Israel’s Internal Revenue Service has been running an ad campaign on radio and television encouraging citizens to report tax evaders, explaining “they cost us all” since there is an estimated 16 billion NIS of revenue annually that is not reported to tax authority.
A special hotline number is advertised to facility turning over one’s neighbor for tax evasion. Commenting on the Galei Yisrael Friday program “חיים כהלכה”, Tzfas Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu Shlita, who serves as a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council said one should not turn another over to tax authorities. He stated tax authorities “are encouraged to do their work and that is fine but we are not informers”.
The rav refers to the story in the beginning of Sefer Yehoshua, when HKBH was asked “מיהו זה שמעל בחרם” and HKBH responded He would not say, and if Yehoshua wished to know, he would find out on his own. “We learn from this that informing is improper”, the rav explained.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
He is acting very responsively and in the sincere interest of the public. This is the only way to protect the national phone and email systems from immediate meltdown.
I’m not sure what the shita his here since we are obligated to report a theft we witness and tax evasion is theft from the tzibur. If we saw someone stealing a shtender from the beis medrash, we would inform the authorities. Its not an issue of mesirah since that only applies to turning over a yid to the goiyeshe police where there is a risk he would be persecuted just for being a yid and having nothing to do with his alleged crimes but this would seem different.
Israel, like most third world countries, has a serious problem with its eqiuvalent of the IRS being seen with great hostility. For all their whining, most Americans object to tax evasion since most American feel that if you are cheating on your taxes, you are robbing them (your fellow taxpayers). That is because all Americans see the government as “their own” government. Most Israelis see the government as something external to themselves that is imposed upon them. Until they change those perceptions, expect tax compliance is naive.
What a chillul Hashem..
There is a halachic basis to his psak.
What is even more interesting is the fact that he says nothing to those evading taxes. Something along the lines of “it is stealing to do so” would have been encouraging to see
I guess I’m the only Israeli here commenting: the system is built that the authorities assume everyone is lying and therefor when you report $10 of income they tax you for $30, because they assume that you have made at least that. No one in his right mind reports or applies for a tax break here, – which is an actual refund, by the way, even better than in the states – because thats an invitation for an audit. So as the saying goes, it takes two to tangle. I suspect that if the tax people were less mafia, Rabbi Eliyahu would have less problem with reporting to them.
It’s not chilul Hashem. You want everyone to decide on their own who is evading taxes? Nobody will be able to trust anyone anymore because their ‘friend’ may just be interested in reporting them for some obscure violation.
#4 yowzah: Wrong – a chillul Hashem is what comes out of NOT following Daas Torah and instead making our own cheshbonot of how things should be