Morocco · Tax regime
Casablanca Finance City Status
Open but substantially reformed under OECD pressure. The OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices, in its consolidated peer review results updated to February 2026, rates CFC as Not harmful (amended). Ring-fencing has been removed, substance requirements are in place, and grandfathering of the old regime ended 31 December 2022. Corporate tax has converged from 15% to 20%.
For a family office running African investments, CFC is the most credible platform on the continent after Mauritius. Five years at zero corporate tax, then 20% with no profit ceiling, no withholding on dividends to non-residents, and a flat 20% personal rate for up to ten years for the executives who run it. It survived the OECD review with its economics broadly intact, which is more than the Tangier offshore regime managed.
Qualifying routes
No minimum investment. The price of admission is genuine Casablanca substance.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- No investment threshold. The real cost is the substance itself: a real Casablanca office, qualified local management, and Moroccan incorporation. Realistically that runs EUR 150k+ a year for a credible regional HQ.
- Route type
- Tax regime, not a visa
- Timeline
- 3–9 months (Status is granted by the CFC Authority against a business plan.)
- Physical presence
- Corporate substance is mandatory. That means a physical Casablanca office, qualified management on the ground, and a viable business plan.
- Family
- Not applicable. This is a corporate regime, though CFC employees do get access to the flat 20% personal rate
- Permanent residency
- None directly. CFC is a corporate status, not an immigration route.
- Citizenship
- None
- Language test
- Not applicable
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- Moroccan incorporationa physical office in Casablanca Finance Cityqualified management resident in Moroccoa viable business plan approved by the CFC AuthorityAML/CFT compliancean eligible activity, not banking or insurance
- The economics changed. Corporate tax converged from 15% to 20% after the initial five-year exemption, and the old grandfathered regime ended on 31 December 2022. Anyone quoting 15% is working from pre-reform material.
- Substance is now the whole test. Ring-fencing is gone, so CFC is no longer an offshore wrapper you can hold from abroad. You need a real office, real people and real management in Casablanca.
- Credit institutions and insurance or reinsurance companies are excluded from the regime entirely.
- The minimum contribution is exempt for five years and then runs at 0.25% of turnover. That is a turnover tax, and it bites hardest on high-volume, low-margin activity.
- Morocco's broader tax system is worldwide and reaches 37% personally. CFC's flat 20% employee rate is capped at 10 years and applies to salary only.
- OECD ratings are reviewed continuously. The current assessment of not harmful (amended) describes where things stand today, not a guarantee for tomorrow, and Morocco has already had one regime abolished outright.