Morocco Set to Exit EU’s Tax Haven Gray List Following Anti-Evasion Reforms

For the president of the tax commission of the CGEM, Mohamed Hdid, the Kingdom hopes to soon leave this area as the country has made a lot of efforts and adopted a range of measures to improve its image and ranking in this area.

To this end, Morocco is awaiting the conclusions of the EU commission meeting that will rule on the matter to assess the impact of the reforms carried out since the beginning of the year on the position of European partners, reports La vie Eco. According to the weekly, the EU continuously updates its listing and its position takes into account the degree of response from countries to the union’s directives, particularly with regard to cooperation and the extent of measures taken for greater tax transparency.

Last March, 21 territories that had fulfilled their tax commitments were removed from the gray list. Five other territories were removed from the list on October 10. These recent EU updates are a good sign for Morocco. Unlike countries that refuse any cooperation on the issue of tax evasion, the Kingdom is showing good faith and a great willingness to reform its tax system to bring it up to international standards, notes the same source.

Among the specific measures taken to combat tax evasion and the opaque transfer of profits are the reclassification of free industrial zones as industrial acceleration zones with a revised status, the revision of their taxation, the increase in corporate tax on export companies, etc. All of these measures have been incorporated into the 2020 Finance Act, adds Vie éco.