The Income Tax Act Asks Two Questions in French and Answers Neither; the Answers Are in a German Statute of 1934
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Haiti on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
147 exceptions recorded across 54 countries · none match Haiti to Luxembourg · When you become a tax resident
Article 2 of the Act of 4 December 1967 makes a natural person a resident taxpayer if they have their domicile fiscal or their séjour habituel in the Grand Duchy, and a resident taxpayer is taxed on worldwide income while a non-resident is taxed only on Luxembourg-source income. The Act does not say what either term means. The definitions are in the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934, which is still in force, is still printed in German, and gives them in paragraphs 13 and 14: a person has a Wohnsitz where they keep a dwelling in circumstances suggesting they will keep and use it, and a gewöhnlicher Aufenthalt where they stay in circumstances showing the stay is not merely temporary. Then comes the hard edge: unlimited tax liability always arises where the stay in the country lasts longer than six months, and in that case the liability extends back over the first six months as well.
At a glance
- Test for residence
- Domicile fiscal or séjour habituel in the Grand Duchy
Article 2(1) of the Act of 4 December 1967, which sets the test and leaves both terms undefined.
- Where the terms are defined
- Paragraphs 13 and 14 of the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934, in German
The Legilux record of that Act tags its expression as French while the text it serves is German throughout.
- The day count
- More than six months in the country always creates unlimited liability
Paragraph 14(1), second sentence, of the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934.
- What happens to the first six months
- The liability reaches back over them
Paragraph 14(1), third sentence. Crossing the threshold is retrospective, not prospective.
- What a resident is taxed on
- Worldwide income
Article 2(2) of the Act of 4 December 1967.
- What a non-resident is taxed on
- Luxembourg-source income only
Article 2(3), which sends the reader to article 156 for what counts as Luxembourg-source.
Requirements
- A dwelling kept in circumstances suggesting you will keep and use it, or
- A stay showing you are not in the country merely temporarily, or
- A stay in the country lasting longer than six months, which always triggers unlimited liability
Country-level policy
The Act of 24 February 1984 settles which language does what, and the answers do not line up the way a newcomer expects. The national language is Luxembourgish. Legislative acts and their implementing regulations are drafted in French, and where a translation accompanies them only the French text is authentic. In administrative, contentious and judicial matters French, German and Luxembourgish may all be used, and where a request is written in one of the three the administration must reply in that language so far as it can. What follows is concrete. The immigration Act, the nationality Act and the resources regulation are quoted in French, because French is the language they are law in. The tax residence test is quoted in German, because the 1934 statute that defines it has never been rewritten. And naturalisation is tested in Luxembourgish, which is neither.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Haiti
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«(1) Les personnes physiques sont considérées comme contribuables résidents si elles ont leur domicile fiscal ou leur séjour habituel au Grand-Duché. Les personnes physiques sont considérées comme contribuables non résidents si elles n’ont pas leur domicile fiscal ni leur séjour habituel au Grand-Duché et si elles disposent de revenus indigènes au sens de l’article 156.»Two alternative tests, either of which is enough, and neither of which this Act defines.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Luxembourg's direct tax administration. It publishes a textes coordonnés edition of the loi modifiée du 4 décembre 1967 concernant l'impôt sur le revenu, one PDF per year back to 2015, at impotsdirects.public.lu/fr/legislation/LIR.html, with the asset itself under /dam-assets/fr/legislation/LIR/. Each edition states the date it is in force at and, separately, the date it was last updated. It is the only current coordinated text of that Act available anywhere, because Legilux serves no consolidation of it after 2011.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It says on the first page of every edition that the texts are not official and were produced for information. Legal value lies with the Mémorial. It carries only the instruments the administration applies: the definitions of domicile fiscal and séjour habituel that article 2 L.I.R. depends on are not here, they are in the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934 on Legilux and are in German. It is not a source for double taxation treaties, for social security, or for anything outside direct taxation.