Morocco's exchange instruction lists retirement pensions received in Morocco by foreign nationals and by Moroccans resident abroad among transferable work income. The amount is the pension net of Moroccan tax, settlement is monthly and in arrears, and where payments have lapsed only the last twelve instalments already due may be caught up.
A pension earned in Morocco and paid in Morocco is not, in Moroccan law, money that can simply be sent wherever the pensioner now lives. It is fully due and fully payable, and moving it across the border is a separate permission granted by a separate institution under a separate instrument. Morocco's general exchange instruction grants it, files a retirement pension under work income to do so, and attaches conditions of its own.
Key Takeaways
- The permission comes from the Office des Changes, which is not the central bank.
- Retirement pensions received in Morocco are classified as work income, alongside salaries and professional income.
- The permission reaches foreign nationals and Moroccans resident abroad, and residence is defined by Morocco's tax legislation.
- The transferable amount is the pension net of Moroccan tax, settled monthly and in arrears.
- Where transfers have lapsed, only the last twelve instalments already due may be caught up.
Which instrument decides it, and which institution issues it
The rules here are the Office des Changes', not the central bank's, and the dirham to Australian dollar page sets out how those two institutions divide the work. The Office publishes its rules as the Instruction Générale des Opérations de Change, reissued periodically as a consolidated document; the 2026 edition has been in force since 1 January 2026.
The instruction is organised by the kind of operation rather than by the kind of person. Its third chapter covers current operations, and section 10 of that chapter is headed revenus du travail - work income. That is where a pension is found, which is the first thing worth knowing about the Moroccan answer: the question is not filed under retirement at all.
A pension is work income here
Article 156 defines what counts. The list opens with salaries and wages, including bonuses and gratuities received in Morocco, by foreign nationals and by Moroccans resident abroad recruited directly by a resident entity or seconded to Morocco by a non-resident one. Then, in its own line: "Les pensions de retraite perçues au Maroc par les personnes physiques de nationalité étrangère et les Marocains résidant à l'étranger" - retirement pensions received in Morocco by foreign nationals and by Moroccans resident abroad.
The same article also reaches income from a personal activity or a liberal profession earned by foreign nationals, final settlements paid by Moroccan employers, and severance payments made after a final court decision or a settlement validated by the ministry responsible for employment.
Grouping a pension with a salary has a practical consequence. The rules that follow are written for a recurring monthly payment, and they treat the pension as one.
Who is on which side of the line
The permission is not open to everybody with a Moroccan pension. It reaches foreign nationals, and it reaches Moroccans resident abroad, and both of those are status questions rather than banking ones.
The instruction does not define residence for itself. Its opening chapter defines a résident as a natural person, Moroccan or foreign, considered resident within the meaning of the tax legislation in force. So the exchange rules borrow the tax test, and the answer to who a person is for this purpose is found in Moroccan tax law rather than anywhere in the instruction.
There is one condition in the definition worth reading closely. Immediately after the salary limb, the instruction says that Moroccans resident abroad must show they have carried on a professional activity abroad for a minimum of five years. Where the same section later sets out what a bank must be given, that five-year evidence is required of Moroccans resident abroad recruited directly by a Moroccan public or private entity - the salary case. The pension limb has its own, much shorter document requirement, set out below.
The amount, the rhythm, and the twelve-month tail
The transferable amount for a pension is short to state: the net-of-tax pensions received in Morocco. The salary case in the same section is more elaborate, requiring the figure to be net of tax deductions, retirement and social security contributions, and any other deduction borne by the employee. For professional income the base is the taxable income the tax administration accepted for the year before the transfer, less the corresponding taxes.
Settlement is monthly and in arrears. That is the design, and the instruction then deals with what happens when it has not been followed: where settlements have not been made on that periodicity, the person may settle the arrears of their entitlements in respect of the last twelve monthly instalments already due.
Twelve, and no more. The limb is written about instalments of the entitlement that have already fallen due and have not been settled, so what it caps is how far back a lapsed run of monthly settlements may be caught up. Read against a case: where a pension has been drawn in Morocco for four years and nothing has been transferred, the permission reaches the last twelve monthly instalments that have fallen due, and the thirty-six before them are not within it.
One document, and what it replaces
Before executing a settlement, the bank holding the income must be given documents, and the section lists them limb by limb. Seeing the three limbs side by side is the quickest way to understand where a pension sits.
| Limb | What the bank must be given |
|---|---|
| Retirement pension | Any document evidencing payment of the pension, established by the paying body |
| Salary and wages | A copy of the work contract stamped by the ministry responsible for employment, a secondment contract where relevant, and a salary certificate signed by the employer showing the monthly net figure. Where the contract is still being approved, six months from the first settlement to produce the approved version, failing which the bank suspends settlements and sends the file to the Office des Changes. A Moroccan resident abroad recruited directly by a Moroccan entity supplies, in addition, a residence certificate at the time of recruitment and evidence of five years of professional activity abroad |
| Professional income | The person's own income declaration showing the taxable professional income for the year before the settlements, and the tax administration's receipt |
Against the other two, a pension slip from the paying body is a light requirement. The instruction does not say why, and the difference is left where the text leaves it.
