Israeli Law Q&A for Australia Residents

Usually not in the form Australians are used to. Israeli proceedings run on an affidavit (tatzhir) sworn with the warning required by Section 15 of the Evidence Ordinance [New Version] 5731-1971, and a foreign document has to be authenticated before an Israeli court will treat it as proved under Section 30 of the same Ordinance. A Commonwealth statutory declaration witnessed by a pharmacist or a teacher meets neither test. The workable route is an affidavit prepared and witnessed by an Australian notary public, then apostilled by DFAT for AUD 102 per document.

Potentially far more than the salary. Wages are due by the ninth day of the following month, and anything unpaid after that becomes delayed wages under the Wage Protection Law 5718-1958. Section 17 then charges delayed-wage compensation of 5% of the withheld amount for the first week and 10% for each week or part of a week after that, or index linkage plus 20%, whichever is higher. Three weeks late on a NIS 30,000 salary is roughly NIS 7,500 in penalty. The Regional Labour Court has discretion to reduce it, and often does.

Through a declaration of death from the Family Court under the Declaration of Death Law 5738-1978. Section 1 defines a missing person as someone whose traces have been gone for seven years despite all efforts to find him, in circumstances giving grounds to presume death. Section 2 lets the court act on the application of an interested party where the missing person last lived in Israel, left property in Israel, disappeared in Israel, or the applicant lives in Israel. That declaration is what the Inheritance Registrar accepts in place of a death certificate.

Send a written inspection demand under Section 13 of the Privacy Protection Law 5741-1981. Any person may require a database owner to say whether information about them is held and to let them see it, and the owner must supply a legible copy or allow inspection within 30 days. Section 14 lets you demand correction or deletion of information that is wrong, incomplete, unclear or out of date, and Section 15 takes a refusal to the Magistrates Court.

Yes. Chapter Four of the Succession Law 5725-1965 gives a surviving spouse, children and dependent parents a right to maintenance out of the estate that overrides the will, and Section 65 makes void any provision in the will purporting to take it away. The claim goes to the Family Court and must normally be brought before the estate is distributed, with a discretion to hear it up to six months afterwards.

You can sue, but it is a fault claim rather than the automatic compensation a road accident attracts. Liability runs through Sections 35 and 36 of the Civil Wrongs Ordinance [New Version], which put a duty of care on the occupier of premises towards visitors, and you must prove negligence. The Prescription Law 5718-1958 gives seven years. A claim up to NIS 2,500,000 goes to the Magistrates Court, where the fee is 2.5% of the sum claimed.

Almost certainly yes, unless the registered bylaw says otherwise. Unused building rights attach to the plot rather than to any one apartment, so they belong to all the owners through the common property. Section 62(a) of the Land Law 5729-1969 requires the consent of every apartment owner to attach part of the common property to a particular apartment, and Section 62(c) makes a registered agreed bylaw binding on later purchasers. Read the takanon before you read the developer's offer, because a clause registered decades ago can have given the roof away already.

An Israeli licence under the Pharmacists Ordinance [New Version] 5741-1981, issued by the Ministry of Health, and a change of immigration status. A pharmacist licensed abroad who practised full time for at least three of the four years before applying is exempted from the full Israeli licensing examination but must still pass the Israeli Pharmacy Law paper, which is offered twice a year. The permanent licence is issued only to Israeli citizens or permanent residents, so a pharmacist on a tourist visa cannot hold one however strong the file.

Resign in writing to the board or the company, and then make sure the company reports it. Under Section 229 of the Companies Law 5759-1999 the resignation takes effect when the notice is delivered unless a later date is stated in it, and Section 223 requires a private company to report the end of a director's tenure to the Companies Registrar within 14 days. If the company will not file, you can apply to the Registrar yourself, because until the register changes the exposure follows you to Melbourne.

Section 60 of the Companies Law 5759-1999 requires an annual meeting every year and no later than fifteen months after the last one, but Section 61 lets a private company provide in its articles that it will not hold annual meetings at all, except as needed to appoint the auditor. Most foreign-owned Israeli companies should be using that provision. If your articles are silent, you owe a meeting, and it can be convened on seven days' notice under Section 67 and resolved without any meeting at all under Section 76 if every shareholder signs.

It can. Israel is not one of the seven listed countries for Australian controlled foreign company purposes, so an Israeli company you control sits in the unlisted category under Part X of the ITAA 1936, where attribution is at its widest. If the company fails the active income test, meaning 5% or more of its gross turnover is tainted income such as interest, dividends, royalties or rent, your share of its adjusted tainted income is included in your Australian assessable income for that year whether or not anything is distributed. The Israeli company still pays Israeli corporate tax at 23% first, and you claim a foreign income tax offset against the attributed amount.

Almost certainly not. Superannuation is not estate property in Australia; the fund trustee pays it under the trust deed and any binding death benefit nomination, and only reaches the estate if it decides to pay the legal personal representative. An Israeli will, and the will execution order the Inheritance Registrar issues for it under Section 66 of the Succession Law 1965, govern only what forms part of the estate.