According to a provisional report collected by Le360 from several sources (banks, professionals and administration), the amount of assets declared as part of this amnesty operation should exceed 30 billion dirhams concerning the cash deposited with the banking sector (Attijariwafa bank occupying the head of the ranking) , to which are added approximately 20 billion dirhams corresponding, among other things, to real estate acquisitions and contributions to partners’ current accounts, i.e. a total consolidated volume of approximately 50 billion dirhams.
By retaining the 5% discharge contribution levied on these amounts, the operation should drain approximately 2.5 billion in tax revenue, which will appear in the general State budget for the year 2025 (the banks are obliged to pay these levies to the Treasury within the month following submission of the declaration). We are therefore far from the fanciful amounts put forward by certain media, which counted on 20, even 50 billion dirhams of deductions landing in the state coffers.
“A well-designed device”
However, the operation was an undeniable success, with a total volume cleaned up ten times higher than that drained during the amnesty of 2020, certainly strongly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
«This year, the system was well studied. The operation was preceded by a vast campaign of controls targeting large fortunes not declared to the tax authorities.», underlines this accountant. And to add: “The General Tax Directorate (DGI) system identifies the taxpayers concerned based on their expenses, comparing them with declared income. When a large deviation is detected, control is automatically initiated».
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The operation therefore took on a new dimension following this massive wave of tax audits, carried out between the end of September and the beginning of October 2024, based on “wealth indicators”. Industrialists, real estate developers, senior civil servants, liberal professions… the DGI cast a wide net, and no sector or category escaped.
The taxpayers concerned understand that they have already been identified and spotted by the tax administration. And that the message is clear: “We all know you. There’s no point in hiding. Go pay a 5% tax on your undeclared assets, otherwise, you will have to pay more than 37% once the deadline of December 31, 2024 passes. Those who were hoping for an extension of the deadlines were disappointed the day the 2025 finance law was published in the official bulletin, thus cutting short rumors speculating about a renewal of the amnesty.
It is in this context that we must place the rush observed in recent days, as the December 31 deadline approaches, at the level of banks and collections relating to the General Treasury of the Kingdom (TGR). “This is a very healthy phenomenon, which indicates great confidence in this operation. People have understood that the tax administration is sufficiently equipped to control everyone», notes this business leader.
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As for the banks, wealthy clients were quick to deposit their nest eggs in cash. “Amounts declared and deposited with the banking sector have reached record levels, approaching one billion dirhams per day», confides a senior manager of a bank to us.
So much so that some bank branches even refused to collect small amounts. “Under the pretext of having exceeded the threshold tolerated by the information system, I was unable to pay the 125,000 dirhams from the sale of my used car into my account.», testifies Rachid, young customer of a bank in Casablanca. Worse still, assets amounting to 400,000 or even 600,000 dirhams could not be processed due to lack of time and availability of banking and administrative staff. Overwhelmed by cash, bank agencies preferred to concentrate on large sums. The threshold was thus spontaneously established around 10 million dirhams, knowing that the threshold set by law to be subject to a tax audit is 240,000 dirhams per year (or 960,000 dirhams over four years).
30 billion injected into the banking circuit
The banks thus appear to be big winners from this operation which endows the financial circuits with more than 30 billion dirhams. This will certainly have a positive impact on investments and loans granted to entrepreneurs.
While awaiting the final results of this tax amnesty, soon to be announced by the government, opinions are unanimous on the success of the operation, which seems to have achieved all its objectives. Indeed, knowing that the DGI itself was counting on a total volume of around 60 billion dirhams, we can already conclude that the country’s big fortunes, who constitute the main target of this amnesty, have played the game by injecting more than 30 billion dirhams of cash into the formal circuit.
