Park your work vehicles at home - and you will be charged income tax

The Central District Court ruled that the mere fact that an employee drove a work vehicle home and parked it there is sufficient to obligate the employee to pay income tax on the benefit value. Judge Shmuel Bornstein dismissed an appeal by Gil-Ran Management and Project Execution Ltd. against the tax assessor's demand to tax its employees.

The Central District Court ruled that the mere fact that an employee drove a work vehicle home and parked it there, without any additional use, is sufficient to obligate the employee to pay income tax on the benefit value. Judge Shmuel Bornstein dismissed an appeal filed by Gil-Ran Management and Project Execution Ltd. against the tax assessor's demand to tax its employees on the company vehicles provided to them. The company argued that these were solely work vehicles used to transport employees to remote sites, and that they were equipped with tracking devices preventing private use. The judge ruled that the vehicles do not meet the definition of "operational vehicles" because after work hours they leave the workplace and are parked at employees' homes. The claim that the company relied on the tax authority's conduct for 22 years was also rejected, as this does not grant a right to maintain the status quo.