On the Haifa Metropolis Council assembly, which came regarding on Tuesday, 06/04/2024, town council voted to replace the by-law for Haifa (open public areas).
The aim of the by-law is to finance the bills of the municipality, when it builds in public areas by accumulating a tax from the house owners of close by items. That CP can embrace lawns, leisure and sports activities amenities and extra.
Whereas thus far the fee is 22.8 NIS per sq. meter for land and 70.40 per sq. meter for a constructing, town council permitted elevating the speed to 30.96 per sq. meter of land and 92.87 NIS per sq. meter of constructing.
Further tax on the development levy and improvement levies
Lately, many native authorities in addition to Haifa have began charging an extra tax on the development levy and extra improvement levies. It is a public open area levy, which means a levy that property house owners who’re as much as 900 meters away from open public areas (public open areas) are required to pay, when the municipality builds a park, playground, mountaineering trails, and so on. close to their dwelling.
There are those that take into account the by-law for open public areas (SHAP) to be a “double tax”, as a result of even with the development levy the property proprietor pays for the development of his residing surroundings (half of the worth of the development).
Till the by-laws for the SHAP had been enacted, what allowed the native authorities to finance the SHAP had been the development levies. Authorities, which gather each the development levy and by-laws for the general public housing improvement, primarily obtain double funding from the property house owners for the event of the city housing improvement.
Chairman of the Hadash faction Raja Zaatara: It’s not attainable to demand a tax levy from spiritual establishments
Raja Zaatara (Picture: Yaron Karmi)
The one who opposed town council’s determination was the Hadash faction, as a result of the by-law doesn’t exempt public buildings reminiscent of spiritual establishments.
“It is a comparatively new regulation, which imposes a brand new levy on non-public and enterprise taxpayers,” explains the chairman of the Hadash faction within the metropolis council, Raja Zaatara, “the primary downside in our opinion is that the regulation doesn’t distinguish between a industrial physique and a public and/or spiritual physique, and everyone seems to be obligated to the identical tax.
In our case within the metropolis of Haifa, the regulation doesn’t refer to non secular establishments reminiscent of church buildings, mosques and synagogues. The municipality adopts the interpretation {that a} church, mosque and synagogue, together with the land on which they’re constructed, are belongings topic to the SCC levy in accordance with the definition of the regulation.
For instance, the order of the Barefoot Carmelites in Haifa (Stella Maris) is required to pay a tax levy in extra of NIS 1.1 million. Though the order of the Carmelites and its church buildings on Mount Carmel are public our bodies that serve the Arab Christian group in Haifa and past.
The answer is to grant a tax exemption to such entities, together with church buildings, mosques and synagogues, simply as such an exemption is anchored in lots of legal guidelines such because the Property Tax Ordinance, Third Addendum to the Planning and Development Regulation (exemption from the development levy). Anchoring the exemption requires the modification of the by-law by town council.
