Income tax

Income tax advances, how the advance rate is set, when to ask for a reduction, and closing the tax year with your accountant.

Income tax reaches a freelancer in two stages. Through the year you pay advances, a percentage of turnover that the assessing officer sets from the previous year, and at the end you file a return that works out the real liability against what was already paid. The difference is refunded or demanded. An advance rate set after a strong year keeps running at that rate even once income drops, and you can ask for it to be cut instead of lending the state money until the reckoning. The guides here explain how the rate is set, when and how to ask to change it, and what needs to be ready for the annual return.

Worth knowing that the advance is calculated on turnover, not on profit. A business with high turnover and high expenses pays advances that look large against what actually stays with it, and the correction only arrives at the end. Two things reshape the annual picture: other income from a salary or from investments, which joins the same bracket calculation, and deposits into a pension or hishtalmut fund, which reduce the liability in two different ways. The annual return is where all of it meets.