Tax office delays: 156,000 individuals have been waiting to process their taxes since 2018

At the beginning of 2023, at least 337,000 individuals and 117,000 legal entities were registered at the Luxembourg Tax Office. About half of all the declarations are still waiting to be processed.

Over the past ten years, the number of taxpayers has increased by an average of 4% for individuals and 3% for legal entities, says Pascale Toussing, director of the Tax Office. In 2018, there was a dramatic increase, due to non-resident tax reform.

At the moment, a significant number of tax returns are still pending with the Office. About 228,000 declarations for the last 4 years are still in processing, including 156,000 individual declarations that have not yet been taxed for 2018-2021.

Both taxpayers and file complexity are to blame, Toussing explains. A shortage of resources in the department explains a part of the problem, with only 441 full-time agents now involved in the process.

Creating 500 additional positions between 2022 and 2026 should help alleviate at least some of the administration's understaffing that has accumulated over the past decades.