Sold an apartment?
Capital gains tax on real estate (mas shevach, מס שבח) is calculated on the profit from the sale, minus the expenses you had on the property. In practice, many sellers do not claim all the expenses they are allowed to deduct, and pay more tax than they should. You can ask for the assessment to be corrected and get the difference back. The check here is free and takes three minutes.
3 minutes · no documents · initial answer on screen
Why people overpay
The assessment (shuma) is based on the declaration filed at the time of the deal. If an expense was not included in the declaration, it simply does not enter the calculation, even if the receipt is sitting in your drawer. These are the expenses you may deduct under Section 39 of the Real Estate Taxation Law, and the ones that are forgotten most often.
Not only expenses
Sometimes the refund does not come from a forgotten expense, but from the sale being calculated under a less favorable method than the one you are entitled to.
A property bought before January 1, 2014 benefits from a method in which the proportional part of the gain accrued up to that date is exempt from tax, and tax applies only to the part accrued afterwards. For a property held for many years, that is a difference of tens of thousands of shekels, sometimes more.
A seller of a single residential apartment may be entitled to an exemption. If you paid full tax on an apartment that was your only one, that is a clear sign it is worth checking whether the exemption was used.
For a property received as an inheritance or a gift, the purchase value and the purchase date are set differently, and dedicated exemptions sometimes apply. A calculation based on the wrong value inflates the gain.
The time window
The request is filed under Section 85 of the Real Estate Taxation Law (Appreciation and Acquisition), 5723-1963, on Form 7085, and can be filed up to four years from the day the assessment was made. That is a shorter window than the six years you have for tax refunds on a salary. The law recognizes three grounds for a correction: new facts that were not known when the assessment was made, incorrect details in the declaration that was filed, and an error in the assessment itself, including an error in applying the law.
Check eligibilityRead the full guideHow it works
01
The sale details, the tax you paid and the expenses you had. At the end you get an initial answer on screen about your chances.
02
One digital signature on a power of attorney to represent you before the Real Estate Taxation Office. It covers only the property you specified and lets us review the assessment and file on your behalf.
03
We compare the assessment with the expenses you actually had and, if there is room for a correction, file Form 7085 with the supporting documents. The refund is paid directly into your bank account.
What it costs
The check is free and does not commit you to anything. The handling fee is 20% of the refund, VAT included, and You pay only after the refund has reached your bank account. If the check shows there is no refund, we do not file a request and there is no charge. The refund itself always comes from the Israel Tax Authority directly into your bank account.
FAQ
Mas shevach is the tax on the profit from selling a right in real estate: the difference between the sale value and the purchase value, minus the expenses you had on the property. When the expenses are not fully claimed in the assessment, the gain comes out higher than it really is and the tax collected is too high. A mas shevach refund is a request to correct the assessment and get the difference back, plus linkage differentials and interest.
You compare the expenses reported in the assessment with the expenses you actually had. If there is a gap, especially if a betterment levy or a significant renovation was not deducted, there is probably room for a correction. Our check goes through these items one by one and tells you on screen whether there are signs of a refund.
Up to four years from the day the assessment was made, that is, from the day the self-assessment was approved or an assessment was issued according to best judgment. That is a shorter window than for tax refunds on a salary, where you can claim six years back. The assessment is usually made a few months after the sale, so even a relatively old sale may still be within the window.
The betterment levy comes first, especially when it was paid after the assessment had already been made. After it come renovations without proper receipts, the lawyer's fees paid on the purchase and not only on the sale, real interest on the mortgage, and agent's fees on the original purchase.
Section 85 allows corrections in both directions, so the full picture is checked before anything is filed. If the check shows there is no refund, we simply do not file a request and you pay nothing.
If the sale was fully exempt and no tax was paid, there is nothing to refund. But if you paid tax even though it was your only apartment, that is actually a strong sign to check: an exemption or calculation method you are entitled to may not have been used, for example the beneficial linear calculation for a property bought before 2014.
We retrieve the mas shevach assessment, the land registry extract (nesach tabu) and the deal details ourselves from the Israel Tax Authority once you sign a power of attorney. All we need from you are the private receipts the Tax Authority does not have, such as renovations, agent's fees and legal fees.
The check is free and does not commit you to anything, and there is no upfront payment. The handling fee is 20% of the refund, VAT included, paid only after the refund has reached your bank account. If no refund is received, there is no charge.
Want to dig deeper before you start? Read the full guide to capital gains tax refunds. If you are looking for a tax refund on your salary rather than on the sale of a property, this is the right check.
