the tax paid under the self-assessment.
The director may also defer payment of all or part of the tax for sufficient reason, separately from the statutory section 51 deferral. Linkage and interest are charged for the whole deferral period.
Objecting to an assessment
If you disagree with an assessment of mas shevach or purchase tax, you can ask the director to reconsider and change it. You file yourself or through your lawyer, within 30 days of receiving the assessment notice. The director can extend the deadline if you were abroad, ill or had another reasonable cause, and the Tax Authority asks that you get the regional office manager’s agreement in advance, so ask as early as you can. A late objection without an extension is not heard.
An objection has to set out your reasons, the tax that results from them and how you calculated it. That figure is the undisputed amount, and you must pay it and give a bank guarantee, or another guarantee the director sets, for the disputed part. If you leave the undisputed amount blank, the whole assessed tax is treated as undisputed for collection. Attach the evidence for your arguments and your contact details.
- Register. Unrepresented buyers and sellers file online, so you need an account in the Tax Authority personal area. Lawyers file through the Tax Authority’s online systems for representatives.
- Choose objection or correction. The same online service handles both. Fill in every field and submit; you can upload documents after sending the form. The service is free.
- Identify correctly. An individual files under their own details and must check the assessment matches their identity. For a company, association or other body, an attorney-in-fact files and attaches a suitable power of attorney, or the regional office will not open the case.
- Wait for intake. You get a confirmation on submission. The office checks that the objection is valid and records it within up to 5 business days, then passes it on for review.
- Make your case. The director must give you a reasonable chance to argue before rejecting any part of the objection, and then decides in writing with reasons.
The decision is due within 8 months of the objection, or within 30 days after the director confirms you supplied every document requested, whichever is later. For special reasons the director can extend this to 12 months from the objection. Where the assessment was made because no declaration was filed, only a full declaration counts as the objection, and the decision is due within 12 months of receiving it. If no decision arrives in time, including any extension, the objection is treated as accepted.
Appealing the decision
If the objection decision still seems wrong, you can appeal to the real estate tax appeals committee at the district court within 30 days of receiving it, paying a filing fee. The committee is chaired by a judge and can confirm, reduce, increase or cancel the assessment. Its decision can be appealed to the Supreme Court only on a question of law, within 45 days. At this stage you almost certainly need a lawyer who handles tax appeals.
Correcting an assessment
A correction (תיקון שומה, tikun shuma) is a separate route from an objection, and it stays open much longer: within 4 years of the assessment, the director may correct it on his own initiative or at the request of whoever paid the tax, if new facts appear that could create or change the tax, if the declaration was incorrect in a way that changed or avoided tax, or if there was an error in the assessment. Typical new facts are a betterment levy, lawyer’s fees or a broker’s commission paid after the assessment was made. The Tax Authority’s service page counts the four years from when you received the assessment; the law counts from the day it was made, so do not leave it to the last weeks.
Requests go on Form 7085 with every section filled in, including the tax table and the undisputed amount, plus documents that prove the new facts. Unrepresented taxpayers file online through the same service as objections; a lawyer files online for you. The office records the request within up to 5 business days and, if it is accepted, sends an amended assessment notice. The service is free. A correction request does not stop interest, linkage or penalties on any tax not yet paid, and undisputed amounts that stay unpaid are collected under the law.
Which route fits your problem
| Route | Use it when | Time limit | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Objection (hasaga) | You disagree with how the office valued or calculated the deal: price, exemptions, deductions, dates | 30 days from the assessment notice | Regional Real Estate Taxation office, online (Form 7013) |
| Correction (tikun shuma) | Something new happened after the assessment, such as a betterment levy or fees you paid later, or there is a clear error | 4 years from the assessment | Regional office, online (Form 7085) |
| Appeal (arar) | The objection was decided and you still disagree | 30 days from the decision | Appeals committee at the district court, then the Supreme Court on law only |
| Cancellation refund | The deal itself was cancelled | No fixed period in section 102 | The office handling the file (Form 6130) |
Based on sections 85, 87, 88, 90 and 102 of the Real Estate Taxation Law and the Tax Authority guide 2026. Our comparison, checked 29 Oct 2026.
