Economy of the East

The regional tax directorates are witnessing a wide campaign of tax audits targeting real estate developers and companies operating in the sector, following the detection of suspicious practices related to the collection of unauthorized additional amounts, known locally as “noir.” The campaign is the result of intensive field monitoring operations that revealed extensive financial manipulations in the real estate sector. This campaign came as a result of intensive field monitoring operations that revealed widespread financial manipulations in the real estate sector.

Investigations have shown that a large number of real estate developers are resorting to extracting additional cash from buyers without declaring it in official contracts or tax declarations. This practice affects even housing projects benefiting from the direct housing subsidy program, raising questions about the extent of this phenomenon in the real estate market.

The monitoring and auditing operations were mainly concentrated in major cities, specifically Casablanca, Marrakech, and Tangier, where extensive suspicious activities were detected. This prompted the monitoring and collection services to send official tax audit notices to dozens of companies and activists suspected of involvement.

The audits revealed new and innovative methods used by developers to hide and legitimize these additional amounts. These methods include collecting cash applications during the construction stages under the name of “reservation amounts” that are deposited in bank accounts in exchange for issuing temporary connections, before these connections are later withdrawn and the properties are sold at new prices without counting the amounts previously paid.

Another technique that has been discovered is the creation of parallel contracts with clients under the guise of sham “fit-out contracts”. These contracts are presented as additional services or final improvements to the properties, when in fact they are a way to justify the additional amounts collected outside of the main contract.

The tax authorities relied on a careful and comparative analysis of the tax declarations submitted by real estate developers, especially with regard to the declared selling prices of real estate. A significant discrepancy was found between the declared prices and the reference prices updated by the General Directorate of Taxation and the National Agency for Real Estate Preservation.

This discrepancy in prices, which tends to be lower in statements compared to the real prices, reinforced the validity of complaints and reports from clients who were extorted with ”noir”. These clients asserted that they were forced to pay extra cash that was not included in the official sales contracts.

Based on this information, surveillance agents sent official inquiries to the officials of the suspected real estate companies, asking them to clarify the circumstances of reducing the authorized sales amounts and requiring customers to pay additional cash. Surveillance teams also traveled to the headquarters of the companies concerned to conduct a thorough field inspection.

The next step is the initiation of formal tax audit procedures for obligors found to have been involved in manipulating declarations. These audits could result in large fines and force companies to pay the evaded taxes plus interest and penalties.

The phenomenon of “noir” is a form of tax evasion that is particularly prevalent in the middle and high-end housing sector, where real estate values are high, making the amounts evaded large. These practices harm the public treasury and violate the principle of fair competition in the real estate market.

The tightening of tax control comes in the context of the implementation of new measures, including the advance opinion system, which is stipulated in the tax law and allows taxpayers to know the amount of tax due when disposing of a property in advance, thus avoiding future tax audits if the correct declaration is made.

This tax campaign represents an important step in combating tax evasion and ensuring tax justice. It also aims to improve the state's financial resources and ensure greater transparency in the real estate sector, which is witnessing increasing growth and contributing significantly to the national economy.