The professional team, headed by Adv. Erez Milner and Adv. Avi Gabai, has extensive knowledge and many years of quality experience providing legal counselling on complex issues and representation in municipal taxation proceedings. Municipal taxation is the main source of income for the local authorities, intended to enable them to finance their activities for the benefit of the public in accordance with their obligation under the law. In general, municipal taxation is divided into several main groups: municipal property tax; development levies, including the various types of development charges; payments under the planning and building laws, including land betterment taxes, construction charges, and payments of a similar nature, among them balancing charges and lease charges; and payments relating to the financing of the operation, maintenance and development of the municipal water and sewage systems.

Our firm’s local authorities team has gained unique experience over the years in legal representation in all aspects of municipal taxation, particularly relating to the analysis of charges, classification, areas, and “moratorium law” issues pertaining to the general municipal property tax. The firm’s clients in the area of municipal taxation include both local authorities and taxpayers (private, commercial and public). The team’s extensive experience in representation in all the areas of municipal taxation enables it to provide legal counselling in this area, including economic–financial aspects in addition to the legal aspects.

The team’s extensive knowledge and experience enables it to provide legal counselling in accompanying the preparation of assessments and in collection proceedings, as well as legal counselling and representation regarding municipal taxation on various issues such as municipal property tax, charges, development and infrastructure levies, land betterment taxes, expenses related to preparing urban planning schemes, balancing charges, signage and advertising fees and more. The legal counselling services include conducting surveys to increase income and the management of complex collection procedures; handling municipal property tax issues of entities entitled to full or partial exemptions from this tax, among them education institutions, higher education institutions, government companies and more.

The professional team took part in very significant cases of different clients in these areas, and over the past decade the firm has provided legal representation in municipal taxation cases in the scope of hundreds of millions of NIS.