Morocco is strengthening the means of combating tax evasion, in particular fictitious invoices drawn up by companies which make it their sole activity. In this sense, the legislator has reorganized several articles of the General Tax Code.
Concerns in perspective for companies that issue fictitious invoices. The legislator has reorganized article 192 of the General Tax Code. The novelty concerns the application of criminal sanctions “when a person helps a taxpayer to evade his tax obligations for the purpose of deductions or reimbursements in an undue manner”, says the Economist. There is also talk of the criminalization of the issuance of fictitious invoices. On the first offense, the perpetrators of the fraud will be given prison sentences within five years of the conviction to a fine. Another change: prior consultation with the Fraud Committee is no longer necessary. From now on, the Minister of Finance or the tax administration can initiate “legal proceedings by directly seizing the public prosecutor”, after receiving complaints relating to fictitious invoices.
Always looking for efficiency in the fight against fictitious invoices, the legislator has reorganized article 146 of the General Tax Code by including two provisions. The first relates to the rejection of the “deductibility of an invoice if the tax services note two inseparable failures: when it is issued by a supplier who does not file tax declarations and does not pay his taxes”. The second is the adoption of “name and shame”. Understand: the publication on the DGI portal of a list of up-to-date company tax identifiers after a final criminal judgment (article 231 of the CGI). This provision was introduced by the 2021 finance law.
