Everything you need to know about freelancing.

• How to become a self-entrepreneur in Morocco?

• What are the advantages of the auto-entrepreneur scheme in Morocco?

• How to declare oneself an entrepreneur?

• What are the tax obligations of the auto-entrepreneur?

• What are the self-entrepreneur's turnover thresholds?

• Auto-entrepreneur: what should I do when I exceed the thresholds?

Who is self-employed in Morocco?

In Morocco, the auto-entrepreneur is a recent legal status that allows you to create and manage a business with ease. It is open to several profiles, unemployed, daring students or employees wishing to launch a project to test the market. The option is open to Moroccan and foreign residents.

Open to any natural person of legal working age, the auto-entrepreneur is a status that allows flexibility in the management of its activity but which includes certain constraints such as the thresholds of turnover not to be exceeded or even the nature of the profession to be exercised.

What trades are excluded from self-employed status in Morocco?
The status of auto-entrepreneur is open to any natural person of legal working age, of Moroccan or foreign nationality, foreign nationals must hold a long-term residence permit. Certain professions are not accessible to the individual entrepreneur:

realtor
import-export operator
hotel and restaurant operator
hosting providers
experts of all kinds such as chartered accountant, legal and tax advisor
delicate legal professions (notary, bailiff, lawyer, etc.)
Consequently, candidates must carefully consult the list of professions excluded from the auto-entrepreneur regime and ensure that the desired profession is not on the said list.

How to declare oneself an entrepreneur?

To become an auto-entrepreneur, you must declare and register your activity with the National Register of Auto-Entrepreneurs.

To realize his project, the auto-entrepreneur must submit to a certain number of procedures and administrative formalities, in particular the declaration of auto-entrepreneur. This declaration is made in two steps:

1. Preliminary membership in the National Register of auto-entrepreneurs:
This membership must be made online on the site: https://ae.gov.ma

2. Constitution of a registration file with Barid Al Maghrib.

Once these two phases have been finalized, the registration request is submitted for processing for validation or refusal. In the case of attribution of the status, the auto-entrepreneur receives a professional card which certifies his status with customers and suppliers. A registration number in the National Register is assigned to the auto-entrepreneur.

What are the tax obligations of the auto-entrepreneur?
Income tax:

The auto-entrepreneur is required to pay income tax on a quarterly basis according to a rate which depends on the nature of his activity:

0,5% of turnover achieved: industrial, commercial and craft activities
1% of the turnover achieved: for the provision of services.
The quarterly declaration of turnover and the payment of the tax due must be made during the month following the quarter concerned. After this time, surcharges and late penalties will be applied.

The declaration is to be made on the site => https://ae.gov.ma

Professional tax:

The auto-entrepreneur is subject to business tax once the first 5 years of exemption have elapsed.

Value added tax :

The auto-entrepreneur is excluded from the scope of VAT.

What are the self-entrepreneur's turnover thresholds?
The benefit of the advantages of auto-entrepreneur status is subject to an annual turnover condition not to be exceeded:

500 dirhams for industrial, commercial and craft activities.
200 dirhams for services.
Auto-entrepreneur: what should I do when I exceed the thresholds?
Although the status of auto-entrepreneur is advantageous in terms of creation and management of micro-enterprise, the latter is not a form to be favored to guarantee the sustainability and development of its activity and for good reason: any overrun of the thresholds of regulatory sales for 2 consecutive years results in the cessation or deregistration of the activity.

When the activity makes it possible to develop the turnover, it is necessary to migrate to a new legal form (in particular SARL) which best accompanies this development.