Ma’aser Kesafim – Payment to a company for claiming entitlements.
Question
A question regarding ma’aser kesafim:Because of my emotional situation, I turned to a company that helps people claim their entitlements, and they prepared a case for me with Bituach Leumi. The agreement was that 50,000 shekels from the retroactive payment would go to the company for the work they did. Now the money has entered my bank account — do I need to separate ma’aser from this amount, or since I must transfer that sum to the company that handled the case, it is not considered profit, and so on?
Answer
Shalom uVracha,
There is no need to give ma’aser from the payment to the company.
This is considered a business expense — and one does not tithe from the gross income, but only from the net profit.