The step-by-step plan for Luxembourg

In this step you learn which reports complete your residence in Luxembourg. As a Dutch citizen you need no visa and may live in Luxembourg without a permit. But you do have to report to the commune in time, and for that Luxembourg has two clocks most EU countries don't have.

This is how they work:

• Within eight days of moving into your home, you report to the population office of your commune. Bring your passport and your lease.
• Within three months you make the registration declaration at that same commune: with it you record that you are staying here as an EU citizen. After that you get the registration certificate, and it's valid indefinitely.

Two counters, one building, two deadlines. If you meet them both, your residence rights in Luxembourg are settled.

In this step you see that your tax moves to Luxembourg, and how your healthcare works there. That decides what you apply for later in the plan.

The tax. The tax treaty between the Netherlands and Luxembourg dates from 1968 and follows the old model. A pension from past employment is then taxable only in the country where you live. The treaty has no article on social security. So your AOW falls under the residual article: the rule for everything the treaty doesn't name separately. That too places the tax exclusively with the country of residence.

So the Netherlands lets go, provided you apply for the wage tax exemption. Then the Netherlands no longer withholds tax on your pension and your AOW.

Luxembourg taxes what it gets. This is how it works:

• The rate is progressive, up to 42 percent.
• The scale differs per tax class. A couple divides the income by two in that scale.
• On a foreign pension Luxembourg withholds nothing. You file an annual return yourself and pay four advance payments a year.

Your government pension stays Dutch.

Healthcare. Luxembourg is a treaty country: your Dutch right to healthcare comes with you. With a Dutch statutory pension that goes through the CAK, the Dutch agency that arranges your healthcare abroad. This is how it goes:

• You apply for an S1 form at the CAK.
• With it you register with the CNS, the Luxembourg health fund.
• You get the Luxembourg social security card.

Healthcare works by reimbursement. You freely choose a doctor, pay yourself and get 88 percent back. Or the doctor settles directly with the fund.

In this step you choose where you want to live, with the languages and the housing costs in view.

Luxembourg City is an international capital on a village scale. In the banks and the institutions, English is the working language. The communes around it and the south around Esch are the country's residential areas. The north, the Ösling in the Ardennes, is rural and cheaper. But nothing in Luxembourg is cheap.

Three languages are official: Luxembourgish, French and German. Each language has its own place:

• The government writes in French.
• The newspapers write in German.
• The neighbours speak Luxembourgish.
• The school teaches in all three.

Whoever reads German gets far. Whoever speaks French gets further.

Count the housing costs honestly. Renting and buying in and around the city costs more than in the Randstad. That is why a third of those who work there live across the border.

In this step you see what the move is going to cost you. The paperwork is small here:

• The reports at the commune.
• A stamp of 50 euros for the car.
• A driving licence you at most have registered voluntarily.

The money sits in the home and in life itself. For the home, that means the deposit and the rent. If you buy a house, you pay 7 percent registration duties, a tax on the purchase. A tax credit takes off a part of that.

In this conversation you decide together whether Luxembourg fits, and where you'll live. You end up with a few conditions on paper that you both stand behind.

Going alone? Then have this conversation with the people you leave behind. The questions below work for them too.

Take three evenings. One conversation is too short for a decision like this. Agree on three evenings, with a week in between:

• Evening 1, why. What do we hope to find in Luxembourg? What are we leaving behind here? Would that really be different there?
• Evening 2, what we give up. Who and what will we miss? What are we dreading most? What do we do if it disappoints?
• Evening 3, the conditions. What has to be arranged for each of us to say yes? When do we check together whether it's going well, for example after six and after twelve months? And what would be a reason for us to go back?

Write the conditions down. On the kitchen-table card it all fits on one A4 sheet.

Divide the work. Agree who takes on which part of this plan: the papers, the house and the cancellations, the school, the move. That way not one of you carries everything. Invite your partner into your plan; then you can both see what's done.

Is one of you going without an income of your own? Whoever lives in Luxembourg and doesn't work in the Netherlands usually no longer builds up AOW. For every year you're not insured, you later get 2 percent less AOW. From the moment you're no longer insured, you have one year to take out voluntary insurance with the SVB. Also discuss whether that partner keeps an account and money of their own, and how you decide together on big expenses.

Married, registered or living together? It can make a difference for your partner's residence permit, for co-insurance in healthcare and for inheritance. If your partner registers in Luxembourg as your family member, a spouse or registered partner counts straight away. If you live together unmarried, the Direction générale de l'immigration (the immigration service) must first establish that your relationship is durable. You apply for that before the registration, not after. Check at your registration and at your healthcare further on in your plan what else applies to you.

Are children coming? How you tell them depends on their age:

• Up to about four: tell them shortly before the move and keep fixed habits, like the bedtime ritual and the cuddly toy in the hand luggage.
• Primary school: tell them well in advance and let them look along: photos of the school, the neighbourhood and the house. Let them choose something, like their room.
• Teenagers: involve them in the decision itself. For them, saying goodbye to friends weighs heaviest. Agree how they keep in touch and when they see their friends again.

Discuss the school before you choose the place. The Luxembourg public school switches language:

• It starts in Luxembourgish.
• Children learn to read in German. From school year 2027/2028 parents can also choose French.
• After that the school switches to French.

For a Dutch child that is a triple language leap. There are also public international schools with English and French sections, and expensive private ones. Where those are determines where you go and live.

Who learns the language, and when? Luxembourg has three official languages: Luxembourgish, French and German. The government writes in French, the neighbours speak Luxembourgish. Agree who learns which language. Often the partner without work needs the language most, and precisely that partner has no colleagues to practise with. Plan it together, preferably before you leave.

In this step you fix your departure date. From here everything counts back. This journey has three clocks you start yourself:

• Eight days for the report, from the day you move into your home.
• Three months for the registration.
• Six months for the car.

Put all three in your diary on the day your date is fixed.