Anyone in Israel who files VAT online is used to filing by the 19th of the month. Almost everyone files that way. On October 26, 2026 the Israel Tax Advisors Association put on YouTube a session from its annual conference, and in it emerged that this date was about to disappear.
Dana Zatlaoui Cohen, the association's vice president and the session's moderator, said VAT had drafted a circular scrapping the 19th. Under it, the 15th becomes the "iron date" again. Whoever transmits the return through a direct interface between their accounting software and the Authority, with no typing on the website, could file until the 23rd, even if they are not required to file a detailed report. She said she had asked the head of VAT, Neta Sabah, to freeze the circular, because not all accounting software can transmit through the direct interface. A representative whose software does not support it is left with two options: file by the 15th, or change software.
Why the 19th exists at all
Sabah explained the background. The dates in the law are the 15th of the month for those not required to file a detailed report, and the 23rd for those who are. The 19th was given at the time as relief, to encourage online filing. Today 99% file online, and in her view the relief no longer encourages anything.
Because the 19th is not a statutory date, it does not move when it falls on a weekend. Sabah described what happens then: representatives say the 19th fell on a Saturday, they filed on the 20th, and they ask why they were fined from the 15th. The answer is that the 15th is the date that counts.
She said the Authority accepted the request to freeze scrapping the 19th, but will not create three different dates, the 15th, the 19th and the 23rd, because it is confusing and takes resources. Her message to representatives was to move to the direct interface. The Authority has also added card payment to a representative's batch filing there, alongside a direct debit authorization.
The direct interface and the robots
Niva Mashiach of Shaam, the Authority's computing arm, added that the direct interface was built precisely for offices that until now used automated tools to transmit returns. Shaam forbids using them. According to her, whoever transmits through the direct interface does not get stuck in the load of the 15th and the 19th, because that load comes from filing through the website.
The circular is frozen, and the 19th still applies. A business that files on the website itself, or whose accountant files through the website, keeps filing as usual. It is worth asking your accountant whether their software transmits through the direct interface, because when the circular comes back to the table, that is what will set the date.