AI subscriptions: what does the €2,400 tax deduction propose?

Petition No. 4324 proposes an annual deduction of up to €2,400 for AI subscriptions. Here’s what it would change compared with the current €540 allowance, and what its signature threshold actually means.

Opened for signatures on 12 November, petition No. 4324 calls for an annual tax deduction for subscriptions to generative artificial intelligence services. It is aimed at people engaged in taxable professional activity in Luxembourg, whether employed or self-employed, resident or cross-border workers. The mechanism being requested and the regime currently described by the Direct Tax Administration (ACD) are not the same.

The Petitions Committee declared it admissible on 11 November 2026. The signature period opened the following day and is due to run until 23 December at 23:59. The proposal is therefore being put to the public for support under the right of petition. Its admissibility relates to opening this procedure and does not amount to the adoption of a new deduction.

What the petition is calling for

Submitted by Philippe Pierre Edouard Docq-Cremer, the petition proposes a deduction capped at €2,400 per year per person for a subscription to generative AI. It would allow taxpayers to choose the service and plan, without favouring any provider. According to the text, a bill in the person’s name would be sufficient proof of the expense, with no requirement to demonstrate exclusively professional use.

The measure would also be separate from the existing €540 flat-rate allowance for employment expenses. The petition asks for the new deduction to be added to it, rather than absorbed into the allowance. It therefore seeks to create a specific rule, rather than relying on the current classification of professional expenses.

The €2,400 would be a cap on expenses deductible from the taxable base, that is, the income on which tax is calculated. It is neither a sum paid to the taxpayer nor a tax reduction of the same amount. The financial effect would depend on each person’s tax situation and on the terms of any eventual law. The petition alone does not make it possible to calculate an individual saving.

The €540 allowance today

The ACD states that every employee automatically receives an annual minimum flat-rate allowance of €540 for other employment expenses. These are expenses directly related to the performance of salaried employment; the administration cites, in particular, trade union contributions and occupation-specific work clothing. If actual employment expenses exceed this minimum, the employee can request a correction or adjustment.

This allowance therefore does not mean that €540 is paid to the employee. Nor, according to the ACD’s description, is it an amount that would automatically be added to all actual professional expenses. The petition is specifically calling for a dedicated deduction for subscriptions to be created, in addition to the allowance, with its own rules on supporting documents and a cap.

For an expense used for both professional and private purposes, the petition’s text favours simplicity: a bill in the person’s name, without having to demonstrate exclusively professional use. This is a design choice that would broaden the proposed tax treatment compared with requiring proof of a direct link to salaried activity. However, the precise treatment of shared use would depend on the rule ultimately adopted, if a reform were ever considered.

Who would be covered, and why?

The intended scope goes beyond resident employees. The petitioner includes self-employed people and cross-border workers, provided they engage in professional activity taxable in Luxembourg. This list describes the beneficiaries the petition seeks to cover; it does not currently create a general right to deduct any AI subscription.

The argument put forward is that these tools can be used to write, translate, programme, analyse data or prepare for meetings. The petitioner presents access to paid plans as a matter of skills and competitiveness, particularly for employees who pay for their own subscriptions, SMEs and self-employed people. These are the reasons advanced in the petition, not the findings of an impact assessment submitted with the proposal.

The requested simplicity involves a practical trade-off. A bill in the person’s name would be easy to verify, but would not necessarily indicate what proportion of use was professional. Conversely, requiring that proportion to be documented could make the process more complex. The text chooses the first model and cites an annual cap as a way of limiting the cost to the public purse; it does not quantify that cost to State finances.

Public debate subject to a signature threshold

The parliamentary page sets the signature period from 12 November to 23 December 2026 at 23:59. It states that 5,500 signatures are needed for a public debate to take place. Reaching this threshold would therefore open a parliamentary stage: it would not mean that MPs approve the deduction or that it would come into force immediately.

To assess the proposal, several choices would need to be settled: the exact beneficiaries, eligible services and expenses, the treatment of private use, accepted supporting documents and how it would interact with existing employment expenses. It would also be necessary to specify how a deduction would be incorporated into the tax calculation and to assess its consequences for public revenue. The petition puts forward a cap and a bill in the person’s name as answers to some of these questions; it does not replace a bill or its examination.

The parliamentary page makes it possible to consult the exact text of the request and its timetable. The ACD remains the reference for finding out which rules currently apply to a professional expense. The two documents serve different purposes: one sets out a proposal for discussion, while the other presents the tax framework in force.