Refunds and cancelled deals
When the office finds you paid more than you owed, for example after an objection or a correction, the excess is refunded to the person who paid it. Refunds go to the bank account registered in the real estate taxation system. You can register or update it online if you are registered for the Tax Authority personal area: for an individual assessment, an account in your own name; for a joint assessment, only a joint account of both spouses. Once the bank verifies the account, it replaces any account registered before, for real estate taxation only.
The online update is not available to foreign residents, to deceased persons, to assessments of a receiver or in insolvency proceedings, or to people whose status is divorced or widowed in the Population Registry or separated in the Tax Authority’s register. If you live abroad, ask your lawyer or the information centre how the office will pay your refund before you rely on it.
If the buyer and seller decide to cancel the transaction, they notify the director on Form 6130, an affidavit on the cancellation of a sale, with documents that prove it. If the director is satisfied that the deal was cancelled from the outset and in good faith, he cancels the assessments and refunds the tax paid. The test is whether the deal was genuinely undone, not only reworded. Many sellers miss refunds or pay penalties for avoidable reasons; our list of tax mistakes sellers make in Israel covers the common ones.
Filing on paper
Declarations, objections and correction requests are filed online. Paper objection and correction forms are only for a representing lawyer who was 66 or older on 15 October 2017. A paper declaration is accepted only from that lawyer, from someone objecting to an assessment made because no declaration was filed, or from an unrepresented taxpayer with an exceptional approval from the director. That approval is for people who cannot reach Tax Authority offices because of a physical limitation, or who are staying outside Israel. You request it on Form 7100, attaching documents that prove the reason and a fully completed manual declaration, and post it to the Land Appreciation Tax Directorate, Real Estate Assessment Department, PO Box 1170, Jerusalem 91010. The service is free. A paper declaration from anyone else is returned to the sender.
Paid services from the regional office
On Form 703 anyone can ask the regional office for a list of their registered real estate rights, a check of sales recorded in their name, confirmation that taxes were paid, a look at a transaction file, or a simulation of the mas shevach on a planned sale. The office replies whether it can provide the service and sends a payment voucher by post. You pay online or in cash at the Postal Bank with the voucher, and bring a copy of the receipt to your appointment. No VAT is charged, and you may be able to claim the fee as an expense under the Income Tax Ordinance.
| Service | Fee |
|---|---|
| Inspecting and copying a file, sale less than five years before the request | ILS 96 |
| Inspecting and copying a file, sale five years or more before the request | ILS 230 |
| Confirmation that taxes were paid, sale from 1983 on (the first two for each sale are free) | ILS 64 |
| Confirmation that taxes were paid, sale before 1983 | ILS 230 |
| Mas shevach assessment simulation | ILS 96 |
| List of real estate rights registered in your name | ILS 96 |
| List of sales you made recorded by the office | ILS 96 |
Sources: Tax Authority guide 2026, fees regulations and instruction 1/2026, checked 29 Oct 2026.
Contacting Real Estate Taxation
The Tax Authority’s real estate taxation information centre answers on *4954 or 02-5656400, takes online enquiries through its contact system, and lists masmak@taxes.gov.il on its English pages. Opening hours differ between its own service pages, so check the current hours on the service page before you call.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice; confirm with a licensed professional.
Sources
- Real Estate Taxation Law (Capital Gain and Purchase) 5723-1963, consolidated Hebrew text, sections 1, 16, 51, 73, 76, 78, 79A, 82, 85 to 91A, 94 to 95 and 102 to 103.
- Israel Tax Authority, guide for sellers and buyers of real estate rights 2026: assessment procedures, payment and collection and fees.
- Israel Tax Authority, Real Estate Taxation instruction 1/2026, updated amounts, 18 January 2026.
- Israel Tax Authority service pages: objection (Form 7013), correction (Form 7085), online objection or correction, assessment status, paying real estate taxes, refund bank details, paper filing approval (Form 7100), services (Form 703) and fees payment.
- Israel Tax Authority notice on the credit card ceiling, 1 June 2026.
- Israel Tax Authority glossary: objection, assessment correction and cancellation of a transaction.
Buying or selling in Israel and want the tax dates worked into the deal before anyone signs? Send us your details and we will map the declaration, payment and deferral dates against your contract timeline and work alongside your lawyer, so nothing is filed or paid late.
