Can I move (redomicile) my foreign company to Israel?

An entrepreneur who has run a company in one country and now wants their base to be Israel often asks how to "move the company over," expecting a filing that shifts the registration the way a person changes address. Some jurisdictions do allow that, keeping the same corporate identity while switching home. Israel is not one of them, and starting from that fact saves a lot of wasted effort.

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Detailed Explanation

Israeli company law does not provide for inbound redomiciliation, sometimes called continuation, where a foreign company deregisters at home and re-registers in Israel while remaining the same legal person. The Companies Law 1999 has no mechanism to receive a foreign company and treat it as continuing. So the honest starting point is that your existing foreign company cannot become an Israeli company by transfer. What you can do is choose among three structures that achieve the practical goal by different means.

The first option is to keep the foreign company and register it in Israel as a foreign company doing business locally, in effect a branch. The Companies Law 1999 requires a foreign company that establishes a place of business in Israel to register with the Companies Registrar (Rasham HaHevrot), filing its incorporation documents, appointing a person in Israel authorised to accept legal process, and reporting annually. The branch is not a separate Israeli entity; it is the foreign company operating in Israel, and it is taxed in Israel on the profits attributable to its Israeli activity. This suits a business that wants an Israeli presence without giving up its existing corporate home.

The second option is to incorporate a brand-new Israeli company and transfer the business, contracts, and assets into it, then wind down or repurpose the foreign one. This gives you a clean Israeli entity with all the local advantages, but the transfer is a taxable event to plan around, because moving assets or intellectual property into the Israeli company can trigger tax on the way in. Israeli law does offer relief for genuine reorganisations, including tax-deferred asset transfers under Part E2 of the Income Tax Ordinance 1961 where the conditions are met, so the move can often be structured without an immediate tax hit if it is done deliberately rather than casually. The choice between a branch and a subsidiary, and their differing exposure, is compared in our guide to a foreign company branch versus a subsidiary in Israel.

The third route is subtler and sometimes accidental. Even without changing any registration, a foreign company can become Israeli tax resident if its business is managed and controlled from Israel, because Israel treats the place of effective management as a test of corporate residence. A founder who relocates to Israel and runs the foreign company from a Tel Aviv desk may find the company drawn into the Israeli tax net on its worldwide income, which is redomiciliation in economic substance without the paperwork, and usually not the version anyone intended. That risk is a reason to decide the structure on purpose rather than let it happen by default. Setting up a fresh Israeli company from scratch is covered in our guide to registering a company in Israel as a foreigner.

In Practice: Under the Companies Law 1999, a foreign company establishing a place of business in Israel must register with the Companies Registrar (Rasham HaHevrot) within one month, appointing a local agent for service and filing its constitutional documents; incorporating a new Israeli company instead carries a registration fee of about NIS 2,645 and is usually completed within a few business days online. A tax-deferred transfer of assets into an Israeli company under Part E2 of the Income Tax Ordinance 1961 requires advance structuring and, in many cases, a ruling from the Israel Tax Authority, which can take several weeks to months.

Key Considerations

• Israel has no redomiciliation or continuation regime, so a foreign company cannot transfer its registration and keep its identity.
• Registering the foreign company as a branch under the Companies Law 1999 gives an Israeli presence without a new entity.
• Forming a new Israeli subsidiary and moving assets in is a taxable step, though reorganisation relief may defer the tax.
• Managing a foreign company from Israel can make it Israeli tax resident by effective management, sometimes unintentionally.
• The right structure depends on tax exposure, liability, and reporting, and should be chosen before you relocate or transfer anything.

When to Consult a Lawyer

This question typically requires professional legal advice when:

• You are deciding between a registered branch and a new Israeli subsidiary and need the tax and liability difference modelled.
• The business owns intellectual property or assets that would move into an Israeli company and could trigger tax.
• You are relocating to Israel and need to avoid the foreign company becoming Israeli tax resident by accident.

A qualified Israeli attorney should design the structure and, where assets move, secure any needed tax ruling before you file anything.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

We advise founders relocating to Israel on whether to run a branch, build an Israeli subsidiary, or restructure entirely, and we handle the Companies Registrar filings and the tax planning so the move is deliberate and clean.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.