#Taxation #Discharge #contribution #chance
Since the global economic and financial crisis of 2008, it has become necessary to put in place control and regulation mechanisms to regulate global financial flows and strengthen the fight against money laundering operations. Morocco has embarked on this path through several international conventions, with a view to establishing bilateral and multilateral mechanisms for communication and exchange of tax information. It is within this framework that the “liberatory contribution” was adopted again in the Finance Law of the year 2024 (LF-2024).
Postponed several times, the effective entry into force of international tax conventions should allow signatory states to the said conventions to benefit from a transitional period capable of preparing their tax systems for the necessary changes. The expression used in LF-2024 is: “voluntary regularization of the taxpayer’s tax situation”. In fact, this device is not new. Since 2011, this is at least the third time it has been used. It allows natural persons (PP) or legal entities (PM) to voluntarily and spontaneously regularize their situation in tax and foreign exchange matters, and therefore to “turn the page”, by making a declaration of what they or they would have failed to declare previously, voluntarily or involuntarily, and to integrate transparency. However, the recurrence of this system risks being the cause of a trivialization of the entire tax system and therefore of weakening the credibility of the State.
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And this, all the more so since the said system guarantees anonymity to the people concerned, having opted for the “liberatory contribution” (CL). It’s an amnesty that doesn’t speak its name. LF-2024 therefore established, for the year 2024, from January 1 to December 31, two types of contributions, one for PPs with assets at the national level and not declared to the tax administration, the other for PPs and PMs with assets abroad and not declared to the Foreign Exchange Office or to the tax administration.
The people concerned by this CL are PPs for their profits and taxable income in Morocco, not having been declared before January 1, 2024. More precisely, they are:
1. Holders of liquid assets deposited in personal bank accounts or held in fiat currency in the form of bank notes;
2. Purchasers of movable or immovable property not intended for professional use, for non-prescribed years;
3. Subscribers of advance operations in associates’ current accounts or in the operator’s account and loans granted to third parties, for non-prescribed years.
For 1., the persons concerned must deposit the liquid assets with a bank. These deposits are subject to a declaration. For 2. and 3., the persons concerned must submit a spontaneous declaration to the tax administration receiver. The persons concerned must spontaneously pay, at the time of declaration, a contribution calculated on the basis of the amount of the assets declared, either to the bank (1) or to the tax administration receiver (2 and 3). Banks having collected the CL in respect of liquid assets declared and deposited, must remit said CL to the receiver of the tax administration, the month following that of deposit of said declaration. The contribution rate is set at 5% of the amount or value of the assets declared.
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For the 2nd category, “spontaneous regularization for assets and cash held abroad” is planned. The system provided for by the LF-2024 set the date of September 30, 2023, as the limit for the assets and liquidity concerned. In fact, these are assets and cash held abroad before this date by the PPs and PMs, in contravention of exchange regulations and tax legislation. PPs and PMs must have a residence, head office or tax domicile in Morocco. These are foreign exchange offenses relating to the constitution of undeclared assets abroad in the form of: real estate held in any form abroad; financial assets and securities and other capital and debt securities held abroad; and liquid assets deposited in accounts opened with financial organizations, credit organizations and banks located abroad. From a tax perspective, this involves failure to declare income, profits, profits and capital gains relating to real estate and movable assets, as well as foreign currency held abroad.
The persons concerned can benefit from the non-application of foreign exchange and tax sanctions: by filing with a bank a declaration highlighting the nature of the assets held abroad; by repatriating foreign currency liquidity as well as the income and products generated by said liquidity, and selling at least 25% of this liquidity on the foreign exchange market in Morocco against dirhams, with the possibility of depositing the remainder (75%) in accounts in foreign currency or convertible dirhams from banks in Morocco, while paying the CL.
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The declaration must be accompanied by documents justifying the acquisition value of the assets and the latest bank statements for cash assets. Banks are required to open an account in convertible dirhams or foreign currencies in the name of the PP or PM concerned, deduct the CL at source and pay it to the tax administration receiver in the month following that of the transaction. repatriation of assets. The payment advice slips contain the declaration number, the amounts repatriated and the value of assets abroad and the amount of CL paid. A copy of these slips is sent to the Office des Changes and the Tax Administration. This slip does not contain any information on the identity of the person concerned.
The CL rate is 10% of the acquisition value of property abroad or of the subscription or acquisition value of financial assets and transferable securities and other capital or debt securities held abroad. stranger ; 5% of the amount of liquid assets and foreign currencies repatriated to Morocco and deposited in accounts in foreign currencies or convertible dirhams; 2% for foreign currency liquidity repatriated to Morocco and sold on the foreign exchange market in Morocco against the dirham. Payment of the CL frees the persons concerned from sanctions in terms of exchange regulations and tax matters.
The persons concerned who have subscribed and paid for the CL benefit from the guarantee of anonymity for all operations carried out under this regularization. After payment of the CL, no administrative or legal proceedings can be initiated against the persons concerned, in respect of the assets and liquidities which have been the subject of spontaneous regularization, both in matters of foreign exchange and in matters of tax.
