How do you pay a foreign supplier from Morocco in 2026?

The Office des Changes is the public institution responsible for the regulation and control of foreign exchange transactions. The IGOC consolidates the rules applicable to transactions between residents and non-residents (imports of goods and services, royalties, investments) and is updated every year; the 2026 version notably broadened the definition of imports of services and removed the exhaustive list of transactions delegated to the banks.

Payment of a non-resident supplier is made exclusively through a Moroccan bank approved by Bank Al-Maghrib (Law 103-12 on credit institutions), which acts as an authorized intermediary: it executes the transaction, checks the supporting documents and reports on it to the Office des Changes. Imports of goods are, moreover, free in principle (Law No. 91-14 on foreign trade, which replaced Law 13-89), except for products subject to restrictions.

Each regime has its own conditions; only card purchases are limited by an annual allowance, presented in our guide on the e-commerce allowance for paying Google, Meta and AWS. The transfer of dividends to foreign partners, for its part, falls under the guarantee attached to foreign investment in a Moroccan company.

Any import of goods giving rise to payment is domiciled with a Moroccan bank before customs clearance. The importer subscribes an import commitment (engagement d'importation) (or an import licence for products subject to restrictions) on PortNet, the platform for the dematerialization of foreign trade procedures; the bank domiciles it and assigns it a number that is reported in the customs declaration. The prerequisites for importing (Commercial Register, ICE, sectoral authorizations) are presented in our guide on import-export requirements for Moroccan companies.

Imports of services (consulting, IT development, hosting, studies, technical assistance, licences) are paid by the bank against an invoice, and against a contract where the nature of the service so requires, without prior authorization from the Office des Changes or an allowance ceiling. Small online purchases paid by international card, on the other hand, fall under the company's e-commerce allowance.

From a tax perspective, two obligations apply:

• VAT: when the service provider has no tax representative in Morocco, the company pays the 20% VAT on its behalf (Article 115 of the CGI) in its monthly or quarterly return, then deducts it under the conditions of Article 101 (VAT paid, invoice in the company's name, expense allocated to operations). The mechanism is in principle neutral in cash terms.
• Withholding tax: sums paid to a non-resident for services used in Morocco, technical assistance or royalties are in principle subject to a 10% withholding under IS (Articles 5-II, 15 and 19-IV of the CGI), paid over within the month following the payment, unless a more favourable tax treaty applies (tax residence certificate of the service provider).

Failure to comply with these obligations exposes the company to reassessments during a tax audit.

The bank approved by Bank Al-Maghrib (Law 103-12):

• Checks the documentary compliance of the transaction under the IGOC
• Carries out KYC / AML-CFT (LBC-FT) due diligence (Law 43-05 as amended by Law 12-18)
• Domiciles import commitments and charges each payment to the appropriate regime
• Executes the international transfer and issues the debit advice and the exchange form (formule de change)
• Sends the reports to the Office des Changes and clears the import files

Bank charges (exchange commission, SWIFT fees, domiciliation and documentary credit commissions) vary between institutions.

The Incoterms 2020, published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), allocate the obligations, costs and risks between seller and buyer:

The Incoterm determines the invoiced price, the ancillary costs to be paid (freight, insurance) and the customs value, which includes transport and insurance up to entry into Morocco.

The documentary credit (ICC UCP 600 rules) secures the transaction: the bank undertakes to pay the supplier upon presentation of compliant documents (B/L, invoice, certificate of origin, etc.). It is useful for large amounts or new suppliers; the documentary collection, which is less costly, offers a lesser guarantee. Commissions vary between banks.

Companies with export earnings or foreign currency contributions from non-resident investors can pay their suppliers from:

• A foreign currency account funded by part of their export earnings, in accordance with the IGOC procedures
• A CDC (convertible dirham account, compte en dirhams convertibles) for eligible transactions

These regimes are detailed in our guide on the convertible dirham account in Morocco.

Invoices, contracts, domiciled import commitments, DUMs, debit advices, exchange forms, withholding tax returns and minutes of ordinary general meetings are kept for 10 years (Article 211 CGI; Law 9-88), on paper or on an electronic medium guaranteeing their integrity and evidential value.

Foreign neobanks (Wise, Revolut, etc.) do not hold Bank Al-Maghrib approval to keep the account of a resident company. They cannot be used as a payment channel: payment necessarily goes through a Moroccan bank.

Breaches of foreign exchange regulations (payment outside the banking system, false declaration, failure to domicile or clear) are punished under the Dahir of 30 August 1949 on the punishment of breaches of foreign exchange regulations: fines, confiscation and, in serious cases, criminal prosecution, with the Office des Changes being able to conclude a settlement (transaction). Customs irregularities fall under the Customs Code, and VAT or withholding tax omissions under the CGI. Regularization takes place through a compliance file (dossier de mise en conformité) submitted to the Office des Changes, through the bank. The more general tax, social and legal penalties are presented in our guide on penalties for regulatory non-compliance in Morocco.

Charikaty is a private Moroccan legal-tech platform specializing in online company formation. Here is what you need to pay a foreign supplier in compliance with the rules: a registered company whose corporate purpose covers your purchases, an account with a Moroccan bank and the supporting documents for each transaction. With Charikaty, the company formation is done entirely online, by the simplest and fastest route: we complete the formation formalities for your company (OMPIC negative certificate, electronically signed articles of association, filing with the commercial court registry, obtaining the IF, the ICE and the professional tax [taxe professionnelle] from the DGI, CNSS affiliation), with a corporate purpose covering your imports.

For import domiciliation, VAT, withholding tax and the clearance of files, our accounting service refers you to chartered accountants registered with the OEC (Law 15-89); the payments themselves are executed by your bank. More than 250 companies have already been set up with Charikaty.