Luxembourg's Tax Administration is currently experiencing a delay of around four to six weeks in processing tax refunds, according to Director Jean-Paul Olinger.
The delay is linked to enhanced security measures introduced by the Tax Administration as part of implementing new European Union regulations on instant payments. As a result, the administration is now verifying the identity of recipients before processing transfers, a step that has been adopted to improve the safety of transactions.
"We are handling an extremely high volume of payments," Olinger explains. "There are 125,000 company files and 380,000 individual files. Naturally, this results in a significant number of refunds. In order to update and secure the bank account information we hold, we have removed outdated details from our systems and are now gradually updating them."
For this reason, the Tax Administration is asking citizens entitled to a tax refund to provide their bank account details (known as a relevé d'identité bancaire, or RIB), which can be submitted using the payment slip sent with their tax notice.
Currently, these bank details must be processed manually, as this is a new procedure. However, Olinger says work is under way to implement a digital solution: "We are working on allowing bank information to be transferred semi-automatically via MyGuichet in the future. Once we reach that stage, the process will become more automated, but we still need to verify the accuracy of the information provided."
It makes no difference whether citizens submit their bank details by post or upload them via myguichet.lu as the processing time remains the same.
"In parallel, we have reinforced our teams to address these delays. The current waiting time of roughly four to six weeks depends on the location – whether in Ettelbruck, Luxembourg City, or Esch. We expect to clear the backlog by this summer, within the next few weeks," Olinger says.
Asked whether the delays could have been anticipated, Olinger points out that the Tax Administration is undergoing a large-scale transformation affecting citizens, businesses, and the administration itself: "We are running numerous projects simultaneously, which means we have to prioritise our efforts. This added complexity can slow down the implementation of certain measures. However, in the long run, these changes will lead to improved services for both citizens and our staff."
