In September the Israel Tax Authority announced that from 1 January 2027 a capital statement can be filed only through the online system. A capital statement is a sworn list of everything a person, their spouse and their minor children own and owe, filed when an assessing office demands one. Paper and scanned filing stay open until then, so it looked as if anyone who received a demand during 2026 could still choose how to file. At the annual conference of the Israel Tax Advisers Bureau in Eilat, in October 2026, it became clear that the choice depends only on the date the statement is actually filed. The date the demand was sent makes no difference.
An extension does not keep paper alive
One of the tax advisers on the panel put the common case. A client received a demand for a statement as of 31 December 2026, the adviser was swamped, asked for an extension and got one until 31 March 2027. Efrat Sharabi Atia, CPA, a senior department head for assessment and process development at the Tax Authority, answered that the order sets 1 January 2027, and that is what counts. A statement filed on or after that date is filed online.
The adviser, she said, has to decide in advance: use the extension and file online, or file on paper before 1 January. He asked whether he could request an extension on condition that he files on paper. The answer was no. The order prevails.
That matches the letter the Authority's senior deputy director for assessment and audit circulated on 7 September 2026. From 1 January 2027, it says, a scanned statement sent through the inquiries system or a paper statement handed in at the counter "will not be accepted and will not count as filing a capital statement". The rules published in July apply to every filing from the start date onward.
What the system keeps
By the time of the conference, about 50,000 capital statements had been filed through the digital system. Sharabi Atia advised starting to use it now, before it becomes mandatory. A statement filed there is stored and stays accessible.
Older statements will not show up in the personal area. The Authority scanned the statements in its archives, going back to 2014, into its staff system, but did not put them in taxpayers' personal areas. The reason given was legal: the Authority worries that a statement filed by mistake under someone else's ID number would be shown to the wrong person. Anyone who needs a copy asks the central unit at their assessing office.
Documents, corrections and extensions
Each section has its own document slot, but everything can also be attached as one file at the end. The system accepts Excel, Word, images and PDF, with no file size limit. Documents can be added after filing too, as many times as needed, and the system sets no deadline for that.
Someone who made a mistake does not file the statement again. They go into the system, choose to add documents after filing, and attach a letter setting out what was corrected, preferably with a corrected form 1219 and documents that back up the change. Whether the correction counts as a new filing date is up to the coordinator. Sharabi Atia said the coordinator will look at whether the first statement was filed almost empty just to avoid a fine.
Extension requests still go through the inquiries system, as they do now. The Ramla assessing officer said that under internal guidelines, requests there are usually answered within seven business days. An extension for a capital statement may take a little longer, because the coordinator checks whether it is a first or second request and how the taxpayer has behaved before. For a demand that covers assets from several years back, the document retention guide shows how long each kind of record has to be kept.