The Income Tax Department is conducting a collection drive.
Dozens of workers are descending on areas around the country
to improve tax collection efficiency and to prevent tax
evasion.
One of the key targets for catching tax violators is
businesses that operate on Shabbos and yom tovim.
Income tax authorities plan to increase the number of checks
at such businesses.
When Income Tax Department Chief Superintendent Yitzhak
Borshtein, who is in charge of bookkeeping, operations and
field intelligence, discovered that investigating firms that
do business on Shabbos and holidays was effective for tax
authorities in their war against failure to write receipts,
he notified members of the Bureau of Independent
Organizations' Tax Committee.
This could have been good news, but unfortunately Chief
Superintendent Borshtein says the inspections on Shabbos and
holidays will be carried out by Jewish employees, who will
also be paid overtime.
Although it is unacceptable for store owners, who are
mechalelei Shabbos befarhesia as well as lawbreakers,
to also steal state monies by dodging taxes, if eradicating
this shameful practice means taking the no less shameful
step of dispatching Jewish workers on Shabbos, it is
certainly better to let them steal public funds than to add
to the list of mechalelei Shabbos.
