Dealings with the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) are going digital at speed. Returns and payments are already made online. Now notices can also arrive electronically, with full legal effect. The 2025 Finance Act (Loi de Finances) removed an ambiguity in the General Tax Code (CGI) on this point.
What the law said, and what it says now
Article 219-II of the CGI provided that notice could “also” be served electronically, to the address given by the taxpayer. The word “also” suggested that email was only a secondary channel, to be backed up by a conventional notice.
The 2025 Finance Act deleted that word. The text now states that, in addition to the usual methods (hand delivery, registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, bailiff, or tax officers), notice can be served electronically, in accordance with the legislation in force – and that it has the same legal effect as the usual methods.
The same Act also removed the reference to an implementing regulation on keeping the email address. Law No. 43-20 on trust services for electronic transactions and its implementing decree already set the rules for an email address held with a trust service provider.
Why it matters
In tax matters, almost everything turns on deadlines:
30 days to reply to a first notice of adjustment;
30 days to reply to a request for explanations in a review of overall tax position;
time limits for appeals to the commissions;
time limits for replying to requests for information.
These deadlines run from the date the notice is received. If it lands in an inbox nobody checks, the clock still runs. A missed deadline can lead to an ex officio assessment, or make questionable adjustments final.
Risk areas
A former employee’s address: the address given to the DGI when signing up for online services often belongs to an accountant or assistant who has since left.
An overloaded generic inbox: a “contact@” address receiving hundreds of messages a day.
Spam filters: a message from the tax authority automatically sent to junk.
A director of several companies who has given the same personal address for all of them.
A dormant company whose mailbox nobody monitors any more.
Good practice
Check the email address registered in your DGI account now, for each entity.
Use a dedicated address, shared by at least two people (for example the director and the finance manager), rather than a personal one.
Add the tax authority’s domains to your email system’s list of approved senders.
Put a procedure in place: log every notice received, with the date of receipt, the reply deadline and the person responsible.
Update the address whenever your organisation or service provider changes.
Forward any notice to your adviser straight away: 30 days is not long to gather documents and build your case.
What next?
The trend will continue. Your email address is becoming as important to your tax identity as your registered office address. It pays to treat this channel as seriously as registered post.
Our tax and legal team can monitor your deadlines and step in as soon as a notice arrives. To discuss it, contact us.
Sources
Loi de finances n° 60-24 pour l’année budgétaire 2025 (in French) (sgg.gov.ma).
Code général des impôts, articles 145-X et 219-II (in French) (tax.gov.ma).
Loi n° 43-20 relative aux services de confiance pour les transactions électroniques (in French) (sgg.gov.ma).
Direction générale des impôts, note circulaire n° 736 (in French), partie VI, point 5 (tax.gov.ma).
