eCDF Luxembourg: file VAT, validate accounts and access the official portal.
eCDF serves two different workflows: filing VAT returns with the VAT authority (AED), and validating structured balance-sheet and profit-and-loss data before the separate statutory annual-accounts filing with the RCS. Financial Services Luxembourg can assist with both. The State's official login is at www.ecdf.lu.
eCDF is Luxembourg's electronic financial-data collection platform. Taxable persons file VAT returns through it; companies within the applicable accounting rules prepare and validate structured accounts data before the separate statutory filing at the RCS. eCDF validation alone is not evidence of RCS filing.
eCDF vs RCS: what is the difference?
eCDF prepares and validates structured financial data. For a company subject to statutory filing, eCDF validation does not replace filing annual accounts with the RCS. Retain evidence of each step.
- VAT: 'Validate / Save' only saves a draft; it does not file the return. Use 'Submit', then verify the confirmation and filing date.
- Annual accounts: after validating structured information in eCDF, complete the statutory RCS submission and keep the LBR filing receipt.
Example: an annual-accounts package validated in eCDF, without an RCS receipt, is not a completed statutory filing.
Official guidance: submitting VAT through eCDF · Official guidance: validate accounts and file with the RCS · Official guidance: RCS filing · Arrange annual-accounts filing
What do you need to file on eCDF?
Five questions, instant answer, no email address required.
0 of 5 answered. The result appears after the last one.
General guidance prepared by a licensed accountant from the rules in force; it does not replace a review of your file.
How do I log in to eCDF?
The official portal is www.ecdf.lu (platform hosted at ecdf.b2g.etat.lu), run by the State IT Centre (CTIE). Logging in requires a professional or private LuxTrust certificate (Token, Smartcard, Signing stick or the LuxTrust Mobile app) or an eIDAS certificate, followed by the registration of the company from its national registration number. Without a valid certificate, access is refused: ordering a LuxTrust product takes several days, so plan it ahead of a deadline. Financial Services Luxembourg is a private firm: we file for our clients, but we do not run the portal and cannot unlock access to it.
- Hold an active LuxTrust product in the name of the filer (manager, mandated employee or fiduciary).
- Open www.ecdf.lu, select the authentication product and enter the one-time code.
- Select the reporting person or company by its national registration number; a fiduciary needs an authorised professional account and appropriate access rights to file for third parties.
- Create the return (monthly, quarterly or annual VAT, or the annual accounts package), fill it in or import the XML file, and run the validation.
- Submit, then keep the time-stamped acknowledgement of receipt: it is the proof in the event of an audit.
What is eCDF in Luxembourg?
eCDF is the State platform for the electronic filing of financial data. It is used by companies and their fiduciaries to submit, in a dematerialised and structured form, their tax returns and the elements of their annual accounts.
The aim is standardisation: normalised forms (under the standard chart of accounts, PCN) ensure data that is comparable and usable by the authorities.
What can be validated via eCDF?
Mainly: periodic and annual VAT returns, EU recapitulative statements, and the structured balance-sheet and profit-and-loss forms that may be required before statutory RCS filing.
The legal filing of annual accounts is done with the Trade and Companies Register (RCS / Luxembourg Business Registers); eCDF provides the accompanying structured financial-data forms.
How to file your annual accounts and VAT?
For annual accounts, prepare the LuxGAAP figures, validate structured PCN forms on eCDF where required, and complete the separate filing with the RCS. For VAT, submit the return through eCDF to the AED. Saving or validating a draft is not a filing confirmation.
A fiduciary automates this chain: preparation, checks, submission and tracking of receipts, to avoid errors and delays.
Access: LuxTrust authentication
Access to eCDF requires strong authentication via a State authentication product (a LuxTrust certificate, for example). Filing via eCDF is free; publication fees may apply separately for filing with the RCS.
Subject to the engagement scope and evidence received, we prepare the returns and filing steps we are mandated to handle.
eCDF access denied: certificate, activation or filing permissions?
If authentication fails, check the validity and type of LuxTrust or eIDAS certificate. If you can log in but cannot see the company, check the national registration number, email activation and submission permissions. Personal authentication does not automatically authorise filing for another legal entity.
