The government expects to introduce legislation to reform property taxes in late 2024 and a levy on empty properties in early 2025, Luxembourg’s finance minister has told parliament.
, the finance minister (CSV), said that “the internal affairs ministry is in the process of finalising, as a matter of priority, government amendments to bill 8082 relating particularly to property tax (impôt foncier) and land usage tax (impôt à la mobilisation de terrains). These amendments are expected to be tabled towards the end of this year.”
At the same time, Roth said, the government is in the process of upgrading its computer systems to facilitate electronic tax notifications. “As the previous government did not deploy IT tools permitting the operation of a national tax on unoccupied housing units (impôt national sur la non-occupation de logements), the amendments relating to the implementation of the aforementioned tax can only be started at the beginning of next year.”
“In the meantime, the technical preparatory work that is essential for establishing a national register of buildings and housing will continue to be carried out” by the internal affairs ministry and Land Registry and Topography Administration (Administration du cadastre et de la topographie), Roth stated.
The current property tax system dates back to the 1930s. Property tax reform was part of the 2018 government coalition agreement but was not completed before the 2023 general election. A national register of occupied and unoccupied homes and a tax on empty dwellings was part of the .
Roth was responding to a parliamentary from the opposition Green party MPs and on 2 May 2024. Roth’s reply was a joint response with the housing minister (DP) and internal affairs minister (CSV).
Affordable housing
Tanson and Bausch had asked what lessons the government drew from an International Monetary Fund review of the grand duchy’s economy released earlier this year. In its 26 March 2024 report, to find measures to increase housing supply, such as leveraging investment in social and affordable housing and moves to cut red tape.
In the parliamentary response, Roth pointed to the “” announced on 31 January 2024. The government allocated €480m to acquire 800 housing units from 2024-2027, and budgeted €315m in 2024 for the construction of affordable housing units by the National Low-Cost Housing Administration (Société nationale des habitations à bon marché), Housing Fund (Fonds du logement) and a special affordable housing development fund run with local authorities (Fonds spécial pour le soutien au développement du logement).
Work on “administrative simplification, to build more and faster”, Roth stated, “is currently in progress.”