Insights & News /  

Barnea is today hosting a delegation of Israeli ambassadors who are stationed in Latin America, together with the Latin America division of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Israel-Latin America Chamber of Commerce and StarTau, the Entrepreneurship Center of Tel Aviv University.

The Accelerator connects Startups with Financial Institutions. Barnea & Co is the firm which will provide legal services in Israel to the startups attending the Program in Frankfurt. On 12th February we will be holding an introductory event at which the Accelerator will describe the nature and aims of the Program and Micky Barnea will discuss the challenges for startups heading abroad. The event will be take place at Barclay's Techstars Accelerator. 

Adv. Ilan Blumenfeld, Partner in the Antitrust department at Barnea was interviewed by The Marker following Shufersal, Israel's largest supermarket chain’s announcement that  it is in the early stages of examining the possibility of acquiring local drugstore chain, New-Pharm Drugstores. Ilan commented that in the event that Shufersal acquires New Pharm, the Antitrust Authority will have to approve the deal by examining the market power of the merged entity.

Adv. Harel Perlmutter, Head of the Tax department at Barnea, was interviewed by Tax Analysts following the arrest of the chief executive of Deutsche Bank's operation in Israel on suspicion of violating VAT law. The Israel Tax Authority claims that the customers, in respect of whom Deutsche Bank reported its transactions as being zero rated, allegedly because they were conducted on behalf of “foreign residents”, were actually Israeli residents. Harel commented that it is often difficult to determine whether someone is a foreign tax resident.

Adv. Zohar Lande and Moran Bickel from the Litigation Department at Barnea represented the CEO of Kitov Pharmaceuticals at a hearing in the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court relating to his release from detention, subject to certain restrictive conditions.

Adv. Harel Perlmutter, Head of the Tax Department at Barnea, was interviewed by Bitcoin.com regarding the Israeli Tax Authority’s (ITA) draft on digital currencies. Harel commented that the draft circular is a declaration of intent from the ITA and at this stage no draft legislation has been published.

Doing Business in Israel? A Q&A guide to doing business in Israel written by Barnea was published in the Practical Law website. The guide gives an overview of the legal system, foreign investment, regulation, and other issues pertaining to Israel.

Our Litigation Department was interviewed by Maariv's "The Weekend" following Eliezer Fishman's declaration of bankruptcy. We noted there are ways to prevent the loss of all family assets, even in the event of bankruptcy, and to avoid involving the family assets with business assets.

Adv. Harel Perlmutter, Head of the Tax Department at Barnea, lectured today on taxation of startups at the AtoBe – Azrieli College of Engineering Startup Accelerator.

Adv. Yuval Lazi, Partner in the Technology Department at Barnea, participated as a judge at Tamid's Pitch Event. Tamid is part of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya program that connects American students with the Israeli economic landscape.

Adv. Zohar Lande and Adv. Gal Livshits from the Litigation Department at Barnea are representing real estate agent, Roni Mana, and his agency, in a lawsuit filed at the Tel Aviv District Court against Arena Star Group Ltd, controlled by Marcus Weber, and the CEO, Michael Fuchs, for failure to pay brokerage fees in the amount of NIS 5.88 million.

Barnea is hosting today a delegation from Germany, who will be visiting Israel for the first time in order to look for investment and cooperation opportunities, mainly in the real estate and insurance tech fields.

Barnea will host today, together with Israel-America Chamber of Commerce and the BIRD Foundation,  a roundtable meeting with Mr. Kevin Stine, Chief of Applied Cybersecurity Division at NIST (The National Institute of Standards and Technology), an agency of the US Department of Commerce. The roundtable will include senior managers of Israeli VC’s community and Cyber Security startups.  

Dr. Zvi Gabbay, Partner and Head of the Capital Markets at Barnea, participated in a panel discussion on the subject of Administrative Enforcement in Haaret'z "Echad Haa'm", the magazine of the Public Companies Association. The panel discussed the implications of administrative enforcement on the market and on the levels of corporate governance and conduct of companies. (In Hebrew. Pages 16-21)

Barnea hosted this week a delegation from Singapore which was invited to Israel by Startau, Tel Aviv University Entrepreneurship Center. The delegation held a series of meetings with leaders of the technological and entrepreneurial environment in Israel.

Barnea is conducting on February 14th a morning seminar on the new Multiple Housing Taxation Law. Adv. Maya Zisser, Partner at the Real-Estate Department will lecture on the new tax - to whom does it apply, the tax rate, payment methods, exemptions and credits. Adv. Harel Perlmutter from the Tax Department will lecture on tax saving opportunities in respect of rental income. 

Dr. Zvi Gabbay, Partner and Head of Capital Markets at Barnea was interviewed by Globes following the decision by the FTC to investigate a company related to Teva. 

Adv. Harel Perlmutter, Head of the Tax Department at Barnea, was interview by Bloomberg regarding a draft circular of the Israel Tax Authority on taxation of virtual currencies (bitcoins and the like).  Harel commented that the draft imposes almost insurmountable restrictions on the use of virtual currencies in Israel, due to the liabilities and costs involved.

On 17/01 Barnea together with the ACC, will host an event on Privacy and Data Protection Law affecting employees in the workplace.We will lecture on the Israeli Privacy Aspects.

Adv. Ilan Blumenfeld, Partner at Barnea, gave a lecture on the Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship at the Center for Academic Studies in Or Yehuda  Young Entrepreneurs Skills Day.