On 7 October 2026, three years to the day after the war began, the heads of ten appeals committees wrote to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Tax Authority director Shai Aharonovich. They announced a full stop to hearings and rulings until their working terms are settled.
These are the committees that hear appeals against decisions of the property tax compensation fund, for direct and indirect damage from the 7 October attack and the wars that followed. A citizen or business that disagrees with a compensation decision goes to them, and they can change it. According to committee members, about 10,000 such appeals are waiting, worth around ₪5 billion in total. Some appellants are owed tens or hundreds of thousands of shekels.
Where the talks broke down
The Tax Authority pays committee members by the hour. A chair gets ₪230 an hour and each of the other two members gets ₪205. The members say the Authority caps the hours it pays for on each case, allowing two hours of preparation, even for a large file that needs far more.
Their demand is payment for every hour actually spent on a case, billed by invoice, at the same rate. They say a meeting at the Justice Ministry, attended by senior Tax Authority officials, had already agreed to raise the preparation hours, and the Finance Ministry backed out. They also say that in June 2026 the Justice Ministry's accountant approved paying them under the model used for other government appeals committees, and that the approval was never applied. They point to a State Comptroller finding of a structural conflict of interest: the compensation fund is a party to the appeals and is also involved in running the committees that hear them.
The Finance Ministry tells it differently. It says it approved a larger preparation quota and that some chairs walked away from the agreement. It called on them to keep holding hearings as usual, said talks on preparation hours would continue, and said it is looking at adding more chairs to shorten the queue.
Who feels it
Any business owner who appealed a compensation fund decision, for direct or indirect damage, and is waiting for a hearing. While the stoppage lasts, no hearings are held and no rulings are issued. The Finance Ministry gave no date for a return, and the chairs have tied their return to a settlement of their terms.
For a self-employed person or a family business that took damage, the amount in dispute can be the difference between a normal month and a month where supplier payments don't get covered.
Planning the next few months
If the business's cash flow plan includes money expected after an appeal ruling, push it out, with no firm date. Better to know that now than to find out on the day a supplier payment is due.
Anyone represented in an appeal by a lawyer or an assessor can ask them whether their hearing has been postponed and when a new date is likely. Anyone who has not yet appealed and recently received a decision from the compensation fund should check the filing deadline with their representative, because the stoppage notice says nothing about extending deadlines.
The Finance Ministry's idea of adding chairs is only under review. Even if it goes ahead, appointing new chairs takes time, and a queue of 10,000 appeals will not clear on the day hearings resume.