A unique tax for small traders

Small traders and local trades find it difficult to find themselves in the "fiscal mille-feuille" (Ph. The Economist)

The special "small shopkeeper" tax could be introduced next year. It is one of the main recommendations of the third tax base. It will emanate from the merger between the business tax and other state taxes, notably the IR. The idea is to set up a professional contribution for low-income activities.

The government could proceed in stages because the regime would require "a lot of consultation especially with regard to the liquidation rules". Small traders and local trades are struggling to end up in the multiplicity of taxes. They are confronted with the phenomenon of "mille-feuille fiscal" since they must pay local laws and other taxes of the State.

The tax system remains complex and does not respond to an overall logic since state taxes are added local taxation with its 27 taxes and fees, and parafiscality with more than 70 taxes. As noted during the tax base, this system has no coordination in the design and implementation of tax bases and levels.

This does not promote compliance and does not allow voluntary adherence to the principle of tax consent. According to the statistics of the High Commission for Planning, the informal concerns nearly two million units. It is growing by 19,000 units a year and has a turnover of more than 400 billion DH. It provides over 12% of national production and employs more than 2.5 million people!

The 2020 Finance Law should begin the process of simplifying and harmonizing the tax system, including at the local level. It is more exactly the framework law which will constitute the frame of reference for the next 5 years. And local taxation will also be concerned.

This being the case, the Directorate General of Local Government has groomed the law on local taxation. Measures that give rise to diverging interpretations or sources of dysfunction would be "corrected". This should all be submitted for approval before the end of the year.

In any case, the tax on unbuilt land causing differences of interpretation between the administration and taxpayers is particularly targeted. This one poses difficulties of application for the grounds which are located straddling municipalities which are in the field of the tax on the not built grounds and the communes not entering in this field.

Khadija MASMOUDI