Shapira found that haredim exchange money “under the table,” concealing transactions and employment from tax authorities, and use haredi haredi charities and kosher supervision beit dins (religious courts; Badatz [name of haredi community or town]) to launder money and hide it from tax authorities. He also found that haredi kabbalists collected hundreds of millions of shekels in cash from followers seeking blessings, and paid no taxes on that income.
Haredim Commit Massive Tax Fraud, Israel’s State Comptroller Finds
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
In a report issued today, Israel’s State Comptroller Yosef Shapira said that Israeli tax authorities failed to (or were prevented from) collecting tens of millions of shekels in taxes owed by haredi institutions and individuals, Arutz Sheva reported.
Shapira found that haredim exchange money “under the table,” concealing transactions and employment from tax authorities, and use haredi haredi charities and kosher supervision beit dins (religious courts; Badatz [name of haredi community or town]) to launder money and hide it from tax authorities.
He also found that haredi kabbalists collected hundreds of millions of shekels in cash from followers seeking blessings, and paid no taxes on that income.
In response to a series of complaints to police and tax officials about illegal activities by various haredi Badatz organizations, Shapira looked at 20 of those organizations’ activities conducted over a seven-month period, April through October 2013.
Shapira found that 11 rabbis and six Badatz organizations did combined business of 887 million skekels (about $250 million) in the name of a single haredi kabbalist. It was unlikely that all the money actually reached that rabbi's accounts. Instead, the rabbis and organizations were likely used to launder money, Shapira found, with ‘donors’ paying a fee to use the account to deposit income and then withdraw it in cash, hiding the income from tax authorities.
“Tax authorities must increase their efforts to investigate these incidents and bring those perpetrating these crimes to justice,” Shapira wrote in his report, adding that the Israel State Comptroller's office and other authorities have been demanding an investigation into incidents like this since 2009.