Your wholesaler announces a price rise on lemonades and carbonated water from 1 January, with no change to VAT and no change to his own trade margin. This is not your supplier’s decision: it is the internal consumption tax, paid upstream by the manufacturer or the importer, reaching you already built into the purchase price. You never declare it and you never pay it over, yet it passes through your till and it decides part of your margin.
Five things that matter
- You neither declare nor pay the TIC. It is settled upstream by the manufacturer or the importer, and it reaches you already included in the purchase price.
- Customs handles it, not the DGI. The governing text is dahir n° 1-77-340, and it is the customs administration that manages and audits it.
- It sits inside the VAT base. VAT is therefore computed on a price that already contains the TIC, which amplifies every movement of the tax.
- Scope is limited to a few product families: tobacco, lemonades, carbonated and mineral waters, liquids for electronic cigarettes, related tobacco products and products containing sugar.
- 2026 is the final phase of the reform opened by the 2022 finance act, and fiscal marking extends to new products on 1 January.
1. A tax paid upstream, never by the retailer
This is the point most shopkeepers get wrong, and it deserves to be stated bluntly. The internal consumption tax falls due when the product is manufactured or imported. By the time the goods reach your stockroom, the tax has already been paid by somebody else, and it is buried inside the price your supplier invoices to you.
| The question | The answer | What it changes for you |
|---|---|---|
| Who pays it | The manufacturer or the importer | You have no return of any kind to file |
| Which administration | Customs, not the DGI | A TIC question is not settled at the tax office counter |
| Which text | Dahir n° 1-77-340 | The regime sits apart from the General Tax Code |
| Where you see it | Inside the purchase price | It almost never appears on a separate line |
That split explains a common frustration. A trader who takes a TIC question to the tax administration is knocking on the wrong door: the subject is a customs one. Knowing this saves you several pointless trips, and it stops you believing you have forgotten an obligation that never applied to you in the first place.
2. The products that fall within scope
The scope of this tax is in no way universal: it targets specific families of products, and anything not on the list is simply not concerned. If you run a grocery or a mini-market, look above all at the drinks and tobacco shelves.
- Tobacco of every kind.
- Lemonades, carbonated waters and mineral waters of every brand.
- Liquids intended for electronic cigarettes.
- Related tobacco products.
- Products containing sugar.
One important clarification before you go hunting for a rate. The amounts are public and settled only for tobacco, and they are given below. For every other family on the list, do not copy a figure you heard somewhere else: ask your supplier, who actually pays the tax, or ask the customs administration for the applicable rate. An approximate amount is worth less than no amount at all.
Note too that the list evolves with successive finance acts. A product outside the scope one year can enter it the next, and that is exactly what happened to electronic cigarette liquids and to products containing sugar.
3. Why the TIC inflates your VAT as well
Here is the mechanism that surprises people most, and the one that costs money when it is ignored. The TIC is not added after VAT: it is already inside the price on which VAT is computed. Every dirham of internal consumption tax therefore drags a little VAT along with it.
- The product leaves the factory or the port with a base price.
- The internal consumption tax is added to it, borne by the manufacturer or the importer.
- The total so obtained forms the base on which VAT is then computed.
- The price invoiced to you therefore contains the TIC, and then the VAT resting on it.
- Your trade margin applies on top of all that, on an already loaded purchase price.
The practical consequence fits in one sentence: a rise in the TIC does not pass through to your selling price dirham for dirham, it passes through slightly amplified. If you keep the same retail price after an upstream rise, you lose more than the amount of the tax alone, you also lose the VAT it dragged onto your purchase cost.
An upstream rise never passes through on its own
The real risk for you is not a tax risk, it is a commercial one. When the tax goes up on 1 January, your old stock and your replenishments no longer cost the same, and your till software keeps displaying the old retail price until somebody changes it. Every pack and every bottle sold at the old price with the new cost eats your margin in silence. Review your selling prices on the affected families as soon as the supplier invoice changes, not three months later when the shelf margin finally raises the alarm.
4. 2026, the last phase of the reform and wider fiscal marking
The 2022 finance act opened a multi-year trajectory on tobacco, with steps announced in advance. 2026 is its final phase, which means the step planned for this year is the last of the programme, not the start of a new series.
| Tobacco parameter | 2022 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Specific quotity | 100 dirhams | 550 dirhams |
| Minimum perception per 1,000 cigarettes | 710.2 dirhams | 953 dirhams |
The second change in 2026 is administrative but highly visible on the shelf. From 1 January 2026, fiscal marking extends to related tobacco products, disposable electronic cigarettes, vaping liquids, tobacco-free nicotine substitutes and products containing sugar. In practice, these products must carry a fiscal mark, and an unmarked item becomes an item you should not accept on delivery.
For a retailer, marking is an opportunity as much as a constraint: it is the simplest way to tell regular goods from smuggled goods, without having to interpret a rate or a customs nomenclature.
Mistakes to avoid
- Taking a TIC question to the DGI when it belongs to the customs administration.
- Believing a retailer has to file a return or pay the tax over personally.
- Computing VAT on a price stripped of the TIC, when the tax sits inside the base.
- Keeping the same retail price on the shelf after an upstream rate increase.
- Accepting on delivery a product subject to fiscal marking but not marked.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to declare the TIC anywhere?
No. The tax is due from the manufacturer or the importer, upstream of your business. You bear it economically inside your purchase price, but you have no return to file and no payment to make in respect of it.
Can I recover the TIC the way I recover VAT?
No, the two follow different logics. VAT is deductible because it is invoiced separately at every stage. The TIC is a cost built into the purchase price of the goods: it follows the fate of your purchase cost and is recovered only through the selling price you set yourself.
Where can I find the exact rate on drinks or sugary products?
From your supplier, who actually pays the tax and knows the amount applied to each reference, or from the customs administration. Do not rely on a figure heard from a fellow trader: rates vary by product and change with the finance acts.
Does fiscal marking create a new obligation for me?
Your practical obligation is to check on receipt. From 1 January 2026, related tobacco products, disposable electronic cigarettes, vaping liquids, tobacco-free nicotine substitutes and products containing sugar fall under marking. An unmarked carton should be refused on the spot or reported to the supplier in writing.
What to take away
Hold on to three things and you have covered the subject. The TIC asks nothing of you, because it is paid long before you and by somebody else. It sits inside the VAT base, so every rate movement reaches your purchase cost slightly amplified. And it moves with the finance acts, 2026 being the last step of the trajectory opened in 2022 on tobacco. The only action that falls to you is a commercial one: watch supplier invoices on tobacco, drinks and sugary products, and reprice those families the day the cost changes.
Sources
The figures and rules quoted above come from these pages, read on the date given in the article.
- Moroccan Tax Administration, 2026 General Tax Code
- Ministry of Economy and Finance, Taxes in brief, read 1 September 2026
Your purchase prices tracked reference by reference
BelloPOS records the purchase price of every item and compares it with the selling price, through the purchases module in the Go licence: you see immediately which references have lost margin after an upstream rise.
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