Understanding Moroccan Taxes for Foreign Residents

This guide is not tax advice. It is here to help you ask the right questions, and to take to a Moroccan expert-comptable (chartered accountant) the ones that matter for you.

What this means for you. Whether Morocco taxes your income depends first on whether you are a Moroccan tax resident, and that is not only a question of days. If you are resident, Morocco can in principle tax your worldwide income, and a tax treaty between Morocco and your home country then decides which country may tax what. Foreign pensions get two specific reliefs, but one of them has to be claimed each year.

What to do:

1. Work out whether you are, or will become, tax resident (below).
2. Find out whether your home country has a tax treaty with Morocco, and what it says about your kind of income.
3. If you draw a foreign pension, decide how it will arrive before you move it: the main relief depends on that choice.
4. Get an accountant for your first year, and file your annual declaration online.

The main uncertainty: Moroccan rates, bands and deadlines can be changed by any year’s finance law, so we do not reproduce them here. Take the current figures from the DGI (Direction Générale des Impôts) or your accountant, not from an older guide, this one included.

Are you a Moroccan tax resident?

Morocco’s test is in article 23 of the tax code (Code Général des Impôts). You are treated as having your tax domicile in Morocco if any one of these applies:

• your permanent home is in Morocco;
• Morocco is the centre of your economic interests;
• your stays in Morocco, continuous or not, exceed 183 days in any 365-day period.

Tax residence is separate from immigration status. Holding a carte de séjour does not by itself make you tax resident, and not holding one does not prevent it. If you also remain resident at home under your own country’s rules, a tax treaty, where there is one, usually contains tie-breaker rules to settle it.

What income is taxed

A Moroccan tax resident is in principle taxable in Morocco on worldwide income, subject to any tax treaty. A non-resident is generally taxed only on Moroccan-source income, such as a salary for work done here or rent from property here.

Income tax (impôt sur le revenu, IR) is progressive. The scale is set in the tax code and amended through finance laws, so check the current bands with the DGI rather than relying on a figure quoted in a guide. For employees, tax is normally withheld from salary by the employer.

Tax treaties

Morocco has double taxation treaties with many countries, including France, Spain, Belgium, the UK, the US and Canada. A treaty decides which country may tax each type of income, and how the other country gives relief so that the same income is not taxed twice. What it means for you depends on the specific treaty and your income, and the relief usually has to be claimed on your returns rather than applying automatically. This is one area where an adviser who knows both systems is worth paying for.

Americans have a separate layer: the US taxes its citizens wherever they live. See the US taxes guide.

Foreign pensions: two reliefs

This is the most important tax provision for retirees, and the one most often described wrongly.

Morocco applies two separate reliefs to a foreign-source pension, and almost every summary of this collapses them into one. They apply in order, and they do different things:

1. A flat-rate deduction on the taxable base. Before any tax is worked out, 70% is deducted from the portion of your annual gross pension up to 168,000 MAD, and 40% from any amount above that. What is left is the taxable base.
2. An 80% reduction on the tax due. Income tax is then calculated on that base, and 80% of the resulting tax is cut.

The 80% is a reduction in tax owed, not a second reduction in taxable pension income, and it is not automatic. It is conditional on the pension being transferred to Morocco permanently, in non-convertible dirhams, and on being claimed through an annual declaration.

A worked example. On a gross annual pension of 259,000 MAD, 70% of the first 168,000 MAD is deducted, leaving 50,400 MAD. The remaining 91,000 MAD is reduced by 40%, leaving 54,600 MAD. The taxable base is 105,000 MAD. Tax is computed on that, and the 80% reduction then cuts the tax due by four fifths.

The combined effect is substantial, but it is not the same as an 80% cut to taxable income. Summaries that put the effective rate below 5 percent are working from the wrong arithmetic.

Claiming it

To claim the 80% reduction you must:

• File the prior year’s global income declaration electronically through SIMPL-IR, by 2 March.
• Attach an attestation from the paying institution confirming the pension payments.
• Attach a bank certificate stating the amount received in foreign currency and its dirham equivalent on the date of transfer.

On that date: 2 March is the deadline the DGI set for the 2025 tax year. This is an annual administrative deadline rather than a fixed rule, and the DGI has moved it before. Reconfirm the current year’s date with the DGI rather than assuming this one carries forward.

The pension transfers guide covers the account choice and the transfer mechanics that produce the bank certificate.

Filing and paying

The Moroccan tax year runs from January to December. Depending on your income, you may have to file an annual declaration of your global income; the DGI’s online services, including SIMPL-IR, are how that is done. Deadlines can differ by type of income, and late filing attracts penalties, so confirm your own deadline with the DGI or your accountant early in the year.

Other taxes you may meet

Local taxes on property. If you own a home, local taxes such as the taxe d’habitation and the taxe de services communaux may apply. If you rent, your lease should say which charges, if any, fall on you; ask before you sign rather than when the first bill arrives.

VAT and business taxes. As a consumer, you pay VAT (TVA) as part of the price. If you plan to work for yourself or set up a company here, see the guide to starting a business, which covers the registration and tax side.