Do your Israeli working years count toward a US Social Security benefit?
No. Israel is not on the list of countries with a US totalization agreement2, so every year you work here adds exactly zero toward the 40 credits a US retirement benefit requires1. If you left the US six or eight years in, the gap does not close by itself. It closes only if you keep earning in a way the US still counts, or it does not close at all.
General information, not advice
This is where the passport in your drawer stops being a formality. Israel has signed comprehensive social security conventions with the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and a dozen other countries, and those conventions cover the old-age branch14. The National Insurance Institute states plainly that what exists between Israel and the United States is a Friendship and Shipping agreement, and that it does not constitute an agreement in the field of social security14. A British oleh can lean on a convention that has been in force since 1957. You have nothing to lean on.
How are credits actually earned, and what does crossing 40 buy?
Credits are bought with earnings, not with time, which is why the folk term "forty quarters" misleads almost everyone who uses it. In 2026 you earn one credit for every $1,890 of covered earnings, and $7,560 buys the maximum four credits for the year1. You can book a full year of credits in a single busy month, and earning ten times the threshold still books only four.
Crossing 40 is not one switch, it is four. It is worth knowing which of them you already have, because some protection exists well below the threshold and some evaporates a few years after your last covered paycheck.
- Retirement. 40 credits, no exceptions, no partial version1.
- Disability. Far fewer credits, but with a recency test: from age 31 you generally need 20 credits inside the 10 years before the disability began1. Stop US-covered work at aliyah and this cover quietly lapses over the following years, whatever your lifetime total says.
- Survivors. Nobody needs more than 40, and under a special rule your children and the spouse caring for them can be paid on just six credits earned in the three years before your death1.
- Family benefits. A spouse, ex-spouse or child of an entitled worker can receive up to half the worker's amount4, and the credits on your record also determine Medicare eligibility1.
Which routes to more credits are actually open from Israel?
Two routes add credits to your own record, and the belief most worth correcting is that you need US clients. You do not. As a US citizen you owe self-employment tax on your net self-employment earnings wherever the work or the client sits, because the IRS applies the same rules whether you live in the US or abroad9. Israeli clients paying shekels into an Israeli account still produce covered earnings. What decides the answer is whether you are genuinely self-employed or an employee, and if an employee, whose.
| Route from Israel | US credits per year | What you pay the US | Israeli contributions also due on the same income? | Years to close a 14-credit gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-employment, any client anywhere (freelance, עוסק מורשה (osek murshe)) | Up to 4, once covered earnings reach $7,5601 | Self-employment tax at 15.3% of net earnings, owed once they reach $40089 | Yes. Every Israeli resident aged 18 or older owes national and health insurance contributions, with narrow exceptions19 | 4 calendar years (12 credits in three, 2 in the fourth) |
| Wages from an American employer while you live here (a US corporation, the US government, a US-resident individual) | Up to 4, on the same earnings thresholds1 | The employee share of Social Security and Medicare, withheld at source; the employer pays its own share10 | Yes, as an Israeli resident; confirm the collection mechanics with Bituach Leumi when the employer is foreign19 | 4 calendar years |
| Salary from an Israeli employer, including the Israeli subsidiary of a US company | None | Nothing, unless the American parent has a voluntary Form 2032 coverage agreement for its foreign affiliate10 | Yes, employee ביטוח לאומי (Bituach Leumi) and health contributions from your payslip19 | Never closes |
| A spouse's record | None on your own record | Nothing extra | Not applicable | Your own gap stays open, but a spouse benefit of up to half may be payable from age 62 after at least a year of marriage, if your spouse is entitled34 |
| Stop, and build the Israeli entitlement instead | None | Nothing | Yes, on all Israeli-resident income | Israeli old-age pension needs 60 insurance months in the preceding 10 years, or 144 in total15 |
Worked example: 26 credits, an Israeli freelance practice, and what the gap costs
Take an oleh who worked in the US from 24 to 31, landed in Israel with 26 credits on the record, and now freelances from Modi'in with mostly Israeli clients. She needs 14 more credits, which is $26,460 of covered self-employment earnings, spread over four calendar years because four credits a year is the ceiling1.
- The US charge on exactly that much: 15.3% of $26,460 is about $4,0488. At the Bank of Israel representative rate of 2.998 shekels to the dollar21, that is roughly ₪12,140 to convert 26 credits into 40.