The account route, and a rule pointing the other way
There is a second path, and it is in the instruction's chapter on accounts. Banks are authorised to open foreign-currency accounts and convertible-dirham accounts in the name of foreign nationals, whether resident or not, and of Moroccans resident abroad. The permitted debits on such an account are stated broadly: any settlement in Morocco or destined for abroad, including withdrawals of banknotes.
The same chapter allows a credit that runs the opposite way and is easy to confuse with the arrears rule above. It is about a foreign pension coming into Morocco: a foreign national resident in Morocco may credit such an account with the amounts of retirement pensions repatriated into an ordinary dirham account in their name, in respect of the last twelve months, on production of a copy of the corresponding pension slip, provided the dirham account that held them is at the same bank. Two rules, two directions, and the same number in each.
For contrast, look at what the instruction keeps under its own authorisation. Its opening chapter lists, among the operations that remain subject to the Office des Changes' permission, the opening of accounts abroad by resident Moroccans and the constitution of assets abroad by resident Moroccans. The permissions in this guide are written for people the instruction treats as being outside Morocco; those two are written for people it treats as being inside it.
What this does not settle
Three things sit outside this guide, and one of them is inside the instruction and unresolved there.
The first is whether the five-year professional-activity condition governs the pension limb or only the salary limb. The instruction places the sentence immediately after the salary limb and attaches the five-year certificates to the salary documents, and it does not say more than that. Nothing here decides it.
The second is whether a particular person is a resident under Moroccan tax law, which the exchange rules answer by pointing elsewhere. The third is how a Moroccan pension is treated once it arrives in Australia, which is a question of Australian law and of a person's own circumstances. The guide to finding an accountant covers how to find somebody qualified to answer the third.
The direction of travel is also worth keeping straight. Everything here concerns money leaving Morocco, and the instruction stops at the Moroccan border. What the Australian end of the transfer looks like is not governed by it. The rules for a payment going the other way, into Morocco, including the four cases in which a bank may send one back, are a different part of the same instruction and are covered in sending money to Morocco.
Where to look next
The Moroccan dirham to Australian dollar page carries the live reference rate, and the reverse pair covers money going the other way. For the mechanics of the transfer once it has been authorised, how international transfers work covers the route.
Sources
- Office des Changes, Instruction Générale des Opérations de Change 2026 - chapter III section 10 on work income: article 156's definition including retirement pensions received in Morocco by foreign nationals and Moroccans resident abroad, the net-of-tax basis, monthly settlement in arrears with the twelve-instalment limit, and the documents required for a pension against those required for a salary or professional income. Also chapter I, where a resident is a person considered resident under the tax legislation in force and the opening of accounts abroad and constitution of assets abroad by resident Moroccans remain subject to the Office's own authorisation, and chapter VI on foreign-currency and convertible-dirham accounts, their permitted debits, and the repatriated-pension credit
- Office des Changes, regulation library - the published editions of the instruction, which date the 2026 edition and its predecessors
- Office des Changes, news index - what the Office has published since the 2026 edition took effect, which is an instruction on bureau-de-change activity in June 2026 and a circular on offshore holding companies in August 2026, neither of which touches the current-operations chapter
General information about how another country's exchange rules are written. Not financial advice, not tax advice, and not a statement about any particular person's circumstances. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.
Common questions
Which body decides whether a Moroccan pension can be sent abroad?
The Office des Changes, not the central bank. It issues the Instruction Générale des Opérations de Change, whose 2026 edition has been in force since 1 January 2026, and that instruction is what authorises banks to settle current and capital operations. Bank Al-Maghrib runs monetary policy and the payment infrastructure, which are different questions.
Who is allowed to have a Moroccan pension transferred to them?
The instruction names two categories in the same line: foreign nationals, and Moroccans resident abroad. Residence is not decided by the exchange rules themselves. The instruction defines a resident as a person considered resident under the tax legislation in force, so a person's Moroccan tax position decides which side of the line they are on. A five-year professional-activity condition for Moroccans resident abroad appears in the definition immediately after the salary limb, and the instruction does not say whether it reaches the pension limb.
How much of the pension can be transferred?
The instruction sets the amount as the pension net of tax received in Morocco. For salaries it is more elaborate, requiring the figure to be net of tax, retirement and social security contributions and any other deduction borne by the employee. For a pension the wording is short: the net-of-tax pensions received in Morocco.
What happens if nobody has been transferring it for years?
There is a twelve-month tail and no more. Settlements for work income are made monthly and in arrears, and where they have not been made on that periodicity the instruction allows the person to settle the arrears of their entitlements for the last twelve monthly instalments already due. Anything older than that is not covered by the permission.
What does the bank have to see?
For a pension, one thing: any document evidencing payment of the pension, established by the paying body. That is a much lighter requirement than the salary case in the same section, which calls for a work contract stamped by the ministry responsible for employment, a salary certificate, and for a Moroccan resident abroad a residence certificate and evidence of five years of professional activity abroad.