A credit note — facture d'avoir — is an invoice running the other way: it records that you owe your customer something, after a return, a pricing error, or a discount granted afterwards. It does not delete the original invoice, it corrects it, and it must carry the same legal details as a normal invoice. In Morocco, a discount granted after invoicing also triggers an annual reporting duty under article 151 of the General Tax Code.
The rest of this article covers the cases that call for a credit note, the details it must show, the difference with a debit invoice, why an invoice is never deleted, and the declaration many traders discover too late.
Why an invoice is never deleted
That is the starting point, and article 145-III of the tax code sets it: invoices must be « pre-numbered and drawn from a continuous series, or produced by a computer system following a continuous series ».
A continuous series is a series with no gap. Deleting invoice no. 237 because the customer sent the goods back leaves a hole between 236 and 238, and that hole is exactly what an audit looks for. The credit note exists for that reason: it corrects by adding a document, never by removing one.
The four situations that call for a credit note
In a shop or at a wholesaler, a credit note almost always covers one of these four cases:
- Goods returned — the customer sends back all or part of what they received: damaged goods, wrong reference, excess quantity.
- An error on the invoice — a wrong unit price, a mistyped quantity, a forgotten discount, an incorrect VAT rate.
- A discount granted afterwards — a commercial rebate, a gesture for a late delivery, a year-end volume rebate.
- A full cancellation — the sale does not go ahead after all. The credit note then covers the whole invoice, which nonetheless stays in the series.
Debit invoice and credit note: the difference
The two terms mirror each other, which is what makes them confusing. The « facture de doit » is the ordinary invoice: it records what the customer owes you. The credit note records the opposite: what you owe the customer, in money or as a deduction on a future order.
Hence the habit worth forming: a credit note is rarely settled in cash. Most often it is deducted from the next invoice, which avoids a cash movement and leaves a clean trace in the customer's account.
The mandatory details on a credit note
Article 145-VIII of the tax code speaks of « invoices or documents serving in their place ». A credit note is one of those documents, so it carries the same details as an invoice, those of article 145-III:
- The seller's identity — yours, since you are the one issuing the credit note.
- Your tax identification number and business tax number — the IF issued by the local tax office, and the assessment article number for the business tax.
- The date of the transaction — the credit note's date, not the corrected invoice's.
- The customer, their address and their ICE — name or company name, address, and the common business identifier.
- Price, quantity and nature — what is taken back or corrected, line by line, exactly as on an invoice.
- VAT, shown separately — article 145-III-6° requires it on the invoice; a credit note correcting an invoice subject to VAT therefore shows it separately, at the rate of the original transaction.
- References and method of payment — and, in practice, the number and date of the corrected invoice: that is what makes a credit note readable.
Many businesses number their credit notes in a separate series with a prefix such as « AV ». That is a practical habit, not an obligation: what the text requires is the continuity of the series, not the choice of prefix.
The obligation almost nobody knows about
This is the most overlooked part of the subject, and it is Moroccan. Article 151-I of the tax code requires businesses granting « rebates, discounts and refunds granted after invoicing » to file an annual declaration of the sums booked during the previous financial year.
That declaration is filed at the same time as your results declarations — articles 20, 82, 85 and 150 of the tax code — and within the same deadlines. For each beneficiary it must show:
- Name, first names or company name.
- Profession or nature of the activity, and address.
- The business tax identification number, or the corporate or income tax identification.
- The CNSS registration number.
- The amount, by category, including « rebates, discounts and refunds granted after invoicing ».
The practical consequence is simple: a discount credit note is not only a commercial gesture between you and your customer. It is information the administration expects, and it must be retrievable per beneficiary at year end. In other words, you need to know, customer by customer, how much you granted in post-invoice discounts across the year — which is very hard when credit notes live in a notebook.
To draw one up without starting from a blank page, Gestio offers a credit note template to fill in online.
On the buying side: why to insist on the credit note
If you are the one receiving the goods, the reasoning reverses but the rigour stays. Article 146 of the tax code provides that any purchase from a supplier subject to the business tax « must actually have taken place and must be justified by a proper and probative invoice made out in the name of the party concerned ».
An invoice you hold but part of whose goods went back no longer describes the purchase that actually took place. The supplier's credit note is what brings the file back in line with reality — which is why it has to be asked for, rather than settled with a note on the return slip.
A special case: the auto-entrepreneur
Article 145-XI of the tax code expressly excludes the application of article 145 to individuals whose professional income is determined under the unified professional contribution or the auto-entrepreneur regime.
The detailed requirements above are therefore not imposed on them by that text. It does not mean an auto-entrepreneur corrects nothing: it means their formal obligations belong to another framework, covered in the article on invoicing as an auto-entrepreneur.
Frequently asked questions
How do you write a credit note? By taking the structure of a normal invoice, with the details of article 145-III, stating clearly that it is a credit note, referencing the number and date of the corrected invoice, and detailing line by line what is taken back or reduced, with VAT shown separately.
What is the difference between a debit invoice and a credit note? A debit invoice records what the customer owes you. A credit note records what you owe the customer, after a return, an error or a discount granted afterwards.
Can an invoice be deleted instead of issuing a credit note? No. Article 145-III requires a continuous series of invoices; deleting a document leaves a gap in it. Correction goes through a credit note, which adds to the series.
What about VAT on the credit note? It is shown separately on the document, as on any invoice. The declaration mechanics of the adjustment depend on your situation: that is a question for your accountant, as the tax code does not govern the credit note under that name.
Does a credit note have to be paid in cash? Nothing requires it. In practice it most often comes off the next invoice, which avoids a cash movement and leaves a clean trace in the customer's account.