- The Israeli charge on the same money: the shekel equivalent of that income is about ₪79,300, and Bituach Leumi plus health contributions are due on it as well19. Neither charge credits against the other.
- The part that is not optional: she cannot pay the 15.3% on a $7,560 slice and stop. If her net self-employment earnings are $40,000 a year, the charge runs on all of it, roughly $6,120 a year, and she still books only four credits81.
Which is the honest answer in two lines. If you are already self-employed here, the last 14 credits are effectively free: you are paying the charge anyway and the credits are a by-product. If you are salaried at an Israeli employer, reaching 40 means restructuring real work into self-employment, and the 15.3% then applies to everything you earn that way, not to the slice you wanted.
Is a contribution now worth a benefit decades away?
Eligibility and size are two different questions, and topping up buys mostly the first. The Social Security Administration is explicit that extra credits do not raise your payment: the average of your earnings across your working years determines the monthly amount1. Forty credits assembled from four thin years produce a modest benefit, not a rich one.
What crossing the line buys is a set of on-off switches: retirement eligibility for life, Medicare eligibility, a spouse or child benefit on your record4, and, since the Social Security Fairness Act repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision, a benefit no longer cut because you also draw an Israeli pension7. Whether the payment reaches you here is a separate question with its own rules, and the SSA publishes a screening tool for it5.
Before you decide anything, pull your earnings record
The US tax side while you are building credits
The US self-employment charge is 15.3% of net earnings, being 12.4% Social Security plus 2.9% Medicare, with an extra 0.9% Medicare tax above $200,000 single or $250,000 filing jointly8. It bites from $400 of net earnings, and the foreign earned income exclusion does not touch it, because you count all self-employment income even where the gross was excluded9. Your worldwide US filing duty continues for as long as you hold the citizenship11.
The Israeli side: what your years here are building instead
Your Israeli years build an Israeli entitlement, and the runway is much shorter than 40 US credits. An old-age pension requires 60 insurance months within the 10 years before the entitlement age, or 144 insurance months in total, or at least 60 months where your insured months since first becoming an Israeli resident outnumber your uninsured ones1516. Five working years here can qualify you for קצבת זקנה (Kitzvat Zikna) where six US years leave you with nothing.
Your aliyah date sets which track you are on. Anyone who first immigrated before the age the law sets (62 for men, retirement age for women) is covered by old-age insurance; anyone who first immigrated after it is not, and is routed instead to a special old-age benefit funded by the Ministry of Finance1718. Register with a health fund at the Misrad HaKlita desk in the airport on arrival, or at any Israel Post branch; past 90 days from aliyah it can only be done in person at your Bituach Leumi branch20.
What does the US-Israel treaty do here, and what does it pointedly not do?
The treaty helps with the tax on the benefit and does nothing at all about the contributions. Article 21 of the US-Israel income tax convention provides that social security payments paid by one state to a resident of the other are exempt from tax in both states, and Article 6(4) carves Article 21 out of the saving clause, so a US citizen resident in Israel keeps that treatment1312. The Second Protocol then defines the taxes the convention covers as the Internal Revenue Code "but excluding social security taxes"13. That single parenthesis is the whole gap: an income tax treaty cannot totalize anything.
| Question | US treatment | Israeli treatment | What the treaty does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do Israeli working years count toward eligibility? | No. Only US-covered earnings build credits1 | Yes, they build the Israeli qualifying period15 | Nothing. Aggregating periods is a totalization function, and there is no US-Israel totalization agreement214 |
| Is the contribution charged twice on the same earnings? | Self-employment tax at 15.3% applies wherever you live9 | Bituach Leumi and health contributions apply to every resident aged 18 or older19 | Nothing. The convention expressly excludes social security taxes from the taxes it covers13 |
| How is the US benefit taxed once it is paid to you in Israel? | Exempt under Article 21, and the saving clause does not override it13 | Exempt under the same Article, which exempts the payment in both states13 | This is the one place it does real work. Confirm your own position with a cross-border professional before relying on it12 |
What newcomers get wrong
- Assuming the tax treaty covers this. It does not. The convention defines its own scope as excluding social security taxes13, so the treaty you may have read about capital gains or pensions has no reach over contributions or credits at all.
