Affiliation

People who carry out an agricultural activity on their own name must affiliate with the social security system. The social security system considers these people as self-employed farmers.

Social security affiliation is also compulsory if the farming activity is carried out alongside another professional activity, even if the farming activity is carried out abroad.

Social security affiliation covers (self-employed) farmers against the following:

health;
work accident;
pension;
dependency.

Persons concerned

People who carry out one of the following activities on a self-employed basis must affiliate: farming, winegrowing, livestock farming, tree growing, horticulture, plant nursery, gardening, market gardening, beekeeping and distillery.

Prerequisites

In order to be recognised as a self-employed farm manager, the person must have the necessary human and material resources. They must have a property and all the means of production useful for the independent management of a farm such as buildings, machinery and equipment. Technical means can be rented, if necessary.

In addition, the person concerned must farm a minimum area of at least one of the crops listed below:

3 hectares of agricultural land;
10 ares of vineyards;
50 ares of plant nursery;
30 ares of orchard;
25 ares of market garden.

How to proceed

The following are considered to be self-employed farmers on an agricultural operation:

the farm manager;
the assistants;
the partners (following a merger).

Registering a farm located in Luxembourg and affiliating the farm manager

Anyone wishing to set up a farming business must complete the affiliation application form ('Antrag auf Beitrittserklärung'), joined with the farming census form, or the winegrowing census form.

These forms should be completed and returned together with all the requested documents, including:

a complete list of the plots managed, together with the Land Registry data for each of these plots (commune, section, Land Registry number, surface area), or a Land Registry extract;

and

a lease showing that the new farm manager is the tenant of the land shown on the census form.

The Social Security Centre (Centre commun de la sécurité sociale - CCSS) then registers the new farming business.

After registering the farming business, the CCSS sends the relevant documents to the Rural Economy Department (Service d’économie rurale - SER) or to the Wine Institute (Institut Viti-Vinicole - IVV) in order to calculate the professional agricultural income and determine the standard gross margin.

If the standard gross margin is at least EUR 9.600 or more, the CCSS affiliates the farm manager.
If the standard gross margin is lower than EUR 9.600, the farm manager is exempt from affiliation.

Useful information

The SER and IVV usually inform the CCSS of the farming income of all farming businesses in March or April. This information may result in changes to affiliations.
Any concerned business will be informed of these changes by post, and the recalculation of the contributions is sent to the farm in May.

Example

A farm's standard gross margin is EUR 25,000 (> EUR 9.600) for the year 2023. The farm manager and assistants are affiliated with the social security system.

In April 2025, the census for the year 2024 for the same farming business shows that the standard gross margin is EUR 8,900 (< EUR 9.600). The CCSS informs the self-employed farmers/policyholders that they are exempt from affiliation with effective from 01.01.2025. However, the insured person can waive the exemption from affiliation and request in writing to be affiliated again (see under 'Exemption for affiliation').

Transferring the farm

When the farm manager changes ('Betriebsübergabe') within a farming business, the declaration for the transfer of a farming business form ('Betriebsübergabeerklärung') must be submitted to the CCSS, and must be signed by the former manager and the new manager.

If the new farm manager is a member of a dairy farm or wine cellar, a certificate showing the transfer of the shares ('Anteilschein') must be attached to the transfer declaration.

Once the CCSS has received the application, it proceeds with the disaffiliaton of the former manager and affiliates the new manager. The CCSS informs both parties by post, and informs the SER or IVV about the change.

Exemption from affiliation

If the business's standard gross margin is less than EUR 9.600, all persons working on the farm (apart from affiliated employees) are exempt from compulsory insurance. This exemption is valid for the entire fiscal year.

However, on request, the exempted persons can be admitted to the compulsory insurance or to the voluntary agricultural and silvicultural accident insurance.