Client updates

New Israeli regulations allow for customized portfolio management services through on-line platforms.

An amending protocol to the 1962 Israel-UK tax treaty is effective as of January 1, 2020.The protocol includes a long list of significant and fundamental amendments and updates.

The Governmental Cyber Security Unit has published a new directive according to which material service providers to government, infrastructure, and finance bodies will be required to adopt a common and unified standard for cyber protection.

The treaty for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income between the government of Israel and the government of the Republic of Serbia is expected to take effect on January 1, 2020.

The Minister of Finance signed in December 2019 the order bringing the double taxation treaty into effect on January 1, 2020.

In December 2019, an expanded panel of seven Supreme Court justices published a precedential and important decision considering the issue of whether a party seeking to file a class action suit against a government agency must send a demand letter to the agency in advance of filing.

The Bank of Israel recently led several important developments in the Israeli payments market, which are designed to encourage competition and to advance the implementation of innovative technologies.

A recent judgment by the Hadera Magistrate’s Court holds that modifications to an apartment made at a purchaser’s request do not constitute just cause for late delivery and that the purchaser must be compensated for any delay.

The Companies Registrar has recently increased its enforcement efforts when companies failed to submit annual reports, imposing fines amounting to a few thousand shekels on companies that do not comply with the requirements.

The sanction-free voluntary disclosure procedure will come to a close at the end of 2019. Provided the Israel Tax Authority and the State Attorney’s Office decide not to extend this procedure, this may be the last opportunity to declare and report true income, and accordingly pay true taxes, without the disclosure being subject to criminal sanctions.

Earlier this year, Google updated its Google Ads policy on gambling and games and announced that, as part of a limited beta launch, state-licensed gambling advertisers would be permitted to promote sports betting content within the US states New Jersey, Nevada, and West Virginia.

The Israel Securities Authority (ISA) recently published a proposed amendment to the Israeli Securities Regulations concerning trading platforms’ activity in Israel.

In October 2019, Israel’s Attorney General published a detailed guideline document addressed to the legal counsels of various government ministries.

In September, Israel’s National Labor Court dismissed an appeal by the Café Noir restaurant and affirmed the Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court’s judgment, which held that the restaurant must pay NIS 300,000 compensation for infringing on its employees’ right to organize.

Israeli’s Ministry of Construction and Housing recently imposed a NIS 6.5 million financial sanction on the developer of a TAMA 38 project in Kiryat Bialik. The developer was fined after failing to produce a guarantee to purchasers of apartments in the project for funds they had paid toward the unit price, as required by the Assurance of Investments Law.

In October 2019, the Israel State Attorney published a new guideline on its office’s policy when considering the prosecution of a corporation, as well as on how it should determine its position on the manner of punishing corporations.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in California) recently held that the scraping of data from public websites without any prior consent is lawful, even if it contradicts the provisions of a website’s terms of use.

Regulatory resistance and legal proceedings by the US Securities and Exchange Commission are hindering the realization of one of the greatest promises of blockchain technology – the transfer of cryptographic currencies and assets between users without an intermediary.

The Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court recently ruled that an employee who took advantage of her sick leave as vacation days immediately after being summoned to a termination hearing warranted being denied severance pay and early notice payments.

In a recent ruling, the Labor Court found that a short-term unapproved absence from work may constitute a disciplinary violation, and therefore be cause for termination, but cannot be seen as resignation.