Tax Law and Social Norms in Mandatory Palestine and Israel

This book analyzes the role of law and social norms in fostering tax compliance in British-ruled Palestine and modern Israel.

Assaf Likhovski (Author)

9781107176294, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 July 2017

352 pages, 10 b/w illus. 1 colour illus. 8 tables
23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.66 kg

'Assaf Likhovksi has written an absolutely fascinating book. His exploration of the rise and fall of what he aptly calls the 'intimate fiscal state' uses taxation to provide a prism on the history of late Ottoman and British-ruled Palestine, as well as Israel. Everyone interested in the relationship between law and society, the history of taxation, the subject of tax avoidance, and the history of Israel will want to read this brilliant work.' Laura Kalman, University of California, Santa Barbara

This book describes how a social-norms model of taxation rose and fell in British-ruled Palestine and the State of Israel in the mid-twentieth century. Such a model, in which non-legal means were used to foster compliance, appeared in the tax system created by the Jewish community in 1940s Palestine and was later adopted by the new Israeli state in the 1950s. It gradually disappeared in subsequent decades as law and its agents, lawyers and accountants, came to play a larger role in the process of taxation. By describing the historical interplay between formal and informal tools for creating compliance, Tax Law and Social Norms in Mandatory Palestine and Israel sheds new light on our understanding of the relationship between law and other methods of social control, and reveals the complex links between taxation and citizenship.

Introduction: the intimate fiscal state
Part I. The Rise of Income Taxation: 1. Before the income tax: Jewish Ottoman, and early mandatory taxation
2. The introduction of income taxation in mandatory Palestine
Part II. The Ascendancy of Social Norms: 3. Taxation without law: the Jewish voluntary tax system
4. Law and social norms in early Israeli taxation
Part III. The Transformation of Israeli Taxation and its Law: 5. The rise of tax experts: accountants, lawyers, and economists
6. The transformation of tax law: doctrinal and legislative changes.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], Economic history [KCZ], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]