Who should come to Luxembourg?

Let's kill the myth: Luxembourg is not as boring as its reputation. A lot of people slag off the place because they're slightly jealous of friends who've been able to find good jobs here. Ok, being a city of some 80 000 inhabitants it's never gone be London or Paris, is it? But for a city of its size, it's got a hell of a lot to offer. And I believe I'm in a position to say, as I've lived in both Paris and London, and quite a few other cities to boot. To tell you the truth, wild horses couldn't drag me away from this place.

So:

If you're young, should you come to Luxembourg? Well, it depends. If you're from a country that offers virtually no opportunities for the young (France, France, Spain, France), then yes, for sure. Instead of spending every year of your life until you're 35 doing internships or temporary contracts (that's CDDs for you French natives), you could get a serious first experience and some real responsiblity working here -and a decent paycheck to go with it. The downside: Well, yes, like I said, it's not London, it's not Paris and it ain't Madrid or Barcelona. You'll have fun here, but just don't expect to be dancing until 5 o'clock in the morning. But then again: When you live in Paris you're so overwhelmed with options that you just end up going to your local joint anyway. I find that I've been having a much more varied life since I moved to Luxembourg. And if you're a sporty person, it's hard to find a better place than this. Apart from Switzerland, which is prettier and enjoys an even better location. But you'd have to put up with the Swiss and an ever growing number of dodgy mafiosos and pimps. But Lux: Even when you live in the middle of the city, the nearest forest is unlikely to be much more than a 15 minute WALK away. Beat that.

However: The jobs going around here are hardly very exciting. Front office jobs are very limited and the few dealing rooms you find are a far cry from what you find in the City of London. Basically it's sales which is not bad, but lacks the glamour. A lot of jobs are in the fund administration area, in corporate admin (company secretaries etc) and terribly terribly boring stuff like Big 4 accounting, tax, compliance and that sort of stuff you'll end up regretting having spent a minute of your life doing. But there are quite a few interesting jobs in private banking for the well-qualified and dynamic lot of you, just bear in mind that it's a declining area. Apart from that, Lux does have its share of interesting corporates: E.g. SES Astra, Arcelor Mittal, Cargolux, Amazon, Goodyear, Ikano, ...

If you're a family man or woman? Yes, definitely. Unbeatable work/life balance bar what you might find in Scandinavia. But in Scandinavia it rains all the time, the culture is, well, what it is and it's kinda remote. And foreigners are so exotic that they might as well cage you up and charge an entry fee. So Lux gives you the best of both worlds.

If you're knocking on heaven's door? Yes, definitely again. No inheritance tax. More or less.

Is Luxembourg a tax haven? No, at least not for those of us who have to work for a living. You pay less income tax than you would in say, Belgium or Denmark, but then again life is quite expensive, especially due to the property prices. So if you're one of the many people who come to Luxembourg thinking that your net salary will equal your gross salary, you're in for a big disappointment. However, there are quite a few advantages, which I expect to get back to in a different posting.