A foreign shoot arrives in Morocco with equipment, sometimes with picture weapons, and with a long list of purchases to make on the ground. Three distinct regimes apply to those three flows, and they should not be confused: the VAT exemption covers what is acquired in Morocco, temporary import covers what comes in and goes out again, and the cash rebate covers what has been spent.
The VAT exemption
The Centre cinématographique marocain (CCM) promotes “the exemption from VAT on all goods and services acquired in Morocco” for foreign shoots. The legal basis lies in the general tax code (code général des impôts): goods and services acquired or hired by foreign companies for audiovisual, cinematographic and television productions, during the shooting of films in Morocco, are exempt from value added tax.
The effect is direct and often underestimated at the budgeting stage: it covers local equipment hire, technical services, accommodation, catering and services bought on the ground. Combined with the 30% rebate on eligible spend, it changes the arithmetic of a schedule concentrated in Morocco rather than spread across several countries.
Equipment brought in under temporary import
Production equipment that enters Morocco in order to leave again falls under the temporary admission (admission temporaire) regime. The principle is that of all suspensive regimes: duties and taxes are not collected on entry but secured, and the security is released on re-export within the allotted period.
The CCM, for its part, announces a “simplification of the customs clearance procedure for the import and export of shooting equipment”. It is a point that productions used to slower territories regularly note.
Weapons, ammunition and effects
Picture weapons fall under a regime of their own in every country, and they are usually the item that pushes back a prep schedule. The CCM announces a “simplification of the temporary import procedure for weapons and ammunition” for shoots.
The Centre also highlights the support given to shoots by the Royal Armed Forces, the Air Force, the Navy, the Royal Gendarmerie and the National Security service, which explains the frequency of military and action productions shot in the country.
Shooting in historic sites and monuments
The CCM announces “a symbolic tariff for shooting in historic sites and monuments”. For a period production, this is a line item that, in other territories, is negotiated site by site at rates of an entirely different order.
This facility obviously does not remove the need for site-specific permissions, nor the conservation constraints, particularly on a World Heritage property.
Transport and infrastructure
The CCM also cites reductions granted by Royal Air Maroc on the carriage of freight and personnel, as well as access to modern airports, to the motorway network and to landing strips in desert areas.
That last point matters for shoots in the South: moving heavy equipment to remote locations is what separates a workable schedule from a theoretical one.
What determines whether spend is eligible
Customs and tax facilities do not exempt a production from the rules of the support scheme. Spend enters the rebate base only if it is invoiced by an individual or a legal entity established in Morocco, holding a tax identification number or a trade licence number; and no eligible spend may be settled in cash.
In other words, logistics and accounting are not two separate subjects. The way a freight forwarder, a rental house or a haulier invoices decides what will be reimbursed.
In practice
Three questions to put to a production partner before locking a budget: what share of purchases will actually be covered by the VAT exemption, which customs regime applies to the equipment list under consideration, and who takes charge of the relationship with the freight forwarder. The answers move larger sums than most creative trade-offs.
