Along with budget proposals, the Knesset is passing an amendment to the Status of the Soldier in Military Service Law, significantly upgrading the status of reservists and granting them unprecedented benefits, particularly relevant for reservists with families, who own vehicles, apartments, and face heavy expenses that make reserve service especially challenging financially.
Benefits for Reservists:
- Exemption from vehicle license fee (vehicle test)
- Exemption from driver’s license fee
- One tax credit point (income tax discount for fighters)
- Exemption from entrance fees to national parks and nature reserves
- Reservists who served more than 60 days in a year will receive additional significant benefits: exemption from property tax, discounts on electricity, water, and sewage bills, participation in summer camp payments, rent, and more.
- Extension of employer compensation from National Insurance at a rate of 20%, subject to agreements with employer organizations on extending the expansion order, providing paid leave days for the spouses of reservists. It is important to note that the new law creates an unprecedented situation, an incentive for business owners to recruit reservists, through the income tax benefit that employers of reservists will receive.
Changes in Government Policy:
- The government will add a budget of 1.3 billion shekels to the aid fund for self employed individuals, which will help self employed reservists recover financially after their service.
- Each reservist will receive compensation of an additional day and a half for each actual day of reserve service, and the spouse of a reservist who served over 120 days will be entitled to additional compensation of two months after their partner’s service period. The compensations will also be granted retroactively for service in 2024.
- The government will establish an inter-ministerial team from the ministries of economy, finance, defense, and the IDF, which will create an official standard for businesses employing reservists or owned by reservists.
- Establishment of a Team to Examine the Range of Responses Provided to those Injured in the Iron Swords War
- The Chief of Staff will establish a special team that will work to streamline the allocation of reserve days among different populations. Additionally, the government instructed the State Service Commissioner to establish a procedure that limits the phenomenon of “accumulating reserve days,” to ensure that misuse of the allocation of reserve days does not occur.