- Assuming credits are quarters of time. They are earnings thresholds, so four credits can be booked inside one strong month, which is why people who believe they hold 24 credits often hold 301.
- Assuming a US company's Israeli payslip counts. The test is whether the employer is an American employer, not whether the brand is American. An Israeli subsidiary is a foreign affiliate, covered only under a voluntary Form 2032 agreement its US parent has actually signed10.
- Assuming disability cover survives aliyah. From age 31 the recent-work test asks for 20 credits inside the last 10 years1, so a lifetime total of 30 does not help if the last one is twelve years old.
- Assuming a spouse benefit rescues a couple. It works only if the other spouse is entitled on their own record3. Two olim who are each eight years short do not add up to one eligible worker, and an Israeli-born spouse has no US record at all.
- Assuming a return to the US is required to be paid. It usually is not, but the rules vary by status and country, so run the SSA screening tool rather than assume5.
One scope note. This page is about contributions, credits and entitlement, and it names no investment product of any kind, so the US PFIC regime, which punishes US persons who hold non-US pooled funds, is out of scope here and is covered separately in the cross-border investing articles on this site. No pooled investment vehicle appears anywhere above.
Check your understanding
You are a US citizen living in Israel with 28 Social Security credits, working as a salaried employee for the Israeli subsidiary of a US technology company. What is happening to your credit count?
Ask who the employer legally is, and which system that employer pays into.
The United States and Israel have no totalization agreement, so Israeli working years count nothing toward the 40 Social Security credits a US retirement benefit requires. Credits are earnings-based rather than time-based: in 2026 one credit costs $1,890 of covered earnings and $7,560 books the annual maximum of four. From Israel only two routes add credits to your own record, net self-employment earnings, which carry the 15.3% US self-employment charge from $400 of net earnings, and wages from an American employer; salary from an Israeli employer, including an Israeli subsidiary of a US company, adds none. Israeli Bituach Leumi and health contributions remain due on the same earnings and cannot be offset either way, because the US-Israel income tax convention expressly excludes social security taxes from its scope. Count the credits already on your earnings record before planning anything. This is general education, not tax advice.
Because aggregating periods across two countries is a function of a totalization agreement, and Israel is not on the SSA list of countries that have one with the United States. Israel does have comprehensive social security conventions with the UK, France, Germany and others, but the National Insurance Institute states that what exists with the United States is a Friendship and Shipping agreement, which is not a social security agreement.
You need 40 credits for a US retirement benefit. In 2026 one credit is earned for every $1,890 of covered earnings, and $7,560 books the maximum four credits for the year, however much more you earn. Because the threshold is an earnings amount rather than a calendar quarter, a short but well-paid period of work can book a full year of credits.
No. As a US citizen you owe self-employment tax on your net self-employment earnings whether you live in the United States or abroad, and the IRS applies the same rules either way. Israeli clients paying shekels into an Israeli account still produce self-employment earnings for this purpose. The question that decides the outcome is whether you are genuinely self-employed rather than an employee.
Generally no. US Social Security and Medicare taxes reach wages paid abroad when the employer is an American employer, such as a US corporation or the US government. An Israeli subsidiary is a foreign affiliate, so coverage exists only where the US parent has entered a voluntary Form 2032 agreement with the US Treasury to extend coverage to that affiliate.
No, and nothing coordinates the two. Every Israeli resident aged 18 or older must be covered by the National Insurance Institute and pay national and health insurance contributions. The US-Israel income tax convention defines the taxes it covers as excluding social security taxes, so neither charge can be credited against the other and both fall on the same earnings.
Not entirely. Survivors benefits need fewer credits the younger you are, nobody needs more than 40, and under a special rule your children and the spouse caring for them can be paid on six credits earned in the three years before your death. A spouse benefit is a separate route: it requires the other spouse to be entitled on their own record.
Article 21 of the US-Israel income tax convention provides that social security payments paid by one state to a resident of the other are exempt from tax in both states, and Article 6(4) keeps that benefit available to US citizens despite the saving clause. Whether the payment can actually reach you outside the United States is a separate question, and the SSA publishes a screening tool for it.
Count what you already have. Open or sign in to your my Social Security account, which the SSA supports for people living outside the United States, and read the credits on your earnings record. Most people who assume they are six years short discover an old summer job or a part-time year that booked four credits, and the remaining gap is smaller than they feared.