Short-term rental tax in Morocco: property or professional income, what the texts say in 2026

Rent from a short-term rental is taxable in Morocco, whether or not you live there. Before any question of rates, one question decides almost everything: is your rent property income (“revenus fonciers”), like the rent from an unfurnished apartment let by the year, or professional income (“revenus professionnels”), like the income from an accommodation business?

The General Tax Code (CGI) mentions neither Airbnb nor Booking.com. It classes rents as property income “when they do not fall into the category of professional income” (article 61), and the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) places furnished letting in professional income.

This guide sets out the 2026 rules for a resident owner as well as for a Moroccan living abroad (MRE), then lists what the texts do not settle. It complements our in-depth guide to short-term rentals in Morocco.

Information checked in October 2026 against the official texts: the General Tax Code, 2026 DGI edition (which incorporates Finance Act 50-25 for 2026); the DGI's notes on the 2023 Finance Act (circular note no. 733) and the 2025 Finance Act; circular note no. 717; law 114-13 and decrees 2-15-263 and 2-15-303 (auto-entrepreneur); decree 2-08-124 (single professional contribution); law 47-06 in its consolidated version; law 80-14; the France–Morocco tax treaty of 29 May 1970.

Property or professional income: what makes the difference

Article 22 of the 2026 CGI distinguishes six categories of income. Two concern renting:

• Property income: rents from buildings, “when they do not fall into the category of professional income” (article 61-I).
• Professional income: the profits of commercial, industrial, craft and liberal professions, or “of any other profession” (article 30).

The code stops there. It is the DGI's circular note no. 717 (“note circulaire”) of April 2011 that draws the line: it excludes from property income, because they are professional, “income relating to subletting, furnished letting and the letting of a business”. It also treats “lettings of furnished or fitted premises” as commercial professions.

Law 80-14 points the same way for the activities it governs: a tourist accommodation establishment is defined there as an “establishment of a commercial nature” (article 2). An authorised riad or guesthouse therefore carries on a commercial activity, with obligations of its own such as declaring guests.

For an apartment or a villa let by the night, furnished, with cleaning and linen between stays, the DGI's reading leads to professional income. An unfurnished home let by the year remains property income. You do not choose the category: it follows from the way you rent. One caveat: a circular note expresses the administration's position, not the law, and this one dates from 2011.

If your rent is property income: the 40% deduction and the scale

Since the 2023 Finance Act, this regime works in four steps:

1. Gross income is the total rent collected, plus the owner's expenses passed on to the tenant and minus the charges the owner bears on the tenants' behalf (article 64-I). Circular note no. 733 lists among the latter water, lighting of the common areas, cleaning products and syndic (building management) fees.
2. A flat-rate 40% deduction applies to this gross amount (article 64-II). The CGI makes no provision for also deducting your actual expenses, such as works or loan interest.
3. The net income is added to your other income and the total goes through the progressive bracket scale of article 73-I, applicable since 1 January 2025: 0% up to 40,000 MAD, then 10% up to 60,000 MAD, 20% up to 80,000 MAD, 30% up to 100,000 MAD, 34% up to 180,000 MAD and 37% above that.
4. The return on your overall income and the payment are due before 1 March of the following year (articles 82 and 173-I). For each property, it states the address, its municipal services tax (“taxe de services communaux”) number, the gross and net amounts and the name of each tenant.

A purely hypothetical example: 100,000 MAD of rent in the year, no charges borne on the tenants' behalf, no other income. Net income is 60,000 MAD; the tax, zero on the first 40,000 dirhams and 10% on the next 20,000, comes to 2,000 MAD before the reduction for family dependants. With a salary, those 60,000 MAD would fall into higher brackets.

Withholding tax (“retenue à la source”) covers only one case: a tenant that is a legal entity, or a professional taxed on actual or simplified net profit, paying you more than 40,000 MAD in rent a year. They withhold 10% if the annual gross is under 120,000 MAD, and 15% from that amount up (articles 73-II and 160 bis). This withholding is credited against the tax calculated on the scale; since 2025, you can opt for a final (“libératoire”) rate of 20% that exempts you from declaring that rent (articles 64-IV and 86-6°). That is the case of an incorporated management company that rents the property from you to sublet it itself. Your guests, for their part, withhold nothing.

