The certificate required before a property transfer

Definition

What this covers

« On the transfer or disposal of a property or of a business, adouls, notaries, lawyers admitted to the Court of Cassation or any person exercising notarial functions are required : — to draw up no deed until production of a certificate from the collection departments evidencing payment of the taxes and duties charged on the property and relating to the year of the transfer or disposal and to earlier years, failing which they shall be jointly and severally liable with the taxpayer for payment of the taxes and duties charged on that property » art. 139-IV CGI.

Three points follow : the certificate is a precondition to drawing up the deed ; it relates to the taxes and duties charged on the property ; failure to produce it exposes the person drawing up the deed to answering for the debt alongside the taxpayer.

Scope

Who is affected

• The owner selling, gifting or exchanging a property located in Morocco : the provision draws no distinction based on the seller's residence.
• The purchaser, whose title depends on a deed that none of the professionals named may draw up until the certificate is produced.
• Adouls, notaries, lawyers admitted to the Court of Cassation and any person exercising notarial functions, named expressly art. 139-IV.
• Disposals of a business, which the same paragraph covers alongside property.

For a non-resident, the difficulty is a practical one : the certificate relates to local taxes whose assessment notices have not always followed the owner.

Applicable rules

An obligation that recurs at two points in the chain

Before the deed is drawn up. This is the obligation under article 139-IV, backed by joint liability for payment. The same paragraph requires « the housing tax and municipal services tax article number » to be entered on the deeds drawn up, and then requires the deed recording the transfer or disposal to be accompanied, « in a form established by the administration, by the common business identifier or the housing tax and municipal services tax article number, failing which registration of the deed will be refused » — the common business identifier being sufficient where the purchaser has one. The refusal is tied by the provision to that formality alone.

At the time of registration. « Any deed presented for registration that transfers or disposes of a property must be withheld by the tax inspector responsable for registration, until production of a certificate from the collection departments » evidencing payment of the same taxes and duties art. 138-I, last paragraph. The same document is required a second time, for a different effect : withholding of the deed.

At land registration. The registrar may accept no deed that is compulsorily subject to registration « if that deed has not first been registered and accompanied by a certificate of registration of that deed, issued in a form established by the administration » art. 139-I — wording introduced by the Finance Act for 2025. This document evidences the formality and payment of the duties, not the settlement of the taxes charged on the property.

What article 139-IV does not do. It imposes a duty on certain professions ; it does not reserve the drawing up of the deed to them. « Private deeds may be registered indiscriminately at any registration office » art. 139-V — the same paragraph reserving only which office has jurisdiction : the location of the property for the agreements covered by article 127-I-A, the district of the adel or notary for authentic deeds —, and compulsory registration covers agreements « whatever the form of the deed recording them » art. 127-I-A. The reservation comes from another statute.

What the General Tax Code does not govern

The housing tax and the municipal services tax are the very subject of the certificate, but their regime is not in this code, which mentions them only to draw consequences from them : the article number on the deed art. 139-IV, entry on the tax rolls as a presumption of transfer art. 141-I. Basis, rates, reliefs and exemptions fall under Law No. 47-06 on the taxation of territorial authorities. No figure relating to them appears here.

Deadlines and limitation periods

The timeline

1. Before the deed is drawn up

   Production of the certificate to the person drawing up the deed, on pain of joint liability for payment art. 139-IV. The code sets no time limit for issue.

2. 30 days from the date of the deed

   Registration and payment of the duties for the agreements covered by article 127-I-A art. 128-I-A ; for deeds drawn up by adouls, the period runs from receipt of the parties' declaration art. 128-I-B.

3. On presentation for registration

   The inspector withholds the deed until production of the same certificate art. 138-I. The withholding is not limited in time.

4. 30 days from registration

   Correction of mandatory information omitted, incomplete or incorrect in a formality completed by electronic means — including the article number for the two taxes ; the fine of 1,000 dirhams falls on the person completing the electronic formality, not on the parties ; it is immediately payable without any procedure, but does not apply where the omissions are corrected within that period art. 206 bis.

5. 4 years from registration

   Limitation period for registration duties, running « from the date of registration of the deed or agreement » art. 232-IV.

No provision sets the administration a time limit for issuing the certificate. The periods that do run are those for registration and, downstream, the one available to the administration to reassess the deed.

Documents and supporting evidence

What the file contains

The file rests on the following elements :

• The collection department's certificate : evidencing payment of the taxes and duties charged on the property for the year of the transfer and earlier years art. 139-IV and 138-I.
• The housing tax and municipal services tax article number : entered on the deed and stated in the accompanying form art. 139-IV.
• The identification details of the property : « the land title number and other information relating to the property (address, area, nature of the property…) », which are among the mandatory information for the formality art. 206 bis.
• Evidence of payment of the local taxes : no provision of the code sets a list ; they serve to establish before the collection departments the position that the certificate records.
• The certificate of registration of the deed : issued in a form established by the administration and required by the registrar art. 139-I.

This list is indicative ; the exact composition of the file depends on the circumstances.

Points to watch

What can derail a file