BREAKING NEWS

17% of population pays 76% of taxes

Seventeen percent of Israel’s population paid over three-fourths of the direct taxes in 2008, while about half fell beneath the income tax threshold, a report by the Finance Ministry’s State revenue administration revealed Sunday.
The report, which used data from 2008, the last year of complete available data, and modeled estimates for 2011 and 2012, found that the overall greatest contribution to the state’s direct tax revenues came from the second highest tax bracket, in which 6.4% of the population paid out 30.9% of the total.
Only a third as many people--1.8%--paid into the top top tax bracket, but the higher rate meant they represented 27.2% of the overall direct taxes collected. Fully 43.7% of the population fell into the lowest tax brackets of 10% or less, and represented a mere 2.4% of the tax revenue.
The number of people who, due to the tax structure and various benefits given based on family status, fell below the income tax threshold was 52.2% in 2010, 49.7% in 2011, and 52.3% in 2012.
On average, Israelis paid 20.6% in direct taxes, 13.4% in income tax and 7.6% on Health and National Insurance taxes.