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«(2) Les contribuables résidents sont soumis à l’impôt sur le revenu en raison de leur revenu tant indigène qu’étranger.»Worldwide taxation, stated in eighteen words.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Luxembourg's direct tax administration. It publishes a textes coordonnés edition of the loi modifiée du 4 décembre 1967 concernant l'impôt sur le revenu, one PDF per year back to 2015, at impotsdirects.public.lu/fr/legislation/LIR.html, with the asset itself under /dam-assets/fr/legislation/LIR/. Each edition states the date it is in force at and, separately, the date it was last updated. It is the only current coordinated text of that Act available anywhere, because Legilux serves no consolidation of it after 2011.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It says on the first page of every edition that the texts are not official and were produced for information. Legal value lies with the Mémorial. It carries only the instruments the administration applies: the definitions of domicile fiscal and séjour habituel that article 2 L.I.R. depends on are not here, they are in the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934 on Legilux and are in German. It is not a source for double taxation treaties, for social security, or for anything outside direct taxation.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«(3) Les contribuables non résidents sont soumis à l’impôt sur le revenu uniquement en raison de leurs revenus indigènes au sens de l’article 156 ci-après.»The other side of the same line.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Luxembourg's direct tax administration. It publishes a textes coordonnés edition of the loi modifiée du 4 décembre 1967 concernant l'impôt sur le revenu, one PDF per year back to 2015, at impotsdirects.public.lu/fr/legislation/LIR.html, with the asset itself under /dam-assets/fr/legislation/LIR/. Each edition states the date it is in force at and, separately, the date it was last updated. It is the only current coordinated text of that Act available anywhere, because Legilux serves no consolidation of it after 2011.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It says on the first page of every edition that the texts are not official and were produced for information. Legal value lies with the Mémorial. It carries only the instruments the administration applies: the definitions of domicile fiscal and séjour habituel that article 2 L.I.R. depends on are not here, they are in the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934 on Legilux and are in German. It is not a source for double taxation treaties, for social security, or for anything outside direct taxation.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Einen Wohnsitz im Sinn der Steuergesetze hat jemand dort, wo er eine Wohnung innehat unter Umständen, die darauf schliessen lassen, dass er die Wohnung beibehalten und benutzen wird.»Our translation - not official
For the purposes of the tax laws a person has a residence where they keep a dwelling in circumstances which allow the conclusion that they will keep and use it. (Our translation.)
The definition of domicile fiscal, in a German sentence inside a Luxembourgish statute of 1934.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Luxembourg's official legal publisher, run by the Service central de législation. It issues the Journal officiel and, separately, textes coordonnés. Everything is addressed by ELI, and the address that matters is on the data host rather than the site: legilux.public.lu is an Angular single-page application that answers every address with the same 2,118-byte shell, while data.legilux.public.lu serves the documents. The live forms are data.legilux.public.lu/eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<id>/jo/fr/{html,pdf} for an act as published and .../consolide/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/{html,pdf} for a consolidation, where the date must be an exact consolidation date - any other date answers 404. Codes are addressed differently again, as /eli/etat/leg/code/<name>/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/pdf. The same host answers an Accept: application/rdf+xml request for any ELI with the record's metadata, and there is a SPARQL endpoint at data.legilux.public.lu/sparqlendpoint which is how a consolidation date is found rather than guessed: ?v jolux:isMemberOf <work ELI> ; jolux:dateApplicability ?d returns every consolidation of an act.