From tax-news.com: Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tax reforms, which include tax cuts on both corporate and individual income, have cleared their first legislative hurdle in the Knesset. The top rate of income tax will be cut to 42% from 49% by 2010, and the corporate tax will be reduced to 25% from 34%. The value added tax will also be cut by 0.5% to 16.5% in September 2005, and purchase tax on apartments up to NIS550,000 (US$121,500) in value will be withdrawn. Other measures included in the NIS12 billion (US$2.65 billion) package included a 20% flat capital income tax and a new tax on foreign-registered trusts.  (Thanks to reader Ben Cunningham for the tip.)