One of the most asked questions about working remotely is how you deal with all the legal paperwork. It was my first question when I started too. I’ll make sure to respond to all question around this topic. I guess it’s stopping a lot from starting in the remote world, so I’ll try to make all questions fade away.
First advice: get an accountant. They are worth the money you give them. And you can free your mind from all this stuff and focus on something else more worthwhile.
This post is part of the Legal series where we talk about the legal side of working remotely from Morocco. Laws, banking, accounting, taxes, etc… We cover them all.
Find more articles like this one in the Legal category.
When you work remotely, you need to create a company. This is because you’re no longer an employee as your employer do not have a legal entity in Morocco.
For simplicity. Let’s call your company MY COMPANY, and the remote company you’re working with, REMOTE EMPLOYER.
When you create a company, you will be an employee of your own company MY COMPANY, you’re not an employee of REMOTE EMPLOYER. The REMOTE EMPLOYER is a client of MY COMPANY. Putting it differently, MY COMPANY is doing services for REMOTE EMPLOYER and getting paid for it. I hope it’s clearer now.
When creating a company, you need to chose the type of it. The most known type is S.A.R.L, which stands for Société à Responsabilité Limitée. And it’s the equivalent of an LLC.
But this isn’t the one you need. As you’ll need at least two founders to create a SARL company. What you’re searching for is called SARL AU. Which means in French, SARL à Associé Unique. A one man LLC. In this type, you’re the only founder with 100% shares.
To create a company, you need multiple information. A company name, the type of business you’ll be doing (In case of remote working: Exportation de services informatique), an address, shareholders (in this case only you) and a capital. As of the time of writing this, the minimum capital is 10.000dh in Morocco.
There are countless companies who can help you create your company. And even your accountant can do this for you. They take care of all paperwork and all you need to provide is your desired name and a copy of your identity card.
For the address, these companies (and you accountant) can rent you an address to use for your business. You can’t use your personal address as it needs to be a business address.
Note: It seems there is a new service to create a company completely online. If anyone tried it before and want to share a feedback. Please contact me.
This process usually takes between 7-15 days. Once done, you’ll receive a bunch of papers that you need to keep safe. You should now have multiple IDs for your company. One of them is the ICE, a unique code used to identify your company everywhere.
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10 responses to “Creating the perfect legal entity to work remotely from Morocco”
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Hi Ahmed, thank you for the great content on your blog, it’s been so helpful.
I have one question though, I’m thinking about the legal type to choose for my upcoming company, and I was thinking about EI (entreprise individuelle, ou personne physique), because it has less taxes. But I see you are suggesting a SARL AU, what are the reasons you picked this type?
Thanks again,
Hello Hicham, I’m happy you liked the content. I hope it’s been helpful for you.
For EI, there is no differentiation between your properties and the company’s ones. If you want to grow the company in the future, you’re basically putting yourself open in the fire. All it takes is one error to lose everything. I personally don’t like that.
And about taxes, you’ll be paying the IR directly. You can see a detailed post about taxes here https://remotema.mystagingwebsite.com/2019/09/02/understanding-company-taxation-in-morocco/.
There are ways to optimize your taxes, legally. And in some cases, you’ll end up paying less in SARL AU than in EI. Your accountant can give you the best solution that suits your case 🙂
Thank you
[…] Here is an article that covers this. […]
Hello, in another Legal post (this one : https://remotema.mystagingwebsite.com/2021/04/08/is-it-better-to-be-an-employee-or-to-create-your-company-as-a-contractor-freelancer/) You said that as a remote worker you can be either an employee or a contractor/freelancer, where in the first case you don’t have to worry about taxes, the company deals with them. However, what I understand from this post is that you have to create a company if you’re a remote worker ? or did I misunderstand ? Is this post only relevent for people who work as contractors/freelancers ?
Hello Fatima-Ezzahara,
Indeed, this depends on the company hiring you. If they have a local Moroccan company (or using a service for that), they can hire you as an employee. Otherwise, the only solution is to create a company on your own.
I hope that helps.
Hello ! Back again for more questions. I’ve been using the auto-entrepreneur status for a year now, and thinking about creating a company because of the profit limit. Can a company have multiple types of business ? Let’s say I work with a tech company, but I also have a personal blog and want to set up an e-shop, can that be encompassed in the same company where I’m the founder ?
Hey,
Yes, it can. When you create a company, you can specify the “domains” you’ll work on. There is no limit, so you can specify anything you want.
If you want to add a new domain after creating the company, that’s also possible. Your accountant will help you with that.
Good luck.