Belarus demands money from Jewish elders who survived the Holocaust

Thousands of Jewish old people of the Republic of Belarus - recipients of humanitarian aid from the American JDC (“Joint”), recently received notices of the need to pay income tax on the cost of those charitable services that they received through the Heseds - regional branches of the “Joint” needy Jews.

The situation with the tax was investigated by Israeli journalist Shimon Bryman and wrote about it in the publication “Jewish world«.

Requirements to pay the “kindness tax” were even retroactive in nature — for example, in April, a demand was sent to pay tax on charity services for January-February-March 2017 of the year. At the same time, the amount of tax charged for 3 was half the monthly pension of the average pensioner in Belarus.

It is known that funds for elderly Jews who survived the Holocaust are allocated to the American Jewish Distribution Committee (“Joint”) specifically for this purpose from the budget Claims conference - The main organization for the material requirements for Germany for the genocide and robbery of Jews during the Holocaust.

Thus, the Joint has considerable funds to help the old people - why do its branches in the cities of Belarus require taxes from the elderly and needy people instead of covering these expenses from their own budgets? In order to get answers to questions about the reasons for such demands, Shimon Briman turned to the main office of the Joint.

In response, JDC Regional Director for ex-USSR countries, Michal Frank (Michal Frank), received by 19 June 2017 of the year, it is emphasized that the Belarusian state became the initiator of tax collection from charitable assistance and services.

According to the innovations of the Belarusian authorities, humanitarian aid and care for the elderly are now perceived as receiving additional income by these elderly people. For example, payment by Hesed for several hours a week of a visiting assistant (patronage nurse) is supposedly “extra income” for 85-90-year-old people, who are often very unhealthy and have endured innumerable sufferings during the Second World War.

“The Belarusian tax authorities explained to us that (now) there is a liability of personal income tax. After numerous requests to the local tax authorities, we understood the following:

1. Older clients of Hesed are obliged to inform the authorities about the cost of the services they receive (such as home care) in order to pay taxes according to the value of these services.

2. The law includes some benefits that can only be used personally, after a customer receives an official tax request from the government.

3. Heseds are not in a position to request these tax exemptions on behalf of their clients, since the law requires clients to apply for these tax exemptions themselves.

“Because of the limited resources, JDC is not able to cover the costs of this tax,” says the response of the Joint’s regional director, Michael Frank.

A senior JDC manager also noted that the divisions of her organization advise elderly clients to individually contact local authorities to exempt elderly people from income tax due to age, health, and / or single family status.

These tax requirements have already led to the fact that older Jews drastically cut their hours of assistance (money allocated for Claims conference) - in order not to pay extra income tax.

For example, in the town of Svetlogorsk, Gomel region, 86-year-old Elizaveta Markovna B. reduced the work time of a visiting house attendant from 25 to 10 hours a week. She motivated this by one reason - unwillingness to pay a large tax on the amount of the “services of free charity” received.

As a result of this investigation, it became obvious that the JDC in Belarus was forced to comply with the new tax legislation of this country. Nevertheless, even elementary humanism and compassion say that charging money from elderly and needy people is an unfair and even immoral step by the tax authorities of Belarus. It is necessary to find some other solution to this problem throughout Belarus and, at least, to abolish this outrageous “tax on helping the elderly.”

The tax authority explains this with the requirements of the law, and also emphasizes that local authorities have the right to exempt humanitarian aid recipients from paying the tax.

Belarus has been experiencing budget problems for the past few years, so the authorities are trying to introduce additional taxes and fees, which causes protests in society. The most severe criticism was caused by the tax “on parasites” introduced at the beginning of 2015. According to it, citizens of the country and those temporarily residing in the country, but without official work, are required to pay a special fee of 200 euros once a year, from which social security costs for these people will supposedly be financed.

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