Morocco Cracks Down on Companies Suspected of Local Tax Evasion

These companies are accused of having accumulated local tax debts of several tens of millions of dirhams to the detriment of local authorities across the country. This contributes to the increase in uncollectible receivables recorded in the "remaining to be collected" section of local budgets. According to the notifications transmitted by the local authorities, it is impossible to locate the registered offices of many debtor companies.

According to sources at Hespress, the investigations carried out by the DGI reveal that several of these companies have completely disappeared from the tax radar and have not provided any accounting or tax returns, while some of their tax identifiers remain active and continue to be used on the market for fraudulent transactions involving other companies.

Supported by the competent authorities, in particular the Directorate General of National Security (DGSN) and the Directorate General of Territorial Surveillance (DGST), the tax control services are trying to locate the managers involved in these frauds. Checks are also underway with the National Land Registry Agency to identify the real estate assets belonging to these companies and with the courts to follow the companies in liquidation or bankruptcy seeking to definitively evade their tax and customs obligations.

In total, 300,000 fictitious companies have been identified by the DGI. These entities, which appeared suddenly before disappearing without leaving any trace or declaring their bankruptcy, have often been used for massive tax fraud, added the same sources, citing the practices detected, in particular the import of equipment without payment of VAT or the creation of structures used to store real estate assets for tax evasion purposes.