Before you start

A determination of whether you are a Moroccan tax resident under article 23
Your identifiant fiscal, if you have income outside employment
Knowledge of the double-taxation treaty between Morocco and your home country
Records of foreign income and of what you transferred into Morocco

Step-by-step

1
Test your residence against all three limbs of article 23
Permanent home in Morocco, centre of economic interests in Morocco, or more than 183 days in Morocco over any 365-day period. Any one makes you resident. The 183-day test runs over a rolling 365 days rather than a calendar year, which catches people who split a stay across two years and assume they are safe.
OnlineWho: You
2
Let payroll handle it if you are a straightforward employee
Moroccan employers withhold IR at source on the progressive scale and remit it monthly. An employee with no other income generally has nothing to file. Check your payslip shows both the IR withholding and the CNSS and AMO deductions.
Via employerWho: Your employer
3
If your employer holds CFC status, decide about the 20% election
Employees of a company with Casablanca Finance City status may elect a flat 20% rate on Moroccan-source employment income instead of the progressive scale, for a maximum of ten years. Whether it beats the scale depends on your salary — run both. The 2026 Finance Law confirmed the 20% figure; anything quoting 15% is out of date.
Via employerWho: You
4
Understand what Morocco does with your foreign income
As a resident you are in principle taxable on worldwide income, with treaty relief. Foreign-source income already taxed abroad under a treaty is generally relieved, but it still has to be declared. Assuming that money never remitted to Morocco is invisible to the Moroccan administration is the standard and expensive misreading.
OnlineWho: You
5
Retirees: weigh the article 76 reduction against convertibility
An 80% reduction of the tax due on a foreign-source retirement pension is available — but only on the amount transferred permanently into a non-convertible dirham account, evidenced by original bank documents showing it cannot be re-transferred. It is a real benefit bought with a real, irreversible commitment of the money to Morocco.
In personWho: You
6
File by the annual deadline if you have anything beyond a salary
The annual income-tax return covers the previous calendar year and is filed electronically through the DGI's SIMPL portal. Rental income, professional income, foreign income and capital gains all bring a filing obligation that a payslip does not discharge.
OnlineWho: YouAnnually

Documents you’ll need

Identifiant fiscal
Payslips and the annual employer statement
Carte de séjour
Evidence of foreign income and of tax paid abroad
Bank evidence of transfers into Morocco, for the pension reduction

Things most newcomers don’t know

The 183-day test runs over any rolling 365 days, not over a calendar year.

Article 23 counts more than 183 days of presence, continuous or not, over any period of 365 days. People plan around a calendar-year threshold — five months in autumn, five months in spring — and find themselves resident anyway because the rolling window catches the pair. And the day count is only one of three tests: a permanent home or a centre of economic interests in Morocco makes you resident regardless of how few days you spend here.

Source: CGI art. 23

The retiree pension reduction is real, generous, and conditional on giving up the money's exit route.

Article 76 grants an 80% reduction of the income tax due on a foreign-source pension, but only in respect of the amount permanently transferred into a non-convertible dirham account, with original bank evidence that it cannot be sent back out. Every relocation article describes the reduction; very few describe the condition. A retiree who banks in convertible dirhams to keep optionality is not entitled to it, and one who claims it has made a one-way decision about that money.

Source: CGI art. 76

Casablanca Finance City's employee rate is an option, not an automatic benefit, and it is time-limited.

Where your employer holds CFC status you may elect a flat 20% rate on Moroccan-source employment income for a maximum of ten years, instead of the progressive scale. At lower salaries the progressive scale can be better, so it is a calculation rather than a gift. The rate for both companies and employees converged on 20% under the 2026 Finance Law, and older material citing 15% or an open-ended benefit describes a regime that no longer exists.

Source: Casablanca Finance City; CGI

Exchange control and tax are separate systems and they pull in opposite directions.

The Office des Changes decides whether money can leave Morocco; the Direction Générale des Impôts decides what is taxed. A structure that is tax-efficient can be exchange-control disastrous, and the pension reduction is the clearest example — the tax break is bought by accepting the currency lock. Anyone planning a move here needs to look at both at once, and Moroccan advisers who cover only one are common.

Source: Office des Changes; DGI

Common mistakes to avoid

Counting days against a calendar year rather than a rolling 365-day period.
Assuming a home or a business in Morocco is irrelevant if you spend under six months here.
Taking the article 76 pension reduction without understanding the non-convertible condition.
Electing the CFC flat rate without comparing it against the progressive scale at your salary.
Treating unremitted foreign income as outside the Moroccan system.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.