Payroll in Morocco 2026: CNSS, AMO, income tax and SMIG

In Morocco the employer withholds income tax (IR) from each salary payment and deducts the employee's CNSS and AMO contributions, 6.74% of pay below the 6,000-dirham ceiling, then pays them to the tax administration (DGI) and the CNSS. On top of gross pay the employer contributes roughly 21% more: CNSS, family allowances, AMO and the vocational training tax.

Payroll in Morocco at a glance

CNSS and AMO contributions

The Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale (CNSS) collects the social security contributions and the compulsory health insurance (AMO, assurance maladie obligatoire). The rates apply to gross salary, excluding exempt allowances and indemnities.

Because social benefits stop at 6,000 dirhams a month, the employee's share is at most 268.80 dirhams and the employer's 538.80 dirhams a month for that line; AMO, family allowances and the training tax have no ceiling. For a salary of 8,000 dirhams, the employee pays 5.62% and the employer 18.85% of gross pay.

The employee's CNSS and AMO contributions are deductible when you calculate taxable income (Article 59 of the General Tax Code).

Income tax (IR) on salaries

The employer withholds IR on every salary payment (Article 156 of the General Tax Code). The tax is calculated on net taxable income: gross taxable pay, less professional expenses, the employee's social security and AMO contributions, and certain retirement and insurance contributions.

Professional expenses (frais professionnels): deducted at a flat 35% of gross taxable pay when the annual gross is 78,000 dirhams or less, and 25% above that, without exceeding 35,000 dirhams a year. Benefits in cash or in kind are left out of the base. Some professions, such as journalists, sales representatives and flight crew, have higher rates.

The scale since 1 January 2025: the 2025 Finance Act raised the exempt band from 30,000 to 40,000 dirhams and cut the top rate from 38% to 37%. The scale in Article 73 of the 2026 General Tax Code:

To use the table, multiply the income by the rate of its band and subtract the amount to deduct: the result is the same as taxing each band at its own rate.

Family charges: the IR is then reduced by 600 dirhams a year per dependant (spouse and children under the conditions of Article 74), up to 3,600 dirhams for six dependants. The 2026 Finance Act raised this from 500 and 3,000 dirhams for income earned from 1 January 2026.

What is exempt from IR

Article 57 of the General Tax Code exempts, among others:

• allowances that cover justified work expenses, unless the employee benefits from one of the higher professional expenses rates
• family allowances, and the daily sickness, accident and maternity benefits paid under social security
• the employer's share of retirement and social security contributions
• meal vouchers up to 40 dirhams per employee per working day, provided they do not exceed 20% of gross taxable salary
• dismissal and voluntary departure indemnities, up to 1,000,000 dirhams in total

Minimum wage and working conditions

SMIG: under the social agreement of 29 April 2024, the hourly salaire minimum interprofessionnel garanti was raised by 5% to 17.92 dirhams in the first quarter of 2026, after a 5% rise to 17.10 dirhams in 2025, according to Bank Al-Maghrib's monetary policy report of June 2026. Agricultural work has its own guaranteed minimum wage, the SMAG. Check the minimum that applies to your sector and to monthly-paid staff before you set a salary.

Other statutory pay: working hours, overtime premiums, the seniority bonus and paid annual leave are set by the Labour Code and by any collective agreement that covers you. Record hours and overtime accurately, because they feed the gross pay on which both IR and CNSS are calculated.

Monthly payroll calendar and filings

When you hire: register your company with the CNSS and register each employee; the annual salary declaration asks for every employee's national identity card number and CNSS registration number.

Every month:

• calculate gross pay, CNSS and AMO contributions and the IR to withhold
• declare the salaries and pay the contributions to the CNSS, online through its Damancom portal; the General Tax Code makes the deduction of retirement contributions conditional on paying them to the scheme every month
• pay the IR withheld on the month's salaries to the tax administration within the following month (Article 174 of the General Tax Code), for example September's IR in October

Every year: before 1 March, file the declaration of salaries paid in the previous year (Article 79): for each employee, the gross pay, allowances, professional expenses rate, CNSS and retirement deductions, number of family reductions, net taxable income and IR withheld.

Payslip: give each employee a payslip each month showing gross pay, each contribution, the IR withheld and net pay, so that it matches what you declare.

Worked example: 8,000 dirhams a month in 2026

An employee in the private sector, single and without dependants, earns 8,000.00 dirhams gross a month (96,000 a year, so professional expenses are 25%). Monthly figures:

With a spouse and two children as dependants, the annual IR would fall by 3 × 600 = 1,800 dirhams, to 1,520.96 dirhams.

Common mistakes

1. 1Applying the social benefits rate to the whole salary. It stops at 6,000 dirhams a month; AMO, family allowances and the training tax do not.
2. 2Using the old IR scale. Since 2025 the exempt band is 40,000 dirhams and the top rate 37%.
3. 3Using last year's family reduction. In 2026 it is 600 dirhams per dependant, up to 3,600 dirhams.
4. 4Applying 35% professional expenses above 78,000 dirhams a year, or forgetting the 35,000-dirham cap.
5. 5Paying IR late. IR withheld in a month must be paid within the following month.
6. 6Forgetting the annual declaration of salaries before 1 March.

Our month-end close checklist helps you tie payroll into your monthly accounts.

How Clientlly helps

Clientlly does not ship a built-in payroll profile for Morocco. An administrator enters Morocco's rates once in the payroll tax settings: the IR bands, the allowance, the employee and employer contribution rates and the minimum wage. Clientlly then calculates gross to net and the employer contributions and produces payslips. Check the 6,000-dirham ceiling, professional expenses and family reductions against the rules above for your employees.

The Clientlly HR module also handles leave requests and approvals with a leave calendar and keeps HR documents in one place, and attendance and time tracking records hours and overtime for you to review before payroll.