Moroccan Expats Rush to Close Bank Accounts Amid Tax Compliance Concerns

Commotion in the ranks of MREs following the announcement of the start of the automatic exchange of financial data relating to their assets in Morocco with the countries of residence or host in September 2021. Many of them have emptied or are about to empty their accounts in Morocco to avoid being sanctioned by the tax administrations of their countries of residence, reports Maroc Hebdo.

According to data from Bank Al Maghrib (BAM), MREs hold more than 2.5 million bank accounts in Morocco (checking accounts, savings accounts, term deposits and certificates of deposit...) for a total of 185 billion dirhams, at the end of 2019. This situation could lead to a drop in the transfers of these Moroccans from the diaspora.

In the meantime, the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) had formally denied the rumors circulating on social networks according to which MREs should, from this year, declare their bank accounts in Morocco to the tax administration of their countries of residence. She stated that the multilateral convention for the implementation of BEPS tax convention measures signed by the kingdom in June 2019 was not focused on the automatic exchange of information. According to the DGI, Morocco was only obliged to "automatically exchange information for tax purposes during the year 2021", implicitly confirming that these exchanges could take place as early as 2022.