Methodology & Sources
This page explains which sources are used, how different kinds of information are labeled, how calculations are tested and what each tool intentionally leaves out.
Source hierarchy
- Enacted Israeli legislation for statutory rights, caps and eligibility windows.
- Israel Tax Authority and other government publications for rates, thresholds and implementation.
- National Insurance Institute publications for contribution rates, bases and examples.
- Other official public bodies for regulated subjects within their authority.
- Established secondary explanations where official publications are incomplete or difficult to interpret.
- Crowdsourced market data only for dated estimates such as rent and childcare—not for legal rules.
How calculations are checked
Three information categories
Income tax and employee payroll
2026 income-tax brackets, credit-point value and surtax threshold follow the Tax Authority deductions booklet. Employee National Insurance and health tax follow the National Insurance Institute’s 2026 thresholds and rates.
Self-employed calculator
The calculator uses the published 4.47% / 12.83% National Insurance and 3.23% / 5.17% health-tax rates and adapts the official 52% National Insurance deduction formula to an annual planning estimate. It does not model minimum bases or mixed employment.
US-oleh National Insurance exemption
The site models National Insurance Law Amendment 262 only when the user confirms a qualifying aliyah date, a calculation date within the five-year period, arrival from the United States under the qualifying status rules, and U.S. social-security payment on the same income. The model removes Israeli National Insurance only; health tax remains.
The employee calculator does not model employer contributions or guarantee that payroll will stop withholding. The freelancer calculator does not request an exemption or change National Insurance payments.
Purchase tax
The calculator uses the residential scales published by the Tax Authority for the 2025–2027 frozen period and the revised new-oleh sole-residence scale. Legal status and eligibility are not determined by the calculator.
Pension and keren hishtalmut
Employee rates are user inputs. For self-employed users, the displayed mandatory pension baseline uses 4.45% on annual income up to ₪82,614 and 12.55% from ₪82,615 to ₪165,228. The recognized study-fund reference uses 4.5% of income up to ₪293,397. Growth projections are mathematical assumptions, not promised returns.
2026 new-oleh benefit
The temporary benefit calculator uses the enacted annual caps and proration logic documented on the law page. It does not decide whether income qualifies.
Foreign-income tax exemption vs reporting — Amendment 272
The site treats the 10-year foreign-income tax benefit and the reporting exemption as separate rules. Amendment 272 applies to new olim and veteran returning residents who first become Israeli tax residents on or after January 1, 2026. It removed the special reporting exemptions under Sections 134B and 135(1)(b), while leaving the substantive 10-year tax treatment for qualifying foreign-source income and gains under Sections 14 and 97 separate.
For accuracy, the site says that foreign income may remain tax-exempt but reportable. It also distinguishes annual-return reporting from a capital declaration: foreign assets must be included when such a declaration is required, rather than implying that every person files the identical asset form automatically.
City cost-of-living guides
Rent, childcare, salary and non-rent estimates are dated Numbeo snapshots from May–June 2026. Numbeo is crowdsourced, and the pages disclose the available sample information. The editable budget—not the snapshot—is the recommended decision tool.
Mortgage, property and moving models
Mortgage calculations use standard amortization and user inputs. The property tools distinguish official Bank of Israel LTV ceilings from lender-specific underwriting. A 50% nonresident option is presented only as a conservative site stress test, not as a separate regulatory category or guaranteed market practice.
The mortgage-offer worksheet prioritizes figures copied from written standardized approvals: initial payment, highest forecast payment, forecast interest and total forecast payment. Its blended-rate calculation is explicitly secondary and cannot reproduce CPI linkage, reset risk or bank forecasting.
The home-buying cash calculator checks the entered down payment against the selected LTV scenario and can add an editable VAT rate to entered legal and buyer-agent fees. Professional fees remain user assumptions and users must confirm whether quotes are before or including VAT.
Worked examples
The fixed salary pages serve as reproducible examples of the payroll engine and link back to the editable calculator:
Correction and independence policy
When an official source changes, the relevant calculator, verification date and supporting explanation should be updated together. Material errors are corrected in the calculation engine rather than only in page text and are recorded in the Version History.
Advertisements do not determine calculator outputs, assumptions or editorial conclusions.
Verification, corrections and commercial sources
Commercial provider pages may be cited for their own availability, fees or terms, but not as independent proof that the provider is the cheapest or best. See the advertising disclosure.
Property, mortgage and purchase-tax cluster
- Bank of Israel mortgage transparency reform — standardized approval in principle, uniform baskets, LTV, term and comparison fields.
- Israel Tax Authority purchase-tax simulator — residential purchase-tax brackets and official calculation.
- Tax Authority oleh purchase-tax relief application — eligibility period and application.
- Ministry of Construction and Housing mortgage-assistance guide — zakaut registration and certificate process.
- Land Registry transfer service and mortgage registration service — registration workflow.
Professional fees, renovation and cash-reserve figures in the planning calculators are user-editable assumptions and are not presented as official tariffs.