Before you start

A determination of your residence status under article 23
An identifiant fiscal, if you have income beyond employment
Knowledge of the treaty between Morocco and your home country
For letting: the authorisation and classification required under loi 80-14

Step-by-step

1
Test residence against all three limbs, not just the day count
Permanent home in Morocco, centre of economic interests in Morocco, or more than 183 days over any rolling 365-day period. Buying a riad and living in it part of the year can satisfy the first limb even if you are careful about days.
OnlineWho: You
2
Register the letting activity properly if you take guests
Loi n° 80-14 and decree 2.23.441 brought riads, guest houses and short-term tourist lets into the same authorisation and star-classification framework as hotels, with an obligation to hold insurance against fire, theft of guests' property and civil liability. Operating without the authorisation is unlawful, and platforms and authorities both check.
In personWho: You
3
Declare rental income
Income from letting Moroccan property is taxable in Morocco whoever you are and wherever you live, and it is declared annually. Owners who let through international platforms sometimes assume the platform's reporting is the end of it. It is not.
OnlineWho: YouAnnually
4
Keep the cost base for the eventual sale
Renovation spend reduces the taxable gain when you sell — but only if you can evidence it. Medina renovation runs on cash, so this is a discipline: signed dated receipts, invoices where the trade can give one, and bank records for anything substantial.
In personWho: You
5
Get the notary to record the foreign-currency origin of the purchase
The right to repatriate sale proceeds depends on the purchase having been funded through a declared transfer of foreign currency. The notarial deed and the bank trail are the evidence. Raise it at the deed stage, because reconstructing it afterwards is not possible.
In personWho: You
6
File the annual return if you have anything beyond a salary
The return covers the previous calendar year and is filed through the DGI's SIMPL portal. Rental income, professional income and foreign income all bring a filing obligation.
OnlineWho: YouAnnually

Documents you’ll need

Identifiant fiscal
Notarial deed and the bank transfer trail for a property purchase
Loi 80-14 authorisation and classification, for tourist letting
Rental records and invoices
Evidence of foreign income and of tax paid abroad

Things most newcomers don’t know

Short-term letting in Morocco is now a licensed, classified activity — this changed recently and many owners have not caught up.

Loi n° 80-14 and its implementing decree, published in 2023, brought riads, kasbahs, guest houses and short-term tourist rentals into the same authorisation and star-classification framework that governs hotels, together with compulsory insurance against fire, theft of guests' belongings and civil liability. A decade of informal riad letting created an expectation that this is a light-touch area. It no longer is, the platforms are aware of it, and buying a riad as a rental business without budgeting for the licensing route is a real commercial risk.

Source: loi 80-14; décret 2.23.441

Owning a home in Marrakech can make you tax resident even if you count your days carefully.

Article 23 is disjunctive: a permanent home available to you in Morocco is sufficient on its own, as is having your centre of economic interests here. People buy a riad, spend four months a year in it, and assume the 183-day test protects them. If the house is permanently available and your economic life increasingly runs through it, the day count is not the only question being asked.

Source: CGI art. 23

The renovation receipts you did not keep become a tax cost when you sell.

Improvement expenditure reduces the taxable capital gain on disposal, but only where it can be evidenced. Medina renovation is paid overwhelmingly in cash to craftsmen who do not routinely invoice. Owners spend years and substantial sums on a house and then have nothing to set against the gain. Insisting on a signed, dated receipt for every significant payment — awkward at the time — is worth a great deal at the sale.

Source: CGI; community-reported

Tax planning and exchange control have to be solved together, and most advisers do one.

The Direction Générale des Impôts decides what is taxed; the Office des Changes decides what can leave. For a Marrakech property owner these interact directly: the structure of the purchase determines both the eventual gain computation and whether the proceeds can be repatriated at all. Moroccan advisers who are strong on tax and vague on exchange control are common. Ask both questions in the same meeting.

Source: DGI; Office des Changes

Common mistakes to avoid

Letting a riad to guests without the authorisation and classification loi 80-14 now requires.
Assuming careful day-counting protects you when you own a permanently available home here.
Failing to declare rental income because a platform withholds something.
Spending years renovating without receipts and losing the cost base.
Taking tax advice that ignores the exchange-control consequences of the same structure.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.