Leaving Morocco : the departure return and the immediate liability to tax

Definition

What this covers

The obligation falls on whoever ceases to be tax domiciled in Morocco. The text is short and mandatory : the taxpayer is "required to send, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, or to deliver, against a receipt, no later than thirty (30) days before the date of departure, to the tax inspector for the place of their tax domicile or principal place of business, the return of their global income" art. 85-I GTC. Taxpayers under the single professional contribution file the return of article 82 quater, for the period of article 27-II.

The direction of the period is regularly reversed : the thirty days run before departure. Article 85 names only two channels, but it does not exhaust the question : taxpayers "may file with the tax administration by electronic means the returns referred to in this code", on the conditions laid down by order, and that route is mandatory for all businesses and for the professions whose list is fixed by regulation art. 155-I GTC.

Scope

Who is concerned

• Any individual who ceases to have their tax domicile in Morocco, whatever their nationality and their destination.
• Persons who transfer abroad their permanent home or the centre of their economic interests.
• Taxpayers under the single professional contribution art. 82 quater.
• Persons who keep Moroccan-source income after departure : their filing obligation does not lapse.

Tax domicile follows from three alternative criteria : a permanent home, the centre of economic interests, or a stay of more than 183 days in any 365-day period — a rolling period, not a calendar one art. 23-II GTC.

Applicable rules

A year that is not split, a tax that is not spread

The charging rule is the provision most often misunderstood : "their taxable global income for the year of cessation comprises Moroccan-source income relating to that same year together with foreign-source income acquired at the date of cessation" art. 27-II GTC.

The cut-off therefore operates on one side only : foreign-source income is fixed at the date of cessation, Moroccan-source income is taken into account for the whole year. Someone who leaves in March and receives Moroccan rents through to December sees them enter the tax base. The rule is symmetrical on arrival art. 27-I GTC.

The effect on collection is just as clear. "Where the taxpayer ceases to have their tax domicile or principal place of business in Morocco, the tax becomes immediately due in full" art. 175-I GTC. No splitting, no deferral, no stay. The tax is paid spontaneously "within the same periods provided for respectively for the aforementioned returns" art. 173-I GTC : the payment period is that of the return.

Departure does not sever the link with the administration : a person who does not have their tax domicile in Morocco "is required to elect one in Morocco" art. 72 GTC. That obligation, like the death of the taxpayer art. 85-II, is covered on a separate page.

Deadlines and limitation

The timetable

1. No later than 30 days before departure

   Filing of the global income return, or that of article 82 quater, with the inspector for the place of the tax domicile art. 85-I.

2. Within the same period

   Spontaneous payment of the tax due to the collector of the tax administration art. 173-I.

3. On cessation of tax domicile

   The tax becomes immediately due in full art. 175-I. Failing spontaneous payment, the assessment is made by tax roll at the place of the tax domicile or of the domicile elected in Morocco.

4. 30 days, then 30 days

   Failure to file opens the way to assessment on an ex officio basis : invitation to file, then assessed bases and ex officio assessment on expiry of a second period of thirty days art. 228 (I and II).

5. Up to 31 December of the 4^th year

   Ordinary reassessment period, running from the year in which the income was acquired art. 232-I. For undeclared years, the duties remain payable "even where the limitation period has expired", up to a limit of ten years art. 232-VIII-15°.

Duties resulting from an ex officio assessment "may only be contested under the conditions set out in article 235" art. 228-II : having left without filing, the taxpayer finds themselves in a dispute framework whose deadlines run in Morocco.

Documents and supporting evidence

The elements of the file

• Tax identification elements : tax identifier, number of the national identity card or foreign national's card, address of the tax domicile art. 82-I.
• Elements dating the cessation : documents establishing the date on which tax domicile ceases within the meaning of article 23-II.
• Moroccan-source income for the whole year : category by category, including after departure art. 27-II.
• Foreign-source income acquired up to cessation : evidence of receipt and, for the credit, proof of payment of the foreign tax ; a certificate from the foreign tax administration is required only where that income "has benefited from an exemption in the source country" and a treaty attaches a tax credit to it art. 77.
• Withholdings and payments already borne : documents establishing what has been withheld in respect of the year of cessation.

An indicative list ; the exact composition depends on the situation.

Points to watch

What can cause a file to fail