Tax representatives for VAT

A foreign company that supplies goods (following a sale) from Luxembourg or that purchases and receives goods in Luxembourg must declare its transactions to the Registration Duties, Estates and VAT Authority (AED). If it is not established nor registered for Luxembourg VAT, instead of registering itself, it may appoint an approved Luxembourg tax representative that, after accepting the mission, will fulfill the VAT obligations on its behalf. This possibility is available to taxable persons established in the tax territory of the European Union, as well as outside of it.

A list of tax representatives approved for VAT is available below:

 

If you would like your company to appear in the list above, please let us know by using the contact form.

The Luxembourg tax representative must hold special accreditation with assignment of a specific VAT number. The tax representative will use this specific VAT number for the transactions of foreign taxable persons that it represents, and it will declare all their transactions in one single monthly VAT return for all the represented companies.

The appointment of a tax representative is possible for certain types of flows only. It should be noted that there are two types of tax representation in Luxembourg: tax representation for goods to import and tax representation for goods in a VAT suspensive arrangement. An operator wishing to act as a tax representative for the two types of activities must hold two accreditations and two separate specific VAT numbers.

Tax representation for goods to import
(Article 66bis of the LTVAL)

A duly approved Luxembourg tax representative may be appointed by a foreign company for transactions involving goods to import into Luxembourg.

To be valid, the tax representative must accept the mission prior to importing the goods and must act as importer of the goods.

The tax representative must have effective material control over the goods declared throughout the entire duration of the transactions for which it has been designated as tax representative. In practice, only logistics operators and/or customs representatives can be duly approved as tax representatives.

The tax representative for VAT can declare the following transactions on behalf of foreign companies:

• imports of goods
• subsequent supplies of goods: national or intra-Community supplies of goods, or the export of these goods
• the transactions on these goods made for the taxable person represented.

For example: a Swiss company wishes to import and sell goods, after storage, from Luxembourg. The importation and subsequent supplies of the goods may be declared in Luxembourg by the tax representative of the Swiss company.

Tax representation for goods in a VAT suspensive arrangement (Article 60bis of the LTVAL)

A duly approved Luxembourg tax representative may be appointed by a foreign company for transactions involving goods to be placed in or removed from a VAT suspensive arrangement.

In practice, the approved operator holding an authorization delivered by the Customs and Excise Administration for the management of the VAT suspensive procedure can be approved as tax representative. To obtain its accreditation as tax representative, the approved operator must request the allocation of a specific VAT number in its application to the Customs and Excise Administration for an accredited operator for suspensive arrangements.

The tax representative for VAT can declare, on behalf of a foreign company, the following transactions:

• supplies of goods, intra-Community acquisitions and imports of goods to be placed in a VAT warehouse arrangement
  For example: a Belgian company purchases goods from a French supplier that are delivered in a VAT warehouse in Luxembourg. The intra-Community acquisition of goods in Luxembourg can be declared by the approved operator acting as tax representative of the Belgian company.

• intra-Community supplies and acquisitions of Union goods intended to be placed in a free zone
  For example: a German company purchases goods from a Spanish supplier, that are delivered in the free zone of the airport. The intra-Community acquisition of goods in Luxembourg can be declared by the approved operator acting as the tax representative of the German company.

• transactions linked to the removal of goods from a VAT suspensive arrangement.
  For example: a Belgian company sells and delivers goods to a Norwegian customer from a tax warehouse located in Luxembourg. The exempt supply of goods can be declared by the accredited operator acting as the tax representative of the Belgian company.