Luxembourg’s tax amnesty appears to have been profitable, clawing back €30.6m in unpaid taxes in 2016 Pexels

Luxembourg’s tax amnesty appears to have been profitable, clawing back €30.6m in unpaid taxes in 2016 Pexels

From 1 January 2016, Luxembourg launched a two-year grace period for resident tax payers, both individuals and legal entities, to regularize their tax situation by filing a corrective tax return. Under the amnesty, any sanctions would be limited to the payment of the amount of tax due, with a 10% increase applying for the corrective tax returns filled in 2016, and 20% during the year 2017.

Responding to a parliamentary question from MP Serge Wilmes, finance minister Pierre Gramegna said that in 2016, 221 cases were submitted in 2016 while 68 were submitted from January to September 2017.

In 2016, the sum gathered in tax amounted to €30,636,499.70, not including the 10% increase. For the first nine months of 2017, the figure was €5,691,418.70, again not including the 20% increase.

“Unlike other countries, Luxembourg adopted a prudent approach and had not factored the revenues received from this mechanism of fiscal regularisation into the budget,” Gramenga said in his response.