AUTOMATIC INFORMATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN MOROCCO AND THE NETHERLANDS CONFIRMED

13/04/2021

 

Abstract: Morocco and The Netherlands will start their automatic information exchange on their citizens starting 2022.

It was unclear for a while but now it has been confirmed that Morocco will indeed share financial data of its own citizens with foreign tax authorities (automatic information exchange). Only the effective date has not yet been determined. This is evident from a report by the Dutch NPO Radio 1[1] in response to the confusion that arose on social media among Moroccan Dutch citizens after the Moroccan tax authorities denied the tax data exchange with the Netherlands.

Moroccan lawyer Youssuf al Mourabit says in the report that the Moroccan tax authority's denial is about the BEPS treaty of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an agreement aimed at tax avoidance by companies. This is of course a different matter than the treaty on automatic exchange of citizens financial data between tax authorities. The beforementioned treaty was ratified by Morocco this year and will be implemented in September, according to Al Mourabit.

The OECD's Paris headquarters on the other hand states that the implementation is not this year, but will occur next year[2]. The original effective date has been postponed by a year. "If the Netherlands wants to share information with Morocco, the expectation is that it will happen," says an OECD spokesperson. Other agreements apply to information sharing of real estate holdings. "That doesn't happen automatically, but Morocco has agreements on that as well. A country like the Netherlands is allowed to request information about that in individual cases."

The Dutch Tax Administration confirms the exchange: "The Netherlands has already designated Morocco as an exchange partner. Morocco has yet to designate its partners. Therefore, at this time it is not yet clear when actual information exchange will take place between the two countries."

Fiscal exchange of financial data of citizens between countries is based on the OECD standard: the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). A Dutch citizen who also has Moroccan nationality (and has a tax residence in the Netherlands) and who also has a bank account in Morocco must declare that account in the Netherlands in his tax returns. Once Morocco joins the CRS, the country will start sharing the information from the banks through the Moroccan tax authorities with the tax authorities in other countries participating in the CRS.