Morocco has taken a significant step toward ending the fiscal free-riding of global digital multinationals on its market. On 11 June 2026, the Direction générale des impôts (DGI) launched a dedicated platform for the taxation of digital services, accessible through the SIMPL tax portal. The measure follows the publication of decree no. 2-25-862 in December 2025 and brings Morocco into alignment with approximately 30 countries that have adopted similar frameworks under the OECD’s BEPS plan and European Union practice.
According to an analysis published by the weekly magazine Challenge, the reform addresses a long-standing competitive asymmetry. Platforms such as Meta, TikTok, Netflix, Spotify and YouTube have established themselves as indispensable commercial channels in Morocco, where 23.8 million social media users represent 63.4 percent of the population, while generating no local tax revenue given the absence of Moroccan-registered headquarters. Google and Facebook alone are estimated to capture between 60 and 70 percent of the country’s online advertising market. Digital channels now account for approximately 17 percent of marketing expenditure by Moroccan companies, according to the Digital Trends Morocco 2024 study.
Under the new framework, foreign digital service providers are required to register with the DGI to obtain a tax identifier, file quarterly declarations of their Moroccan revenue and remit the applicable VAT. Social media platforms already capture more than 36.5 percent of all internet time in Morocco, with advertising generating approximately 85 percent of their revenues. This dynamic has channeled a significant share of Moroccan advertising spending abroad in foreign currency, with no compensating local fiscal contribution.
Ouassim Driouchi, a telecom and innovation partner at BearingPoint, told Challenge Magazine that the reform’s primary significance lies beyond the anticipated tax revenues — estimated at between 500 million and one billion dirhams — and resides in the correction of a structural distortion. Local startups and Moroccan media operators have been taxed from their first dirham of revenue, while competing against multinationals benefiting from what amounts to a 20-percent tax advantage. Closing this gap reinforces the competitive standing of domestic digital players.
The technical challenge, however, is not trivial. Driouchi notes that effective enforcement will require an advanced infrastructure capable of cross-referencing IP addresses, telephone prefixes and banking data in real time to localise consumption and attribute it to the Moroccan jurisdiction. The DGI’s SIMPL platform represents the first step toward building what Driouchi describes as a fiscal administration for the 4.0 era — a governance upgrade that is as much about digital sovereignty as it is about revenue.
