Bookkeeping prices in Luxembourg (2026)

A headline retainer of €280 HT/month with an active SARL books at €327,60 TTC once TVA 17 % is added — always compare quotes on the TTC line because some fiduciaires publish HT-only figures.

Format drivers:

• Hourly versus retainer — an hourly engagement suits one-off catch-up or pre-audit work; a retainer is cheaper once the company files TVA monthly and runs a stable payroll
• Payroll scope — adding payroll for one CDI employee adds €40–€70/month to a bookkeeping retainer
• Reporting depth — a monthly management report with budget-versus-actual adds €60–€120/month over standard postings
• Entity type — SARL-S carries the same compliance as SARL; SA demands annual approval by a réviseur d'entreprises agréé and pushes the retainer above €450/month

Five concrete factors drive most of the spread between a €150 and a €400 monthly retainer.

The five drivers that matter:

• Transaction volume. A fiduciaire typically budgets 10 to 15 minutes per outgoing invoice and 8 to 12 minutes per purchase invoice. A business at 40 invoices per month sits in the €180 retainer band; one at 150 invoices is already at €320 to €400.
• Payroll headcount. Each employee adds €28–€45/month once the DRS (Déclaration de retenue à la source) and the CCSS affiliation are in scope. Cross-border employees (frontaliers) from Belgium, France or Germany add an extra €15–€25/month because of bilateral tax coordination.
• TVA periodicity. Quarterly TVA filings are cheaper than monthly. Above €620 000 turnover, monthly filing becomes mandatory and the retainer steps up by about 15 %.
• Cash tracking needs. Clients who want weekly cash-flow statements or project-level analytics sit above the standard retainer. Expect €60–€150/month extra for dashboard work.
• Legacy clean-up. First-year engagements on a SARL with two prior years of backlog start at €1 200–€2 400 of catch-up fees before the routine retainer begins.

Read the engagement letter line by line — scope drift is the single biggest source of year-end surprises in fiduciaire billing.

Included in a typical €280/month SARL retainer:

• Monthly posting of sales and purchase invoices (up to 80/month)
• Bank reconciliation on a single operating account
• Quarterly TVA declaration via MyGuichet.lu
• Intrastat and European sales-list filings where relevant
• Monthly payroll for up to three employees, including CCSS declaration
• Annual balance sheet, P&L, notes and deposit at the RCS
• One clarification call per month

Usually not included — expect a separate line:

• Annual corporate-tax return (IRC, ICC, IF) — €350–€900 once a year
• Transfer-pricing file for a holding structure — €2 500–€6 000
• Réviseur d'entreprises agréé mandate for SA or larger SARL — €2 500–€8 000/year billed separately
• CCSS or ITM audit support — billed at the hourly rate
• Catch-up work on prior-year backlog — quoted as a separate package
• Incorporation or statutory changes — €1 200–€2 500 per notarial act coordinated

Red flags in a retainer quote:

• No volume cap — a truly open-ended retainer hides its real margin
• No mention of the software licence or bookkeeping platform
• A retainer that bundles the annual tax return "for free" — usually means the tax work gets done on autopilot without tax-planning input

Luxembourg has a dense compliance calendar even for a small SARL. A fiduciaire worth its retainer runs these filings on time without reminders.

The recurring calendar:

• Monthly or quarterly TVA filing and payment — deadline on the 15th of the second month following the period (quarterly) or the 15th of the following month (monthly)
• CCSS social-security declaration — by the 10th of the following month
• Monthly payroll slips — delivered before the last working day
• Annual balance sheet filed at the RCS (Registre de Commerce et des Sociétés) — within 7 months of year-end
• Annual corporate-tax return (IRC, ICC, IF) — submitted to the Administration des contributions directes by 31 December of the following year
• Annual Intrastat and EG sales list where relevant

Mandatory infrastructure:

• Chart of accounts — LU standardised chart (Plan comptable normalisé) since 2011
• eCDF filings — balance sheet and P&L deposited electronically via eCDF
• BCE (Belgian) or CCSS (LU) registration for cross-border employees
• Autorisation d'établissement of the fiduciaire itself, verifiable on the Ministère de l'Économie register

If the candidate fiduciaire cannot quote the current TVA filing deadline from memory, keep looking.

Bookkeeping and accounting services are taxed at the TVA standard rate of 17 % in Luxembourg with no access to the super-reduced 3 % rate. The rate applies uniformly whether the client is an SARL, an auto-entrepreneur, a holding or a private individual engaging a fiduciaire for personal tax work.

Rate in practice:

• LU company client engaging a LU fiduciaire: TVA 17 % invoiced, deductible by the client as input TVA
• Private individual engaging a fiduciaire for their personal tax return: TVA 17 %, non-deductible
• Cross-border B2B (LU fiduciaire invoicing a Belgian SA for example): reverse charge, TVA not invoiced in LU but self-assessed by the recipient

What a compliant invoice shows:

• Fiduciaire's TVA number and OEC registration number
• Net amount, TVA at 17 %, gross amount
• Period covered (monthly or quarterly)
• Scope statement matching the engagement letter
• Autorisation d'établissement reference where required

Rate comparison on a €3 000 annual package:

Any fiduciaire quoting bookkeeping services at 3 % TVA has mis-read the rule — ask for written confirmation before signing.

Fiduciaire pricing is notoriously opaque until you standardise the brief. Three firms quoting on the same information will land within ±15 % of each other; bigger spreads trace back to scope misreadings.

The six checks that matter:

• Named software and platform. BOB, Sage BOB, Odoo Accounting or an in-house tool. Each has a different licence structure. Ask who pays the licence and whether it sits inside or outside the retainer.
• Volume cap. A retainer should state a cap in invoices per month (for example 80 in, 80 out) and the unit rate beyond.
• OEC registration and Autorisation d'établissement. Both public — verify on the OEC website and the Ministère de l'Économie register. Unregistered bookkeepers carry criminal and civil exposure to the client.
• Professional indemnity insurance. Declared on the engagement letter. Minimum coverage for a small-company engagement is €1 000 000 per claim.
• Succession policy. Who covers your file if the partner leaves? A solo fiduciaire without a back-up clause is a single point of failure.
• Exit terms. Three-month notice is standard. Any retainer demanding twelve-month commitment without cause is outside LU market practice.

A clean briefing pack:

• Legal form, year of incorporation, NACE code
• Current-year expected turnover and headcount
• Latest annual accounts and TVA returns (two years)
• Current software and opening balances export
• Payroll profiles and frontalier breakdown
• Specific needs — tax planning, management reporting, audit support