Since the start of the year, the same question keeps coming up among traders, wholesalers and their accountants: « e-invoicing — when is it mandatory, and for whom? ». Online you will find very precise dates. The problem is that they differ from one site to the next, and most of them cite no text at all.
This article sorts it out. It separates what is already in the law, what has been announced by the DGI (the tax administration), and what is not yet published. Everything below is true at the time of writing (September 2026); on this subject, always check with your accountant before deciding.
E-invoicing: what are we talking about?
A PDF invoice sent by e-mail is not an electronic invoice in the sense of the DGI's project. What the administration has described is a structured file (in the international UBL format), electronically signed, and sent to a DGI platform that checks it. In other words: the invoice is no longer just a document you hand to the customer, it is also data the administration receives.
For the administration, the benefit is clear: seeing sales as they are invoiced, and making fictitious or altered invoices much harder. For the business, the promise is less data entry and fewer errors — provided it is ready.
What is decided: the law has existed since 2018
The legal basis is not new. The 2018 finance law added an article 145-IX to the General Tax Code (CGI). It requires taxpayers subject to corporate tax (IS), to professional income tax (actual or simplified net income regime) and to VAT to « equip themselves with a computerised invoicing system that meets the technical criteria set by the administration ». The same article leaves its terms to regulation, « according to the activities of each sector », and DGI circular note no. 728 specifies that this obligation is introduced « progressively ».
Two words matter in that sentence: progressively and regulation. The law sets the principle, but who is affected, from when and in what format all has to be set by a decree and implementing texts. Without them, the obligation has no timetable.
Other rules, on the other hand, already apply to all your invoices, electronic or not. Article 145-III of the CGI requires invoices that are pre-numbered and drawn from a continuous series, or produced by a computer system in a continuous series. And for financial years opened since 1 January 2019, the invoice must show your customer's ICE when they carry on a professional activity — our guide to the ICE covers this point and its consequences.
What is announced: a launch « during 2026 »
On 16 April 2026, at Médias24's Grands Rendez-vous, the director general of taxes, Younès Idrissi Kaitouni, presented the state of the project. According to press reports of that talk:
- the launch is planned during 2026;
- the rollout will be progressive, starting with large companies and business-to-business (B2B) exchanges;
- the invoice will be a file in UBL format, electronically signed and validated by the DGI platform;
- the technical platform is presented as ready, and the draft decree as under review at the General Secretariat of the Government;
- free access through a web portal is planned for small businesses, alongside a direct connection for companies equipped with an ERP.
These are announcements. They give the direction, not an enforceable date.
What is not yet published
At the time of writing (September 2026), we have found no implementing decree or order for article 145-IX published in the Official Bulletin. So there is not yet any official text setting the businesses affected by phase, turnover thresholds, effective dates or penalties specific to e-invoicing.
Who will be affected?
In principle, article 145-IX targets taxpayers subject to IS, to IR on professional income (actual or simplified net income regime) and to VAT — that is, the vast majority of companies, wholesalers and distributors. The same article 145, however, excludes individuals under the single professional contribution (CPU) regime and auto-entrepreneurs. And the text leaves application to terms set sector by sector, which the DGI presents as progressive. The DGI has announced it will start with large companies; for a neighbourhood shop, a small SARL or a mid-sized wholesaler, nothing is dated yet.
What is certain is the direction: sooner or later, your business customers will receive electronic invoices from their large suppliers, and they will expect the same from you.
What will change for a trader
If the announced model is confirmed, three things will change in practice:
- The invoice will have to come out of a system, not a pad. An invoice filled in by hand or touched up in Word cannot become a validated structured file.
- Errors will show up immediately. A wrong customer ICE, a duplicate number or an inconsistent VAT calculation, which used to go unnoticed until a tax audit, may be blocked at issue.
- Your sales will be visible to the administration as they happen. What you declare for VAT will have to match what you invoiced — see our guide to VAT in Morocco.
What you can do right now
You do not need to wait for the decree to get ready. Most of what follows is already required by the current rules, and it is information a validation platform will need to find on every invoice:
- Clean numbering. A single continuous series, with no gaps and no duplicates. If you number by hand or across several Excel files, this is the first job.
- The ICE of every business customer. Collect it now, check it, and record it once and for all in your customer file. If the ICE is one day checked on every invoice, a missing ICE could block its issue.
- Your own details up to date. Your company's ICE, RC, IF and professional tax (patente) on every invoice.
- The excl. tax, VAT and incl. tax breakdown on each invoice. Not just a total: the amount excluding tax, the VAT per rate and the total including tax.
- Data, not just paper. Your invoices must exist in a form that can be exported, sorted and transmitted. A pile of carbon copies does not convert.
If you are starting from scratch, our free invoice template includes these details and shows you what a complete invoice should look like.
And where does software fit in?
Invoicing software does not make you a business « ready for e-invoicing » — nobody can promise that until the final format is published. What it does is make you keep the right habits today, and keep your invoices as data rather than documents.
That is what Gestio's invoicing module does: invoices are numbered automatically by year (FAC-2026-0001, FAC-2026-0002…), without two invoices ever carrying the same number; your company's ICE, RC, IF and patente as well as the customer's ICE appear on the invoice; excl. tax, VAT and incl. tax are broken down; and all your data stays on a server, exportable at any time to Excel, CSV or PDF. Gestio is not connected to the DGI: when the decree is published, your data will at least be clean and retrievable.
Frequently asked questions
Is e-invoicing mandatory in Morocco today? The principle has been in the law (article 145-IX of the CGI) since the 2018 finance law, but at the time of writing (September 2026), no implementing decree setting who is affected and from when has been published in the Official Bulletin.
Is a PDF invoice sent by e-mail enough? Today, what the CGI requires of an invoice is mainly its mandatory details and its numbering in a continuous series (article 145-III); ask your accountant whether the way you issue and keep your PDFs is suitable. But a PDF is not the electronic invoice described by the DGI, which relies on a structured file in UBL format, signed and validated by its platform.
Will small businesses be affected? The text leaves application to terms set sector by sector, and the DGI has announced it will start with large companies, with a free portal planned for small businesses. No date is official for very small and small-to-medium businesses.
What should I do in the meantime? Continuous numbering with no duplicates, the ICE of every business customer on record, your own identifiers on every invoice, the excl. tax/VAT/incl. tax breakdown, and invoices kept as exportable data.