Running an Israeli Business (Osek) from Germany

You can keep an Israeli osek patur (exempt small business) or osek murshe (VAT-registered business) open after moving to Germany, but the first question is not technical: the move can change your tax residency and your Bituach Leumi (Israel's National Insurance Institute) status, so settle that with an Israeli accountant and a German Steuerberater before you change anything. The routine reporting (VAT reports, the annual return) runs through the Israel Tax Authority's online services, and in our check on 23 October 2026 the Tax Authority's sites did not open from abroad. Bituach Leumi's personal area opened from abroad. This guide describes procedures only; it is not tax advice.

First: residency and double taxation

Moving to Germany can change your tax residency in Israel and in Germany, and your status with Bituach Leumi. Israel and Germany have a double taxation treaty (signed in Berlin on 21 August 2014), and there is also a social security agreement between the two countries (signed in 1973, in force since 1975). How they apply to you depends on where you live, where the work is done and where your clients are. We don't cover German tax rules here: ask a Steuerberater, ideally one who knows Israeli cross-border cases.

VAT (Ma'am) reports

• Osek murshe files periodic VAT reports, monthly or every two months depending on turnover, even in months with no activity. According to Kol Zchut (the Israeli rights information site), the report is generally due by the 15th of the month after the period. Reports and payments can be filed through the Tax Authority's online service, and gov.il says periodic reports filed and paid online are due by the 19th instead of the 15th (gov.il).
• Osek patur does not file periodic reports; instead it submits an annual declaration of the previous year's turnover, by 31 January.

Check your own dates with your accountant: they depend on your file.

Income tax

A self-employed person with an Israeli file generally submits an annual return on Form 1301, and gov.il offers an online system for entering and filing it with supporting documents. Advance payments and deadlines depend on your file, so check them in your personal area or with your accountant.

Bituach Leumi

A self-employed person pays National Insurance contributions themselves, usually as advance payments set by Bituach Leumi. Whether you still have to pay after moving depends on your residency status, which Bituach Leumi determines. According to Bituach Leumi's guide to the agreement with Germany, an Israeli resident who works in Germany as an employee or self-employed pays contributions in Germany as well. You keep paying Bituach Leumi in Israel, send its foreign relations department proof of your German insurance once a quarter, and get back the national insurance contributions paid in Israel. The agreement does not cover health insurance: as long as you are an Israeli resident, health insurance contributions are due in Israel even if you also pay for health insurance in Germany. Settle your status with the collection department of your Bituach Leumi branch before you leave.

Your account and certificates are in the personal area, which opened from abroad in the same check: see Bituach Leumi from abroad.

Which online services need an Israeli IP

The Tax Authority's sites, including its personal area, are the ones that didn't open from abroad. This has a history. In January 2021 the Tax Authority said it applies tighter checks to connections from abroad for security reasons, case by case and not as a blanket block, and Calcalist (an Israeli business daily) reported a person who tried to pay income tax from Germany and was refused (Calcalist). In April 2014 Israel blocked foreign traffic to some government websites for several days ahead of an expected cyberattack, and electronic payments from abroad for government services were refused as well (Reuters via GigaLaw).

Without a VPN, the practical option is to have your Israeli accountant handle the reports; ask whether they can file for you. Paying other Israeli bills is covered in Israeli payments from abroad, and what else typically fails from Germany in Israeli websites from Germany.

Filing yourself with an Israeli IP

To file VAT reports or the annual return yourself from Germany, connect from an Israeli IP first. Try SuperStableVPN — 3 days free, no credit card required: install the free standard OpenVPN client on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android or Linux (or set it up on a router), import the configuration file and check that an IP-lookup site shows Israel. The exit is a static IP from a range of Israeli residential addresses rather than a hosting range, and such addresses are less likely to be flagged than the datacenter addresses that fraud-screening databases such as MaxMind's list as VPN or hosting. Step-by-step login is in Israel Tax Authority from abroad. It is calmer to set this up in advance than on the last day before a report is due; then, when you need it, you just press "Connect".

Limits: the IP lets the site answer; it doesn't change where a bank transfer from a German account comes from. To receive SMS codes you will also need an Israeli phone number. Keep the phone number and email in your Tax Authority profile up to date, since login codes go there.