Unease among chartered accountants

The situation is unusual: usually, the regulated professions such as lawyers, bailiffs or notaries present themselves united in a common struggle, with their order in the front line to deliver the blow. This is not the case for the Luxembourg accountants. The 1,203 chartered accountants and 558 firms in the country are certainly represented by the "Ordre des experts-comptables" (OEC), but the latter refuses to lead a fight that seems necessary, even vital, to some of its members.

Some chartered accountants complain that their activities are increasingly carried out by other professionals who are not chartered accountants, in particular accountants, but also other people who are not part of the large family of accountancy professions. "Ordinary accountants, including accountancy trustees, continue to offer services to clients that they are not allowed to offer", says one accountant on condition of anonymity. "These services are reserved for accountants under specific laws, and clients are completely unaware of this and go blind. There are even large firms that, without a chartered accountant or accountant, have specialised in salary processing, for example. "