Morocco Tightens Real Estate Transfer Rules to Boost Tax Revenue

Soon new procedures for the transfer of real estate. From July 1st, no deed will be drawn up by notaries, adouls, lawyers approved by the Court of Cassation and any other person exercising notarial functions without the presentation of a certificate from the collection services proving that the taxes and duties relating to the property for the year of the transfer and for the non-prescribed years have been paid, reports L’Économiste, specifying that failing this, these persons will be fiscally jointly and severally liable with the transferees for the payment of tax debts.

To read:

From the same date, it will become mandatory to mention the article number of the housing tax and the municipal services tax on the deeds drawn up. Explanation: once the occupancy permit is issued or the individual land titles are constituted, the developers will have to request the relevant services, for identification purposes, the article number of the housing tax and municipal services for each unit. In addition, the issuance of the tax will only take place after the transfer of the property to the clients. This provision will now make it possible to register thousands of real estate properties for local taxes.

These new provisions should not only contribute to the increase in the revenue from local taxes, the poor relation of the Treasury’s revenue, but they should also sound the death knell of an old practice that gave notaries the responsibility for paying the taxes and local taxes encumbering the real estate under penalty of fiscal solidarity with the transferors. Notaries will therefore no longer be able to retain, after registration with the Land Registry, about 20% of the funds from transfers as a precautionary measure pending the obtaining of the tax certificate.