For a fiduciary, check the client mandate, the professional account type and access rights separately. Keep the exact message, reporting year and workflow stage for the State's technical support; never share authentication codes. Reference: Guichet.lu, « Préparation et validation des comptes sur eCDF ».
eCDF XML rejected: five accounting checks before attempting another import
Check the company's identity, reporting period, general-ledger-to-PCN mapping, balance-sheet equality and profit-and-loss result. These are accounting diagnostics, not official error-code descriptions. Technically valid XML can still contain incorrect accounting classification.
For each correction, record the source account, PCN target, pre- and post-adjustment values and supporting rationale. Preserve the initial trial balance, mapping and corrected output. eCDF supports standard forms and XML transfers; importing does not replace the reconciliation.
Accounts validated in eCDF but missing at the RCS: a separate filing remains
Direct answer: eCDF validation alone is not statutory filing at the Trade and Companies Register. The required accounting package must also be submitted to Luxembourg Business Registers with supporting documents; retain evidence of that filing. A validated draft is not a substitute for the register's receipt.
Check the eCDF status and RCS submission status independently, and confirm which files were attached. Do not tell the client that accounts have been legally lodged based only on an eCDF acknowledgement. Legal obligations vary by entity type; SCSp requirements cannot be inferred from the SARL workflow. References: Guichet.lu, RCS annual-accounts filing and eCDF validation guidance.
Deadlines and common errors
For annual accounts: approval by the general meeting within six months of year-end (amended law of 10 August 1915 on commercial companies), then filing with the RCS within one month of approval and at the latest seven months after year-end (article 75 of the amended law of 19 December 2002 on the trade and companies register and on the accounting and annual accounts of undertakings). For a 31 December year-end, the deadline is therefore 31 July of the following year. For VAT: according to the periodicity assigned by the Registration Duties, Estates and VAT Authority (monthly, quarterly or annual). Late filing of the accounts triggers a surcharge on the RCS filing fee and, ultimately, criminal penalties: the detail is in our article on late filing of annual accounts.
Common errors: forms inconsistent with the trial balance, missing PCN items, late filing, wrong financial year. We reconcile the forms with the trial balance before validation, to limit back-and-forth.
Prefer to delegate your eCDF?
Financial Services Luxembourg prepares VAT returns, validates structured accounts data in eCDF where applicable and coordinates the separate RCS filing. We assess missing years, responsibilities and deadlines before accepting the mandate.
Accountant in Luxembourg →Annual accounts →VAT return →Accounting software →
Frequently asked questions about eCDF
Check account activation, the national registration number and the user's filing permissions. Login authentication alone is not always sufficient to submit for third parties.
No. Where applicable, submission to Luxembourg Business Registers is a separate workflow. Confirm the register's filing receipt.
eCDF is the Luxembourg State's electronic financial data collection platform, run by the State IT Centre (CTIE), used to prepare, validate and submit VAT returns and structured financial data (annual accounts under the standard chart of accounts).
Filing via the eCDF platform is free. Publication fees may apply separately for filing annual accounts with the RCS (Luxembourg Business Registers).
You log in at www.ecdf.lu (platform ecdf.b2g.etat.lu), the official portal run by the CTIE, with a professional or private LuxTrust certificate (Token, Smartcard, Signing stick, mobile app) or an eIDAS certificate. A mandated fiduciary with an appropriately configured professional eCDF account can file on your behalf; an eIDAS account cannot file for third parties.
At the latest seven months after the financial year-end, and within one month of the approval of the accounts by the general meeting (article 75 of the amended law of 19 December 2002). For a 31 December year-end, the deadline is 31 July of the following year.
eCDF is the platform that collects financial data and returns; the RCS (Luxembourg Business Registers) is the register where annual accounts are filed and published. Both are involved in the legal filing.
Structured forms under the standard chart of accounts (PCN), balance sheet and profit-and-loss account, accompany the filing.
Entrust your eCDF filings to a fiduciary
First reply within 24 working hours, from a named adviser. Firm quote within 48 working hours once the scope is defined. NDA on request before any confidential document.