Tax Crackdown Uncovers Massive Corporate Fraud Scheme, Netting $87 Million for Morocco

Tough times for thousands of companies suspected of tax fraud. The control and recovery services of the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) have discovered suspicious bank withdrawals made from the bank accounts of companies and their managers. Since then, they have launched a large-scale control operation targeting so-called "inactive" companies, after the expiration of the legal regularization period set at the end of last December, in accordance with the provisions of the 2024 Finance Act. These companies have never filed a single tax return, even though the inspectors have, during their checks, found invoices bearing the tax identification number specific to these companies, thus proving their actual activity.

This discovery has prompted the tax authorities to intensify the use of electronic data exchanges with partner administrations for tax purposes, in order to identify the real estate and movable property belonging to the companies and their managers involved, with a view to seizing them. The checks carried out by the DGI services have led to the seizure of documents and invoices. These show that some of these companies have concluded contracts with public administrations and institutions, but have not declared their income to the tax authorities.

The inspectors went further: they extended their investigations to a period covering the last ten years for companies that had never filed a tax return, with the calculation of the taxes due corresponding to a full decade of undeclared activity. The investigations have borne fruit: more than 867 million dirhams have already been recovered. Recovery procedures are continuing in several cities of the kingdom. "Fraudulent companies will have to pay not only the amounts corresponding to the evaded taxes, but also late payment penalties: 5% for the first month of delay, then 0.50% per additional month or fraction of a month, from the initial due date of the tax," reports Hespress.

The suspicious withdrawals made by the targeted companies and their managers are not without consequences on banking liquidity in Morocco. The average liquidity deficit within the banking system has worsened by 12.2%, reaching 135.6 billion dirhams between July 3 and 9, it is specified.