OECD report highlights Morocco’s progress in tax transparency

A report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), published this week, highlighted the efforts and progress made by Morocco in tax transparency.

The OECD report on transparency and exchange of information in Morocco notes that the Kingdom has a legal framework that generally ensures the availability of relevant information, as well as access and effective exchange of such information for tax purposes.

The paper analyzes Morocco’s implementation of the standard of transparency and exchange of information upon request, as part of the Global Forum’s second evaluation round.

It assesses the implementation of the legal system as of July 26, 2022, and its implementation in practice vis-à-vis the 2016 Terms of Reference, including with respect to information requests received and sent during the assessment period, from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2021.

The Kingdom is rated overall “substantially compliant” with the standard for transparency and exchange of information upon request.

Morocco obtained a rating of “compliant” for the elements of “accounting data”, “rights and protections of individuals”, “information exchange mechanisms” “network of information exchange mechanisms”, “confidentiality” and “rights and protections of taxpayers and third parties.”

Additionally, Morocco is rated “substantially compliant” for the elements “availability of information relating to identity and ownership”, “availability of banking information” and “access to information”, the same source said.

According to the report, Morocco has, since the 2016 report, restructured and improved the internal processes of the information exchange unit. “In particular, the exchange of information is no longer handled in an ad hoc manner involving numerous services but rather by a dedicated team.”

Since the 2016 report, the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters has entered into force, said the same source, noting that the Kingdom has therefore been able to exchange information with all parties to the multilateral Convention since September 1, 2019.

More generally, Morocco has continued to be very active in ratifying (as well as concluding) double taxation conventions, resulting in an improved rating for information exchange mechanisms from “Substantially Compliant” to “Compliant.”

Morocco now has a significant network of information exchange mechanisms, covering 163 jurisdictions.