Tax Amnesty in Morocco: Solution to a Crisis or a Crisis of Solution

The purpose of this paper is to examine the Moroccan experience with tax amnesties. Given the repetitive nature of amnesty programs in Morocco’s tax policy, questions have been raised about both their effectiveness and their specificity in comparison to similar programs in other countries. Between 1984, date of the first major tax reform, and 2024, Morocco organized 10 tax amnesties. All of them were adopted in the context of an economic slump and a shortage of financial resources. To address this issue, we began by identifying the results of empirical and theoretical studies in the relevant literature, which formed the theorical parameters that guided our analysis of the Moroccan experience. These parameters are about short-term revenue growth and long-term tax compliance. Studies have shown that tax amnesties have only a limited effect on increasing resources and even less on compliance. In our case, we have analyzed the data and statistics published by the Moroccan tax authorities in the light of these two parameters. We were able to show that the Moroccan experience confirms the parameters already identified, namely a low increase in revenue and an uncertain impact on tax compliance. The tax audit mechanism is proving to be more effective than amnesty in terms of generating substantial additional revenue, while tax evasion and fraud continue to cause substantial losses to the Moroccan economy. We concluded that the tax amnesty is no substitute for a genuine tax reform aimed at putting an end to the tax dependency of the State budget and achieving tax justice.