Luxembourg – New VAT obligations for logistic companies

The new article 70 bis of the Luxembourg VAT Law came into force on July 1, 2021. It imposes new VAT obligations to logistic companies.

Who is concerned ? 

The concerned companies are the ones who operate a warehouse or a logistic storage platform in Luxembourg. 

Which goods are concerned ? 

These new obligations concern goods stored in Luxembourg that meet the following four cumulative conditions : 

• They are owned by a taxable person who is established outside the European Union ; 
• They have been imported into Luxembourg from a third country ; 
• They are intended to be sold or transferred to another Member State ; 
• They haven’t been sold nor transferred within the European Union since their introduction in Luxembourg. 

What are the new obligations ? 

If these conditions are met, logistic companies will have the following obligations :    

• Obligation to identify the owner of the goods and to ensure their identity 

• Obligation to keep at the disposal of the VAT authorities the following information concerning the stored goods  : their origin, their nature, their quantity, their holding and the identity of the owner of the goods. This information must be kept for a period of ten years following the year of importation. 

• Obligation to inform by any means the owners of the goods of their VAT obligations. In order to fulfil this obligation, we provide to concerned logistics companies our factsheet Logistics and VAT in Luxembourg, which can be downloaded and communicated by any means to your customers, by keeping a proof of transmission.