The study, presented in Casablanca on Friday, October 16, found that only 24% of responses correctly identified the tax treatment of the food products examined, while 19% were incorrect. The findings point to widespread uncertainty about a tax built into the prices consumers pay every day.
Titled “Who knows about VAT in Morocco? Social disparities and the tax treatment of food products,” the study was presented at a research seminar on tax expenditures and the contribution of empirical approaches, organized by the Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences in Casablanca.
The research was conducted by Youssef Bouazizi of the National School of Business and Management in Meknes, part of Moulay Ismail University, alongside Nouhaila El Mansour, Noura Ibrahan and Fouzi Mourji of Hassan II University of Casablanca’s Aïn Chock Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences.
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The researchers examined the gap between VAT’s economic weight and how well households understand which products are subject to the tax and at what rates.
The issue is particularly relevant in Morocco, where food accounts for more than 38% of household spending. The tax treatment of everyday groceries therefore affects a substantial share of family budgets.
The data came from the French-German research project Tax Expenditures and the Fiscal Contract (TEFISCON), conducted with support from the Laboratory of Applied Statistics for Analysis and Research in Economics (LASAARE). The broader survey collected 2,400 completed questionnaires between July and September 2025. The module examining VAT knowledge covered 594 respondents in Casablanca and nearby areas.
Trained interviewers conducted face-to-face interviews in Moroccan Darija. After receiving a common explanation of VAT and its different rates, participants were asked to identify the tax treatment of eight food products. The applicable rates were disclosed only after their answers had been recorded.
Five products were classified as having no positive VAT rate: bread, poultry, milk, onions and tomatoes, and other vegetables. The remaining three products were subject to positive rates: sugar at 8%, and cooking oil and pasta at 10% each.
The researchers cautioned that classifying a product as having a 0% rate in their analysis does not necessarily mean it is legally subject to a zero rate. Its tax status may instead reflect an exemption or a transaction outside the scope of VAT.
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To compare responses, they developed an accuracy index ranging from zero to one, giving equal weight to identifying products without a positive rate and correctly identifying numerical tax rates. The average sub-score was 0.354 for the first group, compared with just 0.127 for products subject to positive rates.
Only 24% of answers were correct
The results show that uncertainty, rather than incorrect assumptions, was the main feature of consumers’ limited VAT knowledge. Nearly 57% of answers were “I don’t know,” compared with 24% correct answers and 19% incorrect ones. Among the numerical rates respondents actually provided, 55.9% matched the researchers’ reference rates.
The overall scores reflected the same pattern. Some 39.9% of observations had a score of zero, while 76.7% of respondents scored 0.4 or less. The average index stood at 0.240.
Knowledge varied considerably by product. Correct responses reached 47.1% for vegetables other than onions and tomatoes, and 45.3% for onions and tomatoes. The figures fell to 38.7% for bread, 23.9% for poultry and 21.7% for milk.
Results were weaker for products subject to positive VAT rates. Only 18.2% of respondents correctly identified the rate for oil and 17.8% for pasta. For sugar, the figure was just 2.2%.
“I don’t know” remained the most common answer for six of the eight products. For onions and tomatoes, it accounted for 48.5% of responses, while the figure for other vegetables was 48%.
Income and education shape tax awareness
The study also found differences between demographic groups. Women scored 5.8 percentage points lower than men on the knowledge index and reported uncertainty levels 9.6 points higher.
Age was associated with knowledge in less consistent ways. Compared with respondents aged 20 to 29, those aged 40 to 49 scored 6.3 points higher. Reported uncertainty was 11.5 points lower among people aged 30 to 39 and 9.4 points lower among those aged 40 to 49. Older groups did not show a comparable advantage.
The household head’s level of education was also associated with greater VAT knowledge. Each additional year of schooling corresponded to a 0.4-point increase in the score and a 0.7-point decrease in reported uncertainty.
Income differences were more pronounced. Compared with respondents in the lowest income quintile, those in quintiles Q2 to Q5 recorded accuracy scores that were 9.3 to 17 percentage points higher, while their uncertainty levels were 11.4 to 32.4 points lower. The researchers noted that the improvement was not uniform across all income groups.
The findings show statistical associations, not proof of cause and effect. The analysis was based on 582 complete observations and accounted for several household and respondent characteristics.
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Household phone ownership did not support the assumption that greater potential access to information necessarily leads to better knowledge of tax rules.
An increase of one standard deviation in phone density, equivalent to about 0.34 additional device per household member, was associated with a roughly 1.9-point decrease in the knowledge score, at the 10% significance level. No statistically significant relationship was found with reported uncertainty.
The product-level analysis produced mixed results. Higher phone density was associated with a 4- to 12-point decline in recognition of the five products without a positive VAT rate, but a 4- to 6-point increase for sugar, oil and pasta.
The authors suggested that general information about VAT may circulate more easily than details of the rules applying to individual products. They cautioned against drawing firm conclusions, however, because both phone numbers and the proportion of minors were measured relative to household size.
The presence of minors was also associated with the results. A 10-percentage-point increase in their share of household members corresponded to a roughly 1.4-point decline in the knowledge score and a 1.9-point increase in uncertainty. This relationship was mainly observed for bread, poultry and the two vegetable categories. No significant link was found for sugar, oil or pasta.
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Researchers call for clearer information for shoppers
The researchers recommend making the applicable tax rules easier for consumers to find and understand. Their proposals include regularly updated official guides organized by food category, clearly distinguishing products subject to positive VAT rates from those that are not.
Displaying the information on store shelves or including it on receipts could be tested before any wider rollout. The authors also suggest short informational content in Darija, distributed through local channels alongside digital tools.
They recommend evaluating these measures experimentally to identify the most effective formats. The aim is to make tax rules easier to understand and access during everyday shopping.
The study has several limitations. Its sample, drawn from Casablanca and nearby areas, is not representative of all Moroccan households. The data were collected during a single period, and some responses may reflect tax rules that applied before the VAT reform.
The researchers therefore call for a national probability-based survey, complemented by experiments testing different communication methods. Such work would help measure VAT knowledge across Moroccan households more accurately and assess how best to narrow the gaps between consumer groups.
