Payment terms: The bill finally passed

Draft law No. 69-21 on payment terms, amending Law No. 015-95, was scheduled to be submitted to a vote by the Commission for Productive Sectors on Monday, January 09. The latest version of the piece of legislation as undergone some adjustments, in particular the timetable for its entry into force, the amount of fines revised downwards before the vote in committee, then, later, in plenary session. Thus, payment terms between business partners must be specified before the conclusion of any transaction on any supporting document, such as an invoice, a delivery note, or a sales contract.

For public agencies and state-owned enterprises, this period begins to run from the date of supervision of the performance of the service, according to the regulations in force. In the event that payment terms are not agreed, they may not exceed 60 days from the date of invoicing, which must be issued before the end of the month during which the service was performed or the goods delivered. In the absence of an invoice, the deadline will start to lapse from the end of the month of the performance of the service or delivery. When a supplier and a customer are linked by recurring business transactions during a specific month, the payment due date is set at the end of the following month. Business partners may not agree to a payment term beyond 120 days. The business partners concerned may exceptionally set deadlines of up to 180 days among themselves following the opinion of the Competition Council. The payment terms per industry will have to be signed between professional organizations under conditions which will be set by a decree. In addition, sectoral agreements are subject to objective studies being carried out by the associations concerned. These payment terms must be mentioned by any entity having its registered office, tax residence, or an entity established in Morocco. The provisions of the draft law apply to any company under private law, entity in charge of the delegated management of a public service, as well as state-owned entities carrying out commercial transactions on a regular basis. Legal and natural persons whose turnover is less than 2 million Dirhams (USD 200,000) excluding tax are excluded from these provisions. Breaches of the law will be punished with a fine equivalent to the amount of the key rate of the central bank, Bank Al-Maghrib, which is currently standing at 2.5%, increased by 0.85% for each month or fraction of a month of delay. This fine does not apply (Article 78-3) to invoices issued before January 1, 2025 and whose amount is less than or equal to 10,000 Dirhams (USD 1,000) including tax. The fine, whose collection and control of the filings (Article 78-4) will be entrusted to the tax authorities, will be applied to the unpaid amount by taking into account the VAT. The fine must be paid spontaneously to the Treasury when the quarterly declaration of unpaid debts is filed. The fine, subject of a dispute heard by the commercial court, remains dependent on a final judicial decision having acquired the force of res judicata. It should be noted that the fine will apply to the balance of the invoice that remains unpaid. Legal and natural persons with a turnover of more than 2 million Dirhams will be required to submit a quarterly electronic declaration to the tax services before the end of the month following the expiration of the quarter.

Hassan EL ARIF