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are documentary. The Journal officiel as published is what has legal force, and the Code de la sécurité sociale prints that on its own notes page. The two manifestations of one consolidation are not the same document: the HTML carries the change markers and the amending-act headings - 'Art. 78. (L du 21 avril 2023)' - and breaks sentences with marker digits like '145 > quinze heures 145 <', while the PDF prints clean article text and drops both the markers and the headings. A quotation has to be taken from whichever one the sentence survives in. The consolidations also carry defects of their own: article 33 of the Act of 29 August 2008 is printed twice over in both manifestations, once as the original single sentence and once again as paragraph (1) with the same words. It cannot be cited for the income tax Act at all - it holds consolidation metadata for the Act of 4 December 1967 up to 1 February 2026 but serves no document for any consolidation after 2011, so the only current coordinated text of it is the tax administration's. Code recueils are PDF-only, and two of them set the publisher's own apparatus inside the text column: the Code de la sécurité sociale prints source references like 'L. 27.7.92' mid-sentence, and the Code de la route prints case-law annotations frozen at 2 September 2013 alongside articles consolidated to 2026. The Legilux record of the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934 tags its expression as French while the text it serves is German from beginning to end.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(1) Den gewöhnlichen Aufenthalt im Sinn der Steuergesetze hat jemand dort, wo er sich unter Umständen aufhält, die erkennen lassen, dass er an diesem Ort oder in diesem Land nicht nur vorübergehend verweilt. Unbeschränkte Steuerpflicht tritt jedoch stets dann ein, wenn der Aufenthalt im Inland länger als sechs Monate dauert. In diesem Fall erstreckt sich die Steuerpflicht auch auf die ersten sechs Monate.»Our translation - not official
For the purposes of the tax laws a person has their habitual abode where they stay in circumstances which show that they are not merely staying temporarily in that place or that country. Unlimited tax liability nevertheless always arises where the stay in the country lasts longer than six months. In that case the tax liability extends to the first six months as well. (Our translation.)
Three sentences, and the second and third are the ones that decide cases: six months is an absolute trigger, and it is retrospective.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Luxembourg's official legal publisher, run by the Service central de législation. It issues the Journal officiel and, separately, textes coordonnés. Everything is addressed by ELI, and the address that matters is on the data host rather than the site: legilux.public.lu is an Angular single-page application that answers every address with the same 2,118-byte shell, while data.legilux.public.lu serves the documents. The live forms are data.legilux.public.lu/eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<id>/jo/fr/{html,pdf} for an act as published and .../consolide/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/{html,pdf} for a consolidation, where the date must be an exact consolidation date - any other date answers 404. Codes are addressed differently again, as /eli/etat/leg/code/<name>/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/pdf. The same host answers an Accept: application/rdf+xml request for any ELI with the record's metadata, and there is a SPARQL endpoint at data.legilux.public.lu/sparqlendpoint which is how a consolidation date is found rather than guessed: ?v jolux:isMemberOf <work ELI> ; jolux:dateApplicability ?d returns every consolidation of an act.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are documentary. The Journal officiel as published is what has legal force, and the Code de la sécurité sociale prints that on its own notes page. The two manifestations of one consolidation are not the same document: the HTML carries the change markers and the amending-act headings - 'Art. 78. (L du 21 avril 2023)' - and breaks sentences with marker digits like '145 > quinze heures 145 <', while the PDF prints clean article text and drops both the markers and the headings. A quotation has to be taken from whichever one the sentence survives in. The consolidations also carry defects of their own: article 33 of the Act of 29 August 2008 is printed twice over in both manifestations, once as the original single sentence and once again as paragraph (1) with the same words. It cannot be cited for the income tax Act at all - it holds consolidation metadata for the Act of 4 December 1967 up to 1 February 2026 but serves no document for any consolidation after 2011, so the only current coordinated text of it is the tax administration's. Code recueils are PDF-only, and two of them set the publisher's own apparatus inside the text column: the Code de la sécurité sociale prints source references like 'L. 27.7.92' mid-sentence, and the Code de la route prints case-law annotations frozen at 2 September 2013 alongside articles consolidated to 2026. The Legilux record of the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934 tags its expression as French while the text it serves is German from beginning to end.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The six-month rule is not a 183-day rule and the instrument does not count days. It speaks of a stay lasting longer than six months, which is a different question from how many nights were spent in the country over a calendar year.
Luxembourg has a large body of double taxation treaties which displace these tests for anyone resident in two places. None was read.
