Tax-ruling fees boost government coffers by €10 million

The Luxembourg government has generated €10.2 million in revenues as a result of fees introduced for tax rulings in the wake of the LuxLeaks scandal.

Finance minister Pierre Gramegna revealed the figure on Monday in response to a parliamentary question from MP Laurent Mosar.

The revenues have been generated since 2015 when fees were introduced for "advance rulings" from Luxembourg's tax authority, the Administration des Contributions Directes.

The fees, created by the law of 19 December 2014, range from €3,000 to €10,000 per request for an advance ruling, "depending on the complexity of the application and the volume of work".

The number of anticipated tax agreements has steadily declined in Luxembourg since the LuxLeaks revelations by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The publication in November 2014 of hundreds of rulings, prepared by audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on behalf of its clients, exposed Luxembourg's huge tax breaks for major multi-national companies.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the Administration des Contributions Directes made 570 advance rulings (481 favourable, 89 unfavourable) in 2016.

The number was lower than the 726 (599 favourable, 127 unfavourable) recorded in 2015.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said last December that the Luxembourg tax authorities had granted 5,600 rulings between January 2010 and March 2016.