What would moving to Israel actually mean for your money?
Plug in your state, your income, and your kids. Get a straight-dollars answer. Not a pitch, not a guilt trip, not a vibe.
A plain-English aliyah calculator built by Americans for Americans. USD→ILS rate live at 2.89.
Line by line
What comes out of your paycheck, both sides.
| Item | U.S. / year | Israel / year | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
Income tax + payroll U.S. column combines federal, state, and FICA. Israel column combines income tax (with the 25% oleh discount for the first 3.5 years) and Bituach Leumi, which also funds Kupat Holim universal health coverage. As a U.S. citizen you still file with the IRS, but the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and Foreign Tax Credit usually eliminate U.S. tax owed. | $65,252 | $83,852 | −$18,599 |
Health insurance out of your paycheck In Israel, Kupat Holim coverage is already funded by Bituach Leumi in the row above. No separate premium comes out of your paycheck. | $6,500 | — | +$6,500 |
Property tax (U.S.) / Arnona (Israel) Enter your U.S. home value above to calculate property tax and Israeli Arnona. Arnona typically runs $1,500 to $2,000 per year for a standard family apartment. | — | — | — |
Private Jewish day school tuition Israeli public schools are Jewish by default, with calendar, Hebrew, and Torah built in. No tuition needed to raise Jewish kids. | $56,000 | — | +$56,000 |
College savings needed per year U.S. private 4-year college all-in is roughly $250K per kid in today's dollars. Funding it from birth requires about $10,000/yr/kid. Israeli public university costs around $3K/yr in tuition over 3 or 4 years, so about $800/yr/kid covers it. | $20,000 | $1,600 | +$18,400 |
Child allowance (Kitzvat Yeladim), paid to you Monthly payment from Bituach Leumi to every Israeli resident parent, regardless of income. Paid to the mother's bank account. 2026 rates: 173 NIS/mo for the 1st child, 219 NIS/mo each for kids 2 through 4. | — | +$1,626 | +$1,626 |
| Total coming out of your paycheck / year | $147,752 | $83,826 | +$63,926 |
| Net cash in your pocket, matching the big number at top | $102,248 | $166,174 | +$63,926 |
The paycheck is half the case.
You're safer. You're healthier. You're happier. Your kids grow up bilingual and Jewish by default. And you stop explaining Hanukkah to your coworkers in December.
Israel ranks 8th on the 2026 World Happiness Index. The U.S. ranks 24th, its lowest ever. Among under-25s, Israel is 3rd. The U.S. is 60th.
Universal Kupat Holim coverage begins when you register on arrival. Quit your job, start a company, take a sabbatical. Your family stays covered. The closest U.S. equivalent for a family costs about $25K/year.
The U.S. homicide rate is roughly 2× Israel's. Despite headlines, violent crime in everyday Israeli life runs meaningfully lower than in most of the U.S.
Israeli kids walk to school, ride buses alone, and roam playgrounds without a parent shadowing them. The 'free-range' parenting that U.S. thinkpieces romanticize is just how childhood works in Israel.
Kids raised in Israel grow up functionally bilingual in English and Hebrew with no intervention. A skill American parents pay thousands per year to simulate through after-school programs.
In Israel you're not explaining Yom Kippur to coworkers, scheduling around holidays that aren't on the office calendar, or paying $28K/year so your kids grow up fluent in the tradition. Jewish life is the shared rhythm of the country, not a side project you run in the margins.
In the U.S., Jewish families build community deliberately: day school, shul, camp, trips to Israel. In Israel that community is already around you. Your kids' classmates, your neighbors, your kids' eventual dating pool are largely Jewish without you planning for it.
Customs exemption on one household shipment, 500 hours of subsidized Hebrew ulpan, year-one arnona discount, reduced mortgage rates, and the Sal Klita cash in the box above.
In the U.S., even with strong employer insurance, a typical birth runs about $3,000 out of pocket after copays and deductibles. Uninsured, it's $13,000 to $40,000. In Israel, the hospital bill is zero, and employees who qualify receive 15 weeks of paid maternity leave funded by Bituach Leumi at their full prior salary (capped). Bituach Leumi also sends a one-time birth grant: about 2,103 NIS for the first child, 946 NIS for the second, 631 NIS each for subsequent children.
• U.S. federal and Israel 2026 tax year. Last reviewed 2026-04-20.
• Live USD to ILS conversion at 2.89, sourced from Stooq and cached 1 hour.
• Assumes a married-filing-jointly U.S. household. Single and dual-earner numbers vary but land in a similar neighborhood.
• Israel income tax column reflects the 3.5-year deep-discount phase of the oleh benefit. The 10-year total ramp brings it to the full rate over time.
Questions people ask
Is this an aliyah calculator?+
Yes. We call it 'moving to Israel' because it's simpler.
Do I still pay U.S. taxes after moving?+
Yes. If you're a U.S. citizen you file a U.S. tax return every year regardless of where you live. Same as if you moved to France, Japan, or anywhere else. But you typically don't end up owing U.S. tax: the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion lets you exclude roughly $130,000 of wages per person (so around $260,000 for a married couple), and the Foreign Tax Credit takes care of most of the rest by crediting taxes you already paid to Israel. For example, a couple earning $250K with both earning roughly equal wages in Israel will usually owe $0 in U.S. federal tax after FEIE and FTC. A cross-border CPA can confirm your specific situation.
What about healthcare?+
Kupat Holim (Israel's public health system) covers you as soon as you register on arrival. You pick one of four funds: Clalit, Maccabi, Meuhedet, or Leumit. Israel ranks ahead of the U.S. on most global health metrics, including life expectancy, infant mortality, and preventive care.
Are Israeli public schools any good for my kids?+
Depends on neighborhood, like anywhere. Public schools are Jewish by default, with calendar, Hebrew, and Torah built in. Religious families use 'mamlachti dati' (state religious) or haredi-track schools, all free. Jewish day school tuition, about $28,000 per kid per year in the U.S., simply isn't a line item in Israel.
How is this calculator kept up to date?+
We refresh the tax tables, Sal Klita amounts, and healthcare cost averages every January once published sources release the new year's numbers. The current data is for 2026, last reviewed 2026-04-20. Next scheduled refresh: 2027-01-15. The methodology section below links to every source. All data is open source; propose a refresh at any time via a GitHub PR.
Who built this?+
Quiet Notion LTD, a small software company based in Israel. We built it because existing tools didn't do the job. Either they were one-variable calculators or marketing funnels for a consulting pitch. This is just here for information.