Super model Bar Refaeli was questioned again today in the Israel Tax Authority's investigative offices on suspicion of tax evasion amounting to millions of shekels with the assistance of her mother, Tzipi Refaeli, her personal manager.
Refaeli is suspected of misleading the Tax Authority by saying that she lived overseas for years, while actually living in the YOO towers and the W tower in Tel Aviv. It is suspected that her siblings and mother signed the leases for these apartments in order to conceal the fact that she was living in Israel for years, thereby evading tax liability on income amounting to tens of millions of shekels.
Refaeli is also suspected of receiving many celebrity benefits and discounts in both cash and cash equivalents worth over NIS 1 million, including the use of vehicles, which she failed to report to the Tax Authority, as legally required.
Publication of the investigation was allowed starting a month ago, when Refaeli was interrogated for 11 hours until almost midnight in the Tax Authority offices. She was released and quested for two more hours the next morning. Refaeli was then officially arrested, and her case was referred to a court for a hearing on the terms of her release. Tzipi Refaeli was also questioned in the affair, as well as other parties.
Refaeli is a presenter for leading brands in Israel and overseas, and is also a partner in some of them. Tzipi Refaeli is also suspected of not reporting her full income, and of participating in false representation to the Kfar Saba tax assessment office about Bar Refaeli's residence, including the concealment of particulars of material importance to determining Bar Refaeli's place of residence and the location of her true residence.
Under the Income Tax Ordinance, the location of Bar Refaeli's residence is significant in determining her taxable income, because an Israeli resident owes taxes on income from anywhere in the world, while a foreign resident owes tax only on income produced in Israel. The Income Tax Ordinance determines residence according to the number of days a person resides in Israel, and according to his center of life, including a person's connections to Israel, among them keeping a home and car, the location of his family, economic connections, etc.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 20, 2016
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