Mad Hon · Keren hishtalmut

Decide what to do with a mature keren hishtalmut

Decide what to do with a mature keren hishtalmut. A step-by-step Mad Hon guide for your Keren hishtalmut score, written for olim.

1. Find the date the clock actually started.
The six years run from the date of the first payment into the account, not from the day you signed the paperwork or the day an employer set it up. Those can be weeks or months apart. The managing company shows the date in your online account, and it also appears on the Har HaBituach report. Get the exact date before you plan anything around it.
2. Understand what maturity gives you, and what it does not take away.
After six years the balance, contributions and growth together, can be withdrawn without capital-gains tax on the growth. What maturity does not do is start a clock running the other way. Leaving the money where it is costs nothing, the account carries on growing under the same treatment, and the employer contribution carries on arriving if you are still in the job. There is no deadline pushing you to withdraw.
3. Weigh the cases where taking it out does real work.
A defined and funded need is the clearest one: a deposit on a home, a specific plan with a date on it. Clearing expensive credit is another, because the certain return from removing a high interest charge is hard to beat. So is being without a liquid buffer at all, which is a risk the account cannot help with while it sits there. What none of these is, is a general sense that the balance is large. That is the case for leaving it alone.
4. Take part of it, which is the option people miss.
You can withdraw part of the balance and leave the rest running. It is not a withdrawal followed by a new account: the same account continues, it keeps its seniority, the remaining balance keeps its treatment, and employer deposits keep arriving. For most situations where a specific need exists and the whole balance is not required, this is the shape of the answer.
5. Before six years, be clear about what a withdrawal costs.
The exemption is not there yet, and the Ordinance allows tax-free access earlier only in narrow cases, including three years from the first payment for someone who has already reached retirement age. Outside those cases an early withdrawal is taxed. Ask the managing company in writing what it will withhold and on which part of the balance before you file anything.
6. File it with the managing company, and ask what closes.
The request goes to the company that manages the fund, on its own form, and the money goes to your bank account. Ask two things before you sign: what will be withheld, and whether the account stays open. Taking everything out closes it, so if deposits are still coming from an employer they will need a new account, and the six-year clock on that one starts again from its first payment.

Decide what to do with a mature keren hishtalmut. A step-by-step Mad Hon guide for your Keren hishtalmut score, written for olim.

1. Find the date the clock actually started.

The six years run from the date of the first payment into the account, not from the day you signed the paperwork or the day an employer set it up. Those can be weeks or months apart. The managing company shows the date in your online account, and it also appears on the Har HaBituach report. Get the exact date before you plan anything around it.

2. Understand what maturity gives you, and what it does not take away.

After six years the balance, contributions and growth together, can be withdrawn without capital-gains tax on the growth. What maturity does not do is start a clock running the other way. Leaving the money where it is costs nothing, the account carries on growing under the same treatment, and the employer contribution carries on arriving if you are still in the job. There is no deadline pushing you to withdraw.

3. Weigh the cases where taking it out does real work.

A defined and funded need is the clearest one: a deposit on a home, a specific plan with a date on it. Clearing expensive credit is another, because the certain return from removing a high interest charge is hard to beat. So is being without a liquid buffer at all, which is a risk the account cannot help with while it sits there. What none of these is, is a general sense that the balance is large. That is the case for leaving it alone.

4. Take part of it, which is the option people miss.

You can withdraw part of the balance and leave the rest running. It is not a withdrawal followed by a new account: the same account continues, it keeps its seniority, the remaining balance keeps its treatment, and employer deposits keep arriving. For most situations where a specific need exists and the whole balance is not required, this is the shape of the answer.

5. Before six years, be clear about what a withdrawal costs.

The exemption is not there yet, and the Ordinance allows tax-free access earlier only in narrow cases, including three years from the first payment for someone who has already reached retirement age. Outside those cases an early withdrawal is taxed. Ask the managing company in writing what it will withhold and on which part of the balance before you file anything.

6. File it with the managing company, and ask what closes.

The request goes to the company that manages the fund, on its own form, and the money goes to your bank account. Ask two things before you sign: what will be withheld, and whether the account stays open. Taking everything out closes it, so if deposits are still coming from an employer they will need a new account, and the six-year clock on that one starts again from its first payment.