فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
Reliable sources disclosed that the General Directorate of Taxes, in coordination with regional control services, has intensified its monitoring operations along the Rabat – Casablanca corridor following the detection of a growing phenomenon of massive tax evasion in the real estate sector. This evasion is carried out through the misuse of exemptions reserved for cooperatives and housing associations.
The sources explained that inspections have moved beyond paperwork to field investigations after receiving detailed information indicating that property “barons” exploit tax privileges to avoid paying dues. Some have liquidated their private companies and transformed them into housing cooperatives generating billions in profits outside tax oversight.
The data revealed that tax inspectors have launched inquiries into the identities and roles of the cooperative leaders, uncovering involvement of elected officials and municipal employees in manipulating beneficiary lists, recording fictitious sales contracts, and even appropriating others’ properties.
Field inspections targeted several cities, including Temara, Harhoura, Kenitra, El Jadida, Bouskoura, and Dar Bouazza. Significant breaches were uncovered, such as accepting down payments for land purchases prior to opening membership enrollment and utilizing members’ funds to finance construction works or private projects outside real estate purposes.
Monitoring committees also observed widespread commercial advertisements displaying sales prices for cooperative housing units. Consequently, investigations expanded to encompass accounting records and management reports, uncovering manipulations in member lists and inclusion of fictitious names to benefit from land plots that were later sold at inflated prices.
Moreover, investigations found some beneficiaries employing “underreporting” by declaring sale prices below actual values and subsequently inflating them upon resale to cooperative members. This was exposed through coordination with the National Agency for Land Registry, which unveiled extensive violations both before and after implementing the information exchange system with tax authorities.
In this context, the General Directorate of Taxes is working on launching a digital database dedicated to real estate transactions related to cooperatives, modeled after the foreign companies’ property transfer price evaluation system. The aim is to close tax evasion loopholes and increase transparency in real estate dealings.
Audits have also extended to suspicious bank accounts in coordination with Bank Al-Maghrib, revealing that some cooperatives maintain more than three accounts, which were used to purchase vast lands exceeding 100 hectares. These lands were registered under the personal names of cooperative leaders, despite payment being made through checks issued in the cooperative’s name.
These investigations come as part of ongoing efforts to combat tax evasion and enhance transparency in the rapidly evolving real estate sector, with joint partnerships between regulatory and financial oversight bodies.
