End of teleworking tax deal could clog roads again

By John Monaghan and Pascal Mittelberger

More cars are likely to clog Luxembourg’s roads from Friday, when the country’s teleworking arrangement with its neighbours for cross-border workers ends.

Commuters coming to work from Germany, France and Belgium will be forced back into the office, so as not to breach the maximum days per year they can work from home without having to pay taxes in both countries.

The rule had been temporarily lifted during the pandemic, but will officially end on Thursday. It means employees living in Germany will again be restricted to 19 days teleworking without tax implications. 

French residents have 29 days, while those from Belgium have 34.

Cross-border employees, who make up half of Luxembourg's workforce, rose by 4.4% over the space of last year, the country’s official statistics agency Statec said in April. Prior to the pandemic, more than 200,000 commuters crossed the border each day in 2019, according to a previous Statec report.

Even now, traffic has been returning to pre-pandemic levels, statistics from Luxembourg’s Road Administration agency show.

A total of 72,000 cars travelled each day in both direction on the A3 near Bettembourg during the last week of April, a slight drop from 2019 levels.

At the Belgian border, 50,500 vehicles on average drove through each day in April, up from 42,000 three years ago. Traffic numbers at the German border, on the A1, were similar in April this year to the same month in 2019.

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