Insights & News /  Tax

Israel's Knesset on December 23 approved amendment 198, revising section 75B of the Income Tax Ordinance, 1961 (ITO) to further ensure the taxation of controlled foreign corporations. The amendment entered into force on January 1. Since 2006 Israel has taxed qualifying resident shareholders -- both corporate and individual -- on the undistributed profits of foreign companies that qualify as CFCs. Specifically, when an Israeli resident shareholder individually owns at least 10 percent of the means of control of a foreign company and collectively owns, together with other Israeli resident shareholders, at least 50 percent, and the majority of the foreign company's income is (by Israeli definition) considered passive in a specific tax year, the qualifying shareholders must each report their pro rata part in the undistributed profits of that foreign company as a deemed dividend. That regime also applies to foreign companies that are controlled at least 40 percent by close relatives.