Benjamini & Co.

Benjamini & Co. is a leading boutique firm with a proven reputation in tax practice, providing a full professional package of solutions for all tax issues, including tax litigation, tax planning, taxation of equity-based compensation, and advice on income tax, VAT and real estate tax. Startup companies, Israeli blue-chip companies, individuals and leading multinational corpora-tions can all be counted among the firm’s clients. The firm was founded in 2015 by Adv. Yair Benjamini, an attorney with approximately 20 years of experience in Israeli tax law, one of Israel’s best-known tax lawyers, with extensive knowhow, skills and experience in his area of practice. Other partners include Adv. Sagiv Ron, who specializes in real estate taxation, as well as Adv. (CPA) Doron Elmekiesse and Adv. (CPA) Shahar Strauss, experts on international and Israeli corporate taxation. Benjamini & Co is a leader in its field, chosen as the local professional part-ner of leading law and accounting firms worldwide. The firm routinely presents its expertise on tax issues at conferences and in the media.

Practice Areas

Capital Market & Private Investments: The firm represents a wide range of clients, including VCs, private equity funds, family offices, angel investors, fund managers and investors, in their Israeli tax strategy and before the Israel Tax Authority. International Tax: The firm specializes in solutions for Israelis with activity abroad and foreign resident investors in Israel, advising inter-national ventures on tax-efficient structures, international transactions, and transferring activities. Merger and Acquisition Transactions: The firm has a wealth of experience advising share-holders and companies on the taxation aspects of merger and acquisition transactions, from the perspective of both the purchasing and acquired parties.
Options Taxation and Employee Grants: The firm advises leading international companies regarding equity-based remuneration plans for employees in Israel. The firm also advises on equity compensation for senior em-ployees and employers.
Real Estate Taxation: The firm’s Real Estate Taxation Department is managed by Adv. Sagiv Ron. Services include planning the deal structure, obtaining tax rulings, managing assessment proceedings with the real estate tax authorities and real estate tax litigation, combination deals, purchasing groups, real estate trusts, urban renewal projects, luxury projects, etc. Private Clients: The firm offers tax advice on personal wealth planning, mainly to high-net-worth individuals and family offices.
Trusts: The firm assists in the formation of trusts, as well as compliance with trust reporting and tax liability. We also provide ongoing tax consultation for existing trusts.
Tax Disputes & Tax Rulings: The firm works with the ITA to reach preliminary tax rulings in the areas of international taxation, residency, trusts, mergers and reorgs, the Encouragement of Capital Investments Law, employee options, transfer pricing, and capital markets. Tax Litigation: The firm has significant experience representing individuals and companies in all areas of civil tax litigation before all judicial forums.
Voluntary Disclosure: The firm has extensive experience in voluntary disclosure procedures. Value Added Tax: The firm specializes in all aspects of VAT, including guiding transactions, legal opinions, tax plan-ning and advice, representation at tax authority assessment hearings and in tax appeals.
Legal Opinions: The firm’s team is highly experienced in drafting legal opinions on a wide range of taxation topics.
Crypto-Currencies: The firm is currently one of the market’s leaders concerning the taxation of individual and corporate blockchain activity, with a proven record guiding, advising, and preparing legal opinions, etc.

The Firm’s Team

Yair Benjamini, Founding Partner: Yair serves as legal advisor to some of Israel’s largest accounting firms, providing advice regarding tax issues encountered by their clients, including drafting legal opinions, legal support during tax assessment proceedings and representation in court. Yair deals with advice to high net worth individuals, both immigrants to Israel and Israeli residents, represents clients in audit proceedings and advises families on changes in trust law and compliance with reporting requirements in Israel with respect to foreign and local trusts. Yair has accumulated a wealth of legal experience, especially in the field of equity-based employee compensation schemes, and he regularly advises multinational corporations concerning remuneration strategies for employees in Israel.
Sagiv Ron, Partner and Head of Real Estate Taxation: Sagiv has extensive experience in various areas of taxation and focuses on all tax aspects of real estate transactions. He advises clients regarding real estate transactions – planning the tax structure, drafting opinions, preparing self-assessments and representing clients in assessment proceedings with real estate tax authorities and in appeal committees. Sagiv advises on urban renewal, purchase groups, residential apartments, real estate associations and development projects. He provides continuous guidance to real estate contractor companies, developers, private individuals and real estate associations, and specializes in advising developers in urban renewal projects.
Doron Elmekiesse, Partner: Doron is an Israeli lawyer and accountant specializing in Israeli and international taxation, and the taxation of domestic and international trusts. Doron worked for seven years as a senior inspector and corporations and trusts coordinator at the Israel Tax Authority. In this capacity, Doron accumulated broad experience in tax audits of individuals, share-holders, companies and trusts, with an emphasis on numerous large-scope international tax issues. Doron served as a member of various Tax Authority committees on legislative reform in the realm of trust taxation and headed tax assessments of large and complex trusts.
Shahar Strauss, Partner: Shahar is highly experienced in the management of all aspects of complex income tax cases, and specializes in Israeli corporate taxation, including tax benefits under the Encouragement of Capital Investments Law, holding company regimes, complex withholding tax issues, and the interface between income tax and land appreciation tax. Prior to joining Benjamini & Co as a partner, Shahar was a senior associate at the Ziv Sharon and Co. law firm and worked as a senior tax manager at KPMG. Before that, Shahar worked at the Israel Tax Authority as a tax officer in the Capital Market Department of the Professional Division.
Michal Richulsky, Partner: Michal specializes in litigation and indirect taxation. She has extensive courtroom experience handling all branches of taxation, including VAT, income tax, real estate tax, customs and class action suits. Previously, Michal worked for 13 years as a senior prosecutor in the Fiscal Department of the Tel Aviv District Attorney’s Office (Civil Law). Within this position, Michal led large, complex cases on all aspects of taxation. Judgements awarded in these cases constituted important precedents. During the past two and a half years, Michal was a partner in a boutique tax firm, where she managed the litigation department. In this capacity, she was responsible for managing tax appeals in the various courts.