The coordinated text of the income tax Act used here is published by the tax administration and says on its own first page that it is not an official text. Legilux holds consolidation metadata for this Act up to 1 February 2026 but serves no document for any consolidation after 2011, so there is no official consolidated text of it to read.
- administersLoi modifiée du 4 décembre 1967 concernant l'impôt sur le revenu, texte coordonné en vigueur au 1er janvier 2026
Administration des contributions directes · consolidated to 2026-01-01
Known to be out of date. The tax administration prints on the first page that this is not an official text. Legilux holds the metadata for consolidations of this Act up to 1 February 2026 but serves no document for any of them after 2011, so this is the only current coordinated text either body offers.
About this source
Luxembourg's direct tax administration. It publishes a textes coordonnés edition of the loi modifiée du 4 décembre 1967 concernant l'impôt sur le revenu, one PDF per year back to 2015, at impotsdirects.public.lu/fr/legislation/LIR.html, with the asset itself under /dam-assets/fr/legislation/LIR/. Each edition states the date it is in force at and, separately, the date it was last updated. It is the only current coordinated text of that Act available anywhere, because Legilux serves no consolidation of it after 2011.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It says on the first page of every edition that the texts are not official and were produced for information. Legal value lies with the Mémorial. It carries only the instruments the administration applies: the definitions of domicile fiscal and séjour habituel that article 2 L.I.R. depends on are not here, they are in the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934 on Legilux and are in German. It is not a source for double taxation treaties, for social security, or for anything outside direct taxation.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- consolidatesLoi d'adaptation fiscale du 16 octobre 1934 (Steueranpassungsgesetz), Legilux text
Legilux, Journal officiel du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg
About this source
Luxembourg's official legal publisher, run by the Service central de législation. It issues the Journal officiel and, separately, textes coordonnés. Everything is addressed by ELI, and the address that matters is on the data host rather than the site: legilux.public.lu is an Angular single-page application that answers every address with the same 2,118-byte shell, while data.legilux.public.lu serves the documents. The live forms are data.legilux.public.lu/eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<id>/jo/fr/{html,pdf} for an act as published and .../consolide/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/{html,pdf} for a consolidation, where the date must be an exact consolidation date - any other date answers 404. Codes are addressed differently again, as /eli/etat/leg/code/<name>/<YYYYMMDD>/fr/pdf. The same host answers an Accept: application/rdf+xml request for any ELI with the record's metadata, and there is a SPARQL endpoint at data.legilux.public.lu/sparqlendpoint which is how a consolidation date is found rather than guessed: ?v jolux:isMemberOf <work ELI> ; jolux:dateApplicability ?d returns every consolidation of an act.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are documentary. The Journal officiel as published is what has legal force, and the Code de la sécurité sociale prints that on its own notes page. The two manifestations of one consolidation are not the same document: the HTML carries the change markers and the amending-act headings - 'Art. 78. (L du 21 avril 2023)' - and breaks sentences with marker digits like '145 > quinze heures 145 <', while the PDF prints clean article text and drops both the markers and the headings. A quotation has to be taken from whichever one the sentence survives in. The consolidations also carry defects of their own: article 33 of the Act of 29 August 2008 is printed twice over in both manifestations, once as the original single sentence and once again as paragraph (1) with the same words. It cannot be cited for the income tax Act at all - it holds consolidation metadata for the Act of 4 December 1967 up to 1 February 2026 but serves no document for any consolidation after 2011, so the only current coordinated text of it is the tax administration's. Code recueils are PDF-only, and two of them set the publisher's own apparatus inside the text column: the Code de la sécurité sociale prints source references like 'L. 27.7.92' mid-sentence, and the Code de la route prints case-law annotations frozen at 2 September 2013 alongside articles consolidated to 2026. The Legilux record of the loi d'adaptation fiscale of 16 October 1934 tags its expression as French while the text it serves is German from beginning to end.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source