If your rent is professional income: three regimes

A professional activity starts with a declaration of existence (“déclaration d'existence”) filed with the local tax office within 30 days (article 148). Three regimes are then possible:

• Actual net profit (“résultat net réel”), the standard regime: you are taxed on profit, receipts minus business expenses, which requires keeping accounts (article 145). By option and below turnover ceilings, simplified net profit (“résultat net simplifié”) lightens these obligations (article 39). The profit goes through the same scale, the return is due before 1 May (article 82), and a minimum contribution (“cotisation minimale”) remains due even without a profit (article 144).
• The single professional contribution (“contribution professionnelle unique”, CPU), by option, up to 500,000 MAD of annual turnover for a service activity (2,000,000 MAD for a commercial activity), with enrolment in compulsory health insurance (article 41). The tax is 10% of turnover multiplied by a per-profession coefficient, plus an additional duty of 1,200 to 14,400 MAD a year (articles 40 and 73-II-B-6°), declared before 1 April (article 82 quater).
• Auto-entrepreneur, Morocco's self-employed status (law 114-13), up to 200,000 MAD of turnover collected a year for a service activity: 1% of that turnover plus an additional duty (article 73-III), declared and paid every month or every quarter (article 82 bis).

Do these last two regimes accept short-term rentals? The texts do not say. The CPU coefficient table does not name furnished letting: it provides 20% for the “rental of movable goods”, in other words objects, and 25% for “other rental and management activities”. And decree 2-08-124, amended in 2021, excludes from the CPU, among others, hoteliers and property administrators, according to our reading of its Arabic version.

For auto-entrepreneurs, the list of eligible activities (decree 2-15-303) cites “tourist accommodation and other forms of accommodation”, according to our translation of the Arabic version, but decree 2-15-263 excludes hoteliers. An apartment rented on Airbnb appears in none of these texts: ask your tax office in writing before you register.

New in the 2026 Finance Act: a company, or a professional on actual or simplified net profit, that pays rent to a landlord who is themselves taxed under one of these two regimes withholds 5% at source, creditable against the landlord's tax (articles 15 ter, 73-II-A and 157).

VAT, business tax and municipal services tax

VAT. The CGI makes “accommodation operations” and lettings of “furnished or fitted premises” subject to it (article 89-I). Accommodation is taxed at 10% (article 99-B), furnished letting at the standard rate of 20% (article 99-A). Circular note no. 717 classes “furnished rooms” as accommodation, without saying where a whole apartment fits.

Service providers who are individuals with annual turnover of no more than 500,000 MAD are exempt, without the right to deduct (article 91-II-3°). But the 2011 note, which commented on an earlier wording of the article, refused this exemption to “persons letting furnished or fitted premises”; we have found no more recent position. If you are liable, returns are quarterly as long as taxable turnover stays below 1,000,000 MAD (article 108).

Business tax (“taxe professionnelle”). It covers anyone carrying on a professional activity (article 5 of law 47-06), on the rental value of the premises used, at 10, 20 or 30% depending on the activity's class (articles 7 and 9). A new activity is exempt for five years (article 6-II), and CPU taxpayers are exempt (article 6-I-A-25°).

Municipal services tax. It is owed by the owner of a built property in an urban or similar area (article 33). For a rented home not subject to housing tax (“taxe d'habitation”), it is based on the total rent; otherwise, on the rental value used for housing tax or business tax (article 35). Its rate is 10.5% within urban perimeters and 6.5% in other zones covered by a development plan (article 36).

Finally, the tourist tax is a separate municipal levy, paid by the guest and passed on by the operator; our guide to tourist tax in Morocco covers it in detail.

Non-residents and MRE: the same rules, plus the tax treaty

An owner whose tax domicile is not in Morocco is taxed there on their Moroccan-source income, including rent from a property located in Morocco (article 23-I). Your tax domicile is in Morocco if you have your permanent home there or the centre of your economic interests, or if you stay there more than 183 days out of 365 (article 23-II). We found no regime specific to MRE for rental income in the CGI: the rules in this guide apply.

