The Israeli IT security company's founder and CEO has complained about Check Point's tax burden.
"Our lawyers and accountants recommended that we incorporate in Israel when we were starting out but today the tax burden has quadrupled and there is a feeling that all Israeli companies are being stigmatized - and this raises the question what do I need all this for? We don't deal in political lobbying because we have a choice, but it's possible that we will slowly move our operations without any noise about it or shouting about it," Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) cofounder, chairman and CEO Gil Shwed said today at the Naschitz Brandes Amir PwC Israel Capital Market Conference.
Shwed continued to suggest that it is possible that his company will move its operations abroad. He said, "The situation today is problematic and nothing is changing. The politicians are busy with other things. I want to operate here in Israel. I hope they won't succeed in breaking me. But it might well be that in another five years in Israel we will pay $50 million tax and in another place $300 million tax. These are very natural processes. We are already subject to regulation in all the markets in which we operate so the question is if we will also remain subject to Israeli regulation or not."
He said that since the 1950s Israel's policy has been to attract foreign investors to the country but these policies were no longer appropriate today and that Israel loses money from this. "Foreign money is good and helps but Israeli money is also good and even better for the country."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 11, 2016
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016
Gil Shwed