Self-employed in Luxembourg: which insurance is actually compulsory?
Two obligations for everyone, a third for certain professions. The rest is risk arithmetic, not law.
Many self-employed people insure too much, or too late. The difficulty is that the real obligations are few and poorly known, while the serious risks are not always the ones an obligation covers.
What the law requires
- Contributions to the Centre commun de la sécurité sociale, covering illness, accidents at work and pension.
- Third-party liability cover on every vehicle used for work.
- Professional liability cover for certain regulated professions: estate agents, architects, notaries, medical professions, among others.
What is not compulsory but expensive to skip
Professional liability, even where it is not imposed, as soon as your work can cause a client financial loss. A mistaken piece of advice or a file delivered late can run to tens of thousands of euros, and a self-employed person answers with their own assets.
Then cover for business property: equipment, stock, fittings. And business interruption, which steps in when a loss stops you working for weeks — it is often that, rather than the physical damage, that puts a small operation in difficulty.
The point people forget: your own capacity to work
A self-employed person with no replacement income during a long incapacity is exposed, and so is their family. It is the least visible risk and the heaviest. It belongs to provision cover, not to property insurance.
A note on tax
Premiums taken out for the business are in principle a business expense. For your specific situation the answer belongs to your accountant or to the Administration des contributions directes, not to a blog article.
Information article written by iSOLUTIONS S.à r.l. It does not replace advice from your agent and creates no contractual commitment. The general and particular conditions of your contract are what count.
