What are the employer's CNSS obligations in Morocco in 2026?

Every company (SARL, SARL AU, SAS, SA) is affiliated with the CNSS at the time of its formation (Dahir No. 1-72-184 of 27 July 1972): this one-off, free-of-charge procedure, a prerequisite for any salary declaration, provides an affiliation number and access to DAMANCOM, and its supporting documents are detailed in our guide to registering a company with the CNSS. Each employee is then registered upon hiring (copy of the national identity card [CIN] or residence permit) under a unique registration number, kept throughout their career, and an employee who is already registered is simply declared on the form for the month, as explained in the steps for hiring an employee in Morocco.

In 2026, contributions represent 21.09% of gross salary payable by the employer and 6.74% payable by the employee, i.e. 27.83%, with a ceiling of 6,000 MAD per month for social benefits; the breakdown by branch and worked examples are set out in the guide to the cost of an employee in Morocco. The employee share is withheld from pay and paid over by the employer, who alone is liable to the CNSS.

Each month, the employer completes on DAMANCOM the salary declaration form (bordereau de déclaration des salaires, BDS) pre-filled by the CNSS:

• The registration number of each employee
• The gross salary for the month
• The number of days worked (26 days maximum per month)
• Employee arrivals and departures

The declaration and payment of contributions (online payment or bank payment) must take place before the 10th of the month following the work period.

The Labour Code (Law 65-99) also requires a payroll ledger, payslips, a paid leave register, compliant employment contracts, remuneration at least equal to the SMIG (minimum wage), as well as internal regulations (règlement intérieur), employee representatives from 10 employees and mandatory notices. These rules, together with the probation period durations and severance pay, are detailed in the Labour Code rules for employers.

The employer:

• Withholds IR at source on salaries and pays it before the end of the following month (CGI, Article 174)
• Files the annual return of wages and salaries before 1 March (CGI, Article 79)
• Keeps supporting documents for 10 years (CGI, Article 211)

Breaches of CNSS obligations result in:

• Recovery of the contributions due, including by reassessment following a CNSS audit
• Late payment surcharges of 3% for the first month of delay, then a surcharge for each additional month
• Fines and, in the case of undeclared employees, the criminal liability of the company's director
• Inability to obtain the CNSS certificate of good standing (attestation de régularité), required in particular for public procurement contracts
• Penalties from the labour inspectorate for breaches of the Labour Code

The tax and legal penalties that may also apply are presented in the guide to penalties for regulatory non-compliance by companies.

A salaried manager (gérant salarié) (employment contract, duties distinct from the corporate office and a relationship of subordination, in practice a minority or non-partner manager) contributes to the general scheme (27.83%). The majority manager of an SARL or the sole partner-manager of an SARL AU is not an employee: depending on their category, they fall under the scheme for self-employed workers (travailleurs non-salariés), with the AMO under Law 98-15 and the pension scheme under Law 99-15. The criteria for each status are detailed in the guide to salaried or non-salaried manager status.

These are the CNSS obligations to comply with each month; with Charikaty, the formation of your company and the CNSS affiliation application are done online. Charikaty is a private Moroccan legal-tech platform specializing in 100% online company formation: we set up your company remotely, we file the CNSS affiliation application as part of the formation and, with our accounting service, we put you in touch with our payroll and accounting partners for employee registration, DAMANCOM declarations and IR withholding. MRE can thus employ staff in Morocco without travelling. More than 250 companies have already been set up with Charikaty.