Israeli Law Q&A for United States Residents

Yes, within limits set by Sections 258 to 263 of the Companies Law 5759-1999 and only if the company's articles allow it. The company can exempt you in advance from liability for breach of the duty of care, give an advance indemnity limited to events the board considers foreseeable and to amounts it considers reasonable, and buy D&O insurance. Section 263 bars cover for a breach of loyalty not in good faith, an intentional or reckless breach of the duty of care, unlawful personal profit, and fines or monetary penalties.

Yes. Section 291A of the Penal Law 5737-1977, added in 2008, makes it an offence to bribe a foreign public official to obtain or advance business, and it carries the Section 291 penalty of up to seven years' imprisonment or a fine of up to NIS 1,130,000 or four times the benefit. Section 15 extends Israeli jurisdiction to felonies committed abroad by Israeli citizens and residents, and an Israeli company was convicted over a bribe in Lesotho in 2016. An indictment needs the Attorney General's written consent, and the same payment can expose the US parent under the FCPA.

You have to be a citizen or a resident first. Section 8 of the Health Professions Law 5768-2008 makes Israeli citizenship or Israeli residency a condition for the certificate itself, alongside adulthood, recognised education, practical training, the government examination and basic Hebrew. The only opening for someone still living abroad is Section 9, which lets the Director of the Ministry of Health grant a special permit to a non-citizen and non-resident to work in one named institution for a period not exceeding one year.

Yes, if you sign after 6 January 2026. Amendment No. 3 to the Contracts (General Part) Law 5733-1973 passed the Knesset on 5 January 2026 and was published the following day. It rewrote Section 25 so that a business contract is now read according to its wording, with the surrounding circumstances brought in only where the wording produces an unacceptable result or the clauses contradict each other. Non-business contracts still turn on the parties' intent. Contracts signed before 6 January 2026 continue under the older Apropim approach.

Yes. Amendment No. 272 to the Income Tax Ordinance, published on 7 April 2024, deleted Section 134B, which is the provision that used to relieve new immigrants and veteran returning residents of any duty to report. The deletion bites on anyone who became an Israeli resident on or after 1 January 2026. The ten-year exemption from Israeli tax under Section 14 survives untouched; what you lost is the privacy, not the exemption.

Chapter Five of the Companies Law 5759-1999 governs it. Section 270(1) catches any transaction between the company and an office holder, or with a third party in which an office holder has a personal interest. A routine one needs board approval under Section 271; an extraordinary one moves up to Section 272(a), and Section 278 bars the interested director from the room and the vote. Section 280 leaves an unapproved transaction with no effect against the company.

Retrieval is possible, but the window is measured in hours rather than days, and the two stages are governed separately. Attorney General Directive 1.2202 of 27 October 2003 gives the deceased's permanent partner standing to request retrieval, which should take place within roughly 12 to 24 hours of death. Using the retrieved sperm afterwards requires an order of the Israeli Family Court, and that application can be run from abroad.

It grows under the Adjudication of Interest and Linkage Law 5721-1961, at rates the Accountant General republishes every quarter. For the quarter beginning 1 April 2026 shekel interest ran at 5.92% a year, linked interest at 4.27% and late-payment charges at 4.96%. A debt expressed in dollars is converted into shekels at the Bank of Israel representative rate on the date interest starts to run, so your currency risk stops on that date and does not follow the dollar afterwards.

Through Section 102 of the Income Tax Ordinance, and the trustee is the reason it still works. On the capital gains track the tax is deferred until sale and charged at 25%, provided the grant was made to an Israel Tax Authority approved trustee and the trustee held the securities for at least 24 months from the end of the tax year of deposit. Leaving Israel does not by itself break the track, but Israel keeps taxing the portion of the gain earned while you worked there.

Yes, and the threshold keeps falling. Under the Israel Invoices model introduced by the Economic Efficiency Law 5783-2023 and reflected in Section 47 of the VAT Law 5736-1975, a tax invoice above the set amount must carry an allocation number issued in real time by the Israel Tax Authority. The threshold dropped to NIS 10,000 on 1 January 2026 and to NIS 5,000 from June 2026, both before VAT. Without the number your customer cannot deduct the input VAT.

Only if the statutory triggers are met, and they are narrower than the demand letter suggests. Section 119A of the Income Tax Ordinance lets the Authority collect a company's tax debt from a shareholder who received company assets without adequate consideration where the transfer left the company unable to pay, and Section 106 of the Value Added Tax Law 1975 reaches the active manager of the business for unpaid VAT. Both turn on facts. A documented payroll run and repayment of a genuine shareholder loan are not asset stripping, and a hands-off owner in New York is not the active manager.

On its face the later will wins, and that is the trap. Section 36 of the Succession Law 1965 is read literally by the Inheritance Registrar, so a general revocation clause in a subsequent foreign will can cancel an earlier Israeli will even though nobody intended it to touch the Israeli apartment. The fix is a territorial limitation clause in each document. Where it is missing and the estate is contested, the file moves to the Family Court and the will execution order is suspended while the point is argued.