Casablanca » Invest in Luxembourg

Centrally located in Europe and bordering two of the EU’s main consumer markets, France and Germany, Luxembourg is a highly strategic location for European business. The highly international and multilingual country often acts as a bridge between different cultures and business approaches, which facilitates the reach to various European markets from one single location. The economy is strongly export-oriented, and it is easy to recruit staff with the language skills and cross-cultural experience needed for doing business internationally.

With its openness to innovation, diverse population and closeness to technological hotspots in Europe, Luxembourg is also an excellent testbed for innovative products and services and a secure environment for companies wishing to geolocalise and certify their offering for the EU market.

Cooperation between private companies and public research centres is actively encouraged, and research organisations are open to cooperate with companies on product development and tests. Both European and national grants are available for R&D and innovation projects.

Setting up a business in Luxembourg

There are several steps you will need to take to set up a company in Luxembourg : acquiring necessary permits, choosing the suitable legal form, dealing with residence permits, visas and social security affiliations etc.. We have put together a practical guide to walk you through the different steps.

1. Apply for your business permit

All businesses established in Luxembourg must acquire the necessary governmental permits. Commercial, skilled craft and industrial activities as well as certain liberal professions are subject to a business permit.

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2. Define your company’s legal form

Whatever the size and nature of their business, it is crucial for entrepreneurs to choose a legal form that suits their activity (sole proprietorship or company).

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3. Handle immigration issues

Any third-country national (a person who is not an EEA national – i.e. from an EU Member State, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein – or a Swiss Confederation national) planning to stay in Luxembourg for a period exceeding three months (90 days) must apply for a residence permit before entering the territory.

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4. Explore financing and support measures

Companies that establish a sustainable presence in Luxembourg can draw on several financing and support measures that help them expand their activities, develop innovative concepts and products and strengthen their competitiveness.

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5. Learn about taxation

Companies in Luxembourg are subject to corporate tax and have to apply value added tax (VAT) to their products and services. Individuals are taxed based on their personal situation.

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6. Affiliate to the social security system

All companies need to fill in an operating declaration and a declaration of start of employment to the Joint Social Security Centre, which handles the data, registration of affiliations and collection of contributions for the different insurance funds.

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Business creation: information, advice and administrative procedures

Making entrepreneurship easy is a Luxembourg priority. The House of Entrepreneurship offers free information and personalised advice to aspiring entrepreneurs and managers of established businesses on topics such as the creation, sale or acquisition of a company, in particular in the area of right of establishment, and legal and tax matters.

Detailed information and required forms covering a large number of administrative matters can be found on Luxembourg’s business portal Guichet.lu.

Download the complete brochure “How to set up a business in Luxembourg”