Several years ago I wrote a newspaper article about a fresh addition to the Israeli Income Tax Ordinance that included four subparagraphs. Or, at least, there should have been four subparagraphs. The fact that there were only three made the whole thing toothless. My tongue-in-cheek piece suggested a scenario where the Knesset Finance Committee was…
Wakey-wakey!
It is the morning of the Maths exam that will decide which, if any, university awaits the candidate. He/she suddenly realizes that he/she hasn't even started learning the syllabus. How many of us have periodically woken in a cold sweat from that nightmare in the course of our adult lives? I sometimes feel that, especially…
Before our very eyes!
When it comes to aphorisms, 'Oldie but Goodie' is high on my list of suspect examples. Generally quoted by the generation above mine to fill the void of laughter following a particularly hackneyed joke, it only rolls happily off the tongue when served with lashings of irony. Such was my reaction to a ruling published…
The taxman takes his cut
Initially dubbed 'the war to end all wars', the act of carnage that ended a hundred years ago this week had to later suffer the ignominy of having 'First' stuck at the front of its name. While recognizing the sacrifice of the combatants and the tragedy of 20 million dead, subsequent generations have suggested the…
Playing the residency card
On a recent bus tour of Barcelona, the recorded commentary declared the 'immortal' words of exiled Catalonian President Josep Tarradellas on his return in 1977: 'Citizens of Catalonia, I am here'. This immediately conjured in my mind the immortal line from the BBC's Goon Show: 'Everybody's got to be somewhere.' Great philosophy it aint, but…
Nowhere to hide
Tax Break has just had its longest break since its inception in 2011 due to the difficult period Israel has been going through. The post below is more sober than usual (in fact, for some people, it might be downright depressing). Please do not adjust your computers - normal service will be resumed as soon…
No flies on them, mate
Filling in the immigration card at the start of the descent into Melbourne International Airport earlier this week, I could not help but chuckle as I checked the "No" box against the question "Do you have any criminal convictions?" I was unavoidably reminded of that hackneyed joke, attributed to the late Tony Hancock and especially popular…
Reach for the sky
A story about a Dutch company that did the rounds of the world's press on April 23 got me checking whether the Netherlands, ever the laid back pot-smoker of Europe, celebrated April Fools' Day a few weeks late. In a grand press conference it was announced that candidates are invited to apply for a one-way ticket to…
The perfect spy
Monologue or soliloquy: that is the question. When Shakespeare's Richard III - as opposed to the bloke of that name who has been illegally parked in Leicester for the last 500 years - first ambled awkwardly onto the stage back in Elizabethan times, he delivered a soliloquy. Now, a soliloquy is what I deliver when I think I…
To tax or not to tax…..
Forced to summarize Israel's international tax legislation in half a sentence, I could not better Shakespeare's all time bogeyman - Richard III: "Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time/ Into this breathing world, scarce half made up". Tax legislation in the first half-century following Israel's independence adopted, what might now be termed, the "Mitt Romney Approach" - …
Tax Break 