Working from Luxembourg as a France resident

At a glance

Rule coverage

What the rules say about Luxembourg

The rules below are the ones most likely to shape a stay in Luxembourg, in plain words and with the source behind each one. Your own report tells you which of them apply to you.

1. Significant issueTax residency

   More than 6 consecutive months in Luxembourg is the second residence trigger

   The second alternative Luxembourg tax residence test is residing in Luxembourg for more than 6 consecutive months, not a 183-day count spread across the year. The period counts even if it overlaps two fiscal years or is interrupted by short absences, and residence is deemed to arise from the first day of the qualifying stay, including retroactively into the prior tax year for anyone arriving in October or later.

2. Significant issueMoving your company

   Running your foreign company's management from Luxembourg makes it Luxembourg tax-resident

   Luxembourg corporate residence is alternative, not cumulative: a registered office or a place of central administration in Luxembourg is enough, and central administration is factual, based on where board and shareholder meetings actually happen and where officers actually decide. A relocating founder who keeps running their foreign company's day-to-day management from a Luxembourg base risks dragging that company into Luxembourg's 23.87 percent tax net and wealth tax on worldwide income, and treaty relief is no longer mechanical since the MLI often replaces the automatic tie-breaker with a competent-authority procedure that can go unresolved for years.

3. Needs checkingPersonal income tax

   The 34-day frontier worker rule is a tax cliff, not a taper

   If you live in Belgium, Germany or France and work for a Luxembourg employer, your treaty lets you work up to 34 days a year outside Luxembourg, teleworking from home, business travel, or training, while your entire salary stays taxable exclusively in Luxembourg. All three thresholds only converged on 34 recently (Belgium from 2022, France from 2023, Germany from 1 January 2024), so older guidance quoting 24, 29 or 19 days is stale. Any part of a day present outside Luxembourg counts as a full day, and breach is a cliff: remuneration for every outside day becomes taxable at home from the very first day worked outside Luxembourg, not merely the days above 34.

4. Needs checkingImmigration and visa

   Third-country nationals must declare arrival within 3 days

   Non-EU nationals who are not family members of an EU citizen must declare arrival at the commune within 3 days of entry, regardless of intended length of stay, or fill in an accommodation form at a hotel for a short visit. That declaration plus the temporary authorisation to stay works as a de facto work permit valid for a maximum of 90 days from the declaration date, and any stay beyond 90 days needs a full residence permit applied for within 3 months of arrival to the General Department of Immigration.

5. Needs checkingSocial security

   Social security tolerates telework up to 49.9 percent, a different meter than tax

   Under the 2023 EU Multilateral Framework Agreement on cross-border telework, signed by Luxembourg, Belgium, France and Germany, an employee teleworking at least 25 percent but less than 50 percent of total working time stays affiliated to the employer's state, Luxembourg. Below 25 percent standard EU Regulation 883/2004 rules keep Luxembourg affiliation, and at 50 percent or more the agreement stops applying and the residence state's social security takes over. This is tracked in percentage of working time over a reference period, a completely different unit and threshold than the 34-day tax rule, so the two meters must be tracked separately.

6. Needs checkingResidency routes

   The salaried worker permit needs a job offer plus a labour market test

   A third-country salaried worker needs a job offer plus an ADEM labour market test: the employer declares the vacancy, and if no suitable candidate emerges within 3 weeks, ADEM issues a certificate authorising the hire. The initial permit runs a maximum of 1 year tied to one profession and sector, then extends up to 3 years for any profession or sector after the first renewal.

What tends to surprise people here

• The 34-day frontier-worker home-office threshold is a tax cliff, not a taper
• No digital nomad visa, though three other residence doors exist
• The 6-month crypto capital-gains exemption carries a EUR 500 speculative cliff

Tax treaty between France and Luxembourg