A French tax resident who opens, holds, uses or closes an account in Morocco must report it to the French tax authorities. Form no. 3916-3916 bis, issued by the finance ministry, is attached every year to the income tax return, with one declaration per account. Information checked on 21 October 2026 on service-public.gouv.fr.
Costs & fees
| Filing form 3916-3916 bis | No amount stated on the official pages read | The form is filed with the income return. Any fees charged by a Moroccan bank or insurer are set by each institution: check with them. |
| Fine per undeclared account (general case) | EUR 1,500 per account | Amount given by service-public.gouv.fr (page F34342, checked on 9 July 2026), which refers to article 1736 IV 2 of the General Tax Code. |
| Fine per undeclared account (State without an agreement against tax fraud and evasion with France) | EUR 10,000 per account | The pages read do not say which category Morocco falls into: check with the tax administration. |
| Surcharge on the tax due on sums held in undeclared accounts | 80% | Provided for by article 1729-0 A of the General Tax Code; according to service-public.gouv.fr, it then replaces the flat fine. |
Timeline
Check whether the obligation applies to you
The obligation covers people who are tax residents in France: individuals, associations and companies that are not commercial in form. The BOFiP refers to the criteria of article 4 B of the General Tax Code: main home or main place of stay in France, professional activity in France, or centre of economic interests in France. It applies to the account holder, the joint holder and anyone holding a power of attorney over the account. The official pages read for this guide set no nationality criterion: what counts is tax residence in France, and an account held in Morocco is an account opened outside France.
List your accounts and contracts held in Morocco
Service-public.gouv.fr names bank accounts, digital asset accounts and life insurance or capitalisation contracts opened abroad. The rule covers accounts opened, held, used or closed during the year for which you declare your income. An account counts as "used" as soon as one credit or debit entry is made; according to the BOFiP, an account held abroad must be reported even with no activity, since 1 January 2019. The pages read make no distinction by currency or account status: a convertible dirham account held in Morocco is an account opened outside France (see also /en/guides/mdm-account-convertible-dirhams-mre-guide-2026).
💡 Tip: A payment account opened abroad is exempt only if three conditions are all met: it is used to pay for online purchases or collect online sales of goods, it is linked to an account opened in France, and annual sales receipts do not exceed 10,000 euros.
Gather the details of each account
The BOFiP describes what the declaration contains: name and address of the institution holding the account, account title, number, nature, purpose, type, and opening or closing date. It also includes the identity of the person filing and of the holder and, where relevant, of the person holding a power of attorney. This information has to be obtained from your bank, insurer or the body that keeps the account, for each account or contract separately. For an account opened by spouses, a single declaration is made for the same account, whether both are holders or one holds a power of attorney over the other's account.
Tick box 8UU on your income tax return
Service-public.gouv.fr gives the route for the online income return: first tick box 8UU of your return. The box may already be ticked if the institution has sent your tax details to the authorities. You then move on to the single form no. 3916-3916 bis, which covers bank accounts, digital asset accounts and life insurance contracts. Filing the income return online is compulsory if your main home has internet access and you are able to file online; paper filing is the alternative when that is not the case.
Complete one 3916-3916 bis form per account
A separate declaration must be filed for each account, contract and investment concerned: two accounts in Morocco mean two declarations. Online, the form is completed within the tax administration's filing service when you submit your income return. For a paper return, form no. 11916 (3916-3916 bis) is presented with its notice on the service-public.gouv.fr page for that form; the form is filled in, dated and signed, one copy per account, and attached to the income return. Service-public.gouv.fr states that the form is available in French only; the paper form comes with an explanatory notice published alongside it on the official pages.
Declare income received in Morocco separately
Form 3916 covers accounts only. Income received outside metropolitan France and the overseas departments by someone resident in France is reported on a different document, form no. 2047 (cerfa 11226), attached to the overall income return. This guide does not cover tax calculation or the tax treaty: our guide at /en/guides/mre-tax-return-avoid-double-taxation-france-morocco deals with that. Both steps happen at the same time, but on separate forms, and each has its own notice on the official pages (the notice for form 2047 is numbered 2047-NOT).
Repeat every year and report closures
Service-public.gouv.fr states that the declaration must be made every year, at the same time as the overall income return. An account in Morocco that is still open is therefore reported again the following year. An account closed during the year is also reported, with its closing date, because the obligation covers accounts opened, held, used or closed during the year. The dates of the income tax campaign are set each year by the tax administration: the calendar is on the "annual income tax return" page of service-public.gouv.fr, which gives the campaign in progress.
In depth
Life insurance and capitalisation contracts. The single form 3916-3916 bis covers bank accounts, digital asset accounts and life insurance contracts taken out outside France. Service-public.gouv.fr states that life insurance contracts and digital asset accounts must also be reported, but under different rules. The BOFiP page read for bank accounts refers to separate guidelines for contracts (BOI-IR-DECLA-20-20), which could not be read for this guide. For a contract taken out in Morocco, the service-public.gouv.fr page and the form's notice are therefore the places to check.
Payment accounts and online accounts. The only exemption provided covers an account used to pay for online purchases or collect online sales of goods, linked to an account opened in France, with sales receipts not exceeding EUR 10,000 a year (the BOFiP adds up all the relevant accounts of the same holder). Service-public.gouv.fr also suggests checking the IBAN of accounts opened with online banks or neobanks: an IBAN that does not start with "FR" points to a foreign account.
Joint accounts, powers of attorney and legal entities. For an account opened by spouses, a single declaration is enough. Associations and non-commercial companies file through their legal representative or an agent, with their results return.
Consequences of not declaring. Besides the fine per account, the BOFiP (version of 26 May 2021) states that sums transferred to or from abroad through an undeclared account are presumed to be taxable income, a presumption the taxpayer may rebut with evidence. The administration may also request information on the origin of the assets. These points come from administrative guidelines and may change: the current version is available on bofip.impots.gouv.fr.
❌ Common mistakes to avoid
- ✕An account in Morocco with no activity during the year still has to be reported: according to the BOFiP, accounts held abroad are declared even if unused, since 1 January 2019.
- ✕Reporting income received abroad (form 2047) does not replace the account declaration: they are two separate forms with different purposes.
- ✕One declaration for several accounts is not enough: the form is completed once per account, contract or investment.
- ✕A power of attorney counts as much as holding the account: according to service-public.gouv.fr, the obligation also applies to a mere proxy holder or joint holder.
- ✕An account closed during the year is still reported for that year, with its closing date.
- ✕Box 8UU may be pre-ticked if the institution has sent your tax details to the administration, but form 3916-3916 bis still has to be completed for each account.
- ✕Form 3916-3916 bis also covers life insurance contracts opened abroad, but these are declared under different rules from bank accounts.
🔗 Official links and resources
Must foreign accounts be declared? (Service-Public)
Reference page: which accounts, who must declare, how, penalties and legal texts.
Declaration of accounts opened, used or closed abroad, cerfa 11916 (Service-Public)
Page for form 3916-3916 bis, with a link to the filing service.
Have you declared your accounts held abroad? (Service-Public)
News item of 18 May 2026: box 8UU, one form per account, reminder of the fines.
Declaration of income received abroad, cerfa 11226 (Service-Public)
Page for form 2047, which is separate from form 3916.
Annual income tax return (Service-Public)
Campaign calendar, online or paper filing, supplementary forms.
BOFiP, BOI-CF-CPF-30-20
Tax administration guidelines on declaring accounts opened, held, used or closed outside France (version of 26 May 2021).
❓ Frequently asked questions
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