Your country of residence may also want to tax that income; the tax treaty between the two states allocates the right to do so. The France–Morocco treaty of 29 May 1970 provides that “income from immovable property […] shall be taxable only in the State in which such property is situated” (article 9). France then excludes it from your taxable base, but may take it into account for the rate on your other income (article 25). For another country, read the relevant treaty.

Be careful when you sell, too. The capital gains exemption for a main residence occupied for at least five years covers “the dwelling that Moroccans resident abroad keep as their home in Morocco”, but only “as long as it has not been let” (article 63-II-B). Letting this home in summer can therefore cost you the exemption, and the text does not distinguish a few weeks of letting from a yearly lease.

The filing calendar

• Within 30 days of starting a professional activity: declaration of existence (article 148).
• Before 1 March: overall income return and payment for the previous year's property income (articles 82 and 173-I).
• Before 1 April: the previous year's turnover under the CPU, with payment on that date or, by option, in four quarterly instalments (articles 82 quater and 173-I).
• Before 1 May: overall income return for professional income on actual or simplified net profit (article 82).
• Every month or every quarter as an auto-entrepreneur, before the end of the following month (article 82 bis).
• Every quarter for VAT if you are liable and below 1,000,000 MAD of taxable turnover, before the 20th of the first month of the following quarter, or before the end of that month if you file online (articles 108 and 111).

What is still unclear

• The category of an apartment rented on Airbnb by a private individual. The CGI does not define furnished letting, and we found neither a DGI text later than 2011 nor a published decision on platform rentals.
• The platform's commission. For property income, the gross is “the total gross amount of rents”: the text does not say whether it is calculated before or after the Airbnb or Booking.com commission.
• The name of each tenant. The property income return requires it (article 82); nothing explains how to provide it for dozens of guests a year.
• VAT for a furnished letting operator: the exemption below 500,000 MAD, and the rate, 10% or 20%, for a whole apartment.
• Access to auto-entrepreneur status and the CPU, discussed above. Law 114-13 also requires meeting the legal conditions for carrying on the activity (article 7), which could point back to the authorisations of law 80-14.
• The municipal services tax on a home let by the night and occupied by its owner for part of the year.
• The tax treaty for a professional activity. Rent treated as business profits could fall under article 10 of the France–Morocco treaty, which covers commercial enterprises, rather than article 9.

On these points, ask your local tax office for a written answer, and have your situation confirmed by a chartered accountant before your first return.

Clean figures, whatever the regime

Property or professional income, you need the same data, property by property and year by year:

• the rent collected, stay by stay, with the platform, the gross amount, the commission and the net paid out;
• expenses (cleaning, linen, water, electricity, internet, syndic, repairs) and their receipts;
• the contracts signed with guests (see our article on short-term rental contracts in Morocco), and your invoices if you issue any;
• the tourist tax collected, kept separate from your rent.

In RentDari, each booking keeps its channel, its amount and its commission, and each expense is attached to a property. The analytics dashboards turn them into revenue, expenses and net per property and per period, and a management company's owner statements can be downloaded as PDF or Excel. RentDari declares nothing to the tax authorities and does not choose your regime: it gives you clean figures for your accountant.

To estimate what a property could earn before tax, the revenue simulator gives an order of magnitude.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to declare my Airbnb income in Morocco?

Yes. Rent from a property located in Morocco is taxable there, whether or not you live there (article 23 of the CGI). The CGI provides for no withholding of tax by the platforms: filing the return is up to you.

Can I choose between property income and professional income?

No. According to the DGI's doctrine, furnished letting is professional income, and an unfurnished home let by the year is property income.

What is the tax rate on an Airbnb rental?

There is no single rate. For property income, as under actual net profit, net income goes through the progressive scale, from 0% to 37%. The CPU and auto-entrepreneur status have their own rates, if your activity qualifies for them.

I am an MRE: am I taxed twice?

Morocco taxes rent from a property located in Morocco, then your country of residence applies the tax treaty. For France, this income is taxable only in Morocco (article 9), though France may take it into account for the rate on your other income.

This article is general information on Moroccan taxation, current at the date stated; it is not legal or tax advice. Your regime, rates and obligations should be checked with the tax authorities or a chartered accountant.