The RCS extract: what it costs, how to order it, and the filings behind it

An electronic extract from the Luxembourg trade register costs €10.43 excluding VAT, bought from Luxembourg Business Registers. The version with a qualified electronic signature costs €15.43 and a paper copy €21.43. Per Legilux, the RCS tariffs set by grand-ducal regulation are stated exclusive of VAT and are subject to VAT at 17%, so the amount charged is a little above the published figure.

Anyone can buy an extract of any company, with no proof of a connection to it. The extract (extrait RCS) shows that the company exists, who signs for it and where its registered office is. It is only as true as the last filing: every corporate change must reach the register within 1 month of the act.

The filing that comes back every year is the annual accounts: the work of preparing the annual accounts and depositing them with the RCS runs from the bookkeeping to the deposit on the register.

See what monthly accounting includes, from €250

Which extract should you order, and how?

The three versions carry the same entries and differ only in how the recipient can verify them.

Unless the requester has named a version, buy the plain electronic one. The signed version exists for recipients who validate the signature itself rather than the look of the page. A foreign notary or a public authority may ask for it by name, so ask which version is wanted before paying twice.

Ordering takes four steps.

1. Search the register by RCS number, not by name. Trading names sit close together, and the number is the only unambiguous handle.
2. Pick the version the requester named and pay that tariff.
3. Take delivery. Electronic versions arrive as a download. A paper copy has to be produced and posted.
4. Read the date on its face and check the entries beneath against reality.

What does the RCS show, and who reads it?

Registration puts the company's identity on public record: name, legal form, registered office, the managers and their signing powers, and the corporate purpose. The articles of association sit alongside, and so do the annual accounts, year after year. Every filing is published in the electronic gazette RESA, so the register is a history rather than a snapshot.

Nobody needs the company's permission to read the entry, and bank compliance desks pull it at onboarding and again at periodic review. Enterprise clients read it before signing, suppliers before extending credit, and landlords too. Funding bodies check it against an aid application, and litigation opponents read it first of all. A stale entry contradicts you in front of a counterparty.

Beneficial ownership is not in the RCS but in the separate RBE register, with its own access rules and its own deadline.

What is the deadline for filing a change with the RCS?

Article 15(1) of the law of 19 December 2002 sets the general limit at 1 month from the act. Each event starts its own month. Sending a backlog to the register in one go does not cure the entries whose month has already run out.

The accounts clock has two legs. The general meeting approves within 6 months of the financial year-end, and the filing follows within 1 month of approval. That is why guichet states the outer limit as 7 months after year-end. Approving late buys no time, because it burns the second leg.

The RBE month runs from the moment the entity knew or should have known of the event. A share transfer signed in March is not a July problem because that is when the file resurfaced.

On the manager row, the scope is precise: extracts of deeds relating to the appointment and termination of office of directors, managers or administrators must be filed. Signing power is what the extract is usually read for, so an unfiled departure contradicts you where the reader is looking.

The mechanics are quick: as guichet describes them, filings are made electronically, and the deed is published in RESA on the day of filing, or on a fixed date chosen by the filer when creating the filing request, within a limit of 15 days after filing. File first, then order the extract.

What happens if you file late?

Register discipline feeds the professional-integrity test behind the business permit. Article 6 of the law of 2 September 2011 lists the acts that defeat that integrity, and one of them is failing, on at least two occasions during the last three financial years, to meet the filing and publication obligations under the Trade and Companies Register law. Non-registration in the beneficial-ownership register for 6 months is another of the disqualifying acts guichet lists.

The test does not bind only the person who signs the filings. The requirement covers the manager of the business in whose name the permit will be issued; and, where the business is operated as a company, also the person holding the majority of the shares and anyone who can exert a significant influence on the management or administration of the business. It follows the person rather than the company, so a dormant vehicle nobody filed for can surface years later inside an unrelated permit application.

The register also sits on the permit's critical path: the articles of association must be registered with the Trade and Companies Register before the permit is definitively granted. A name or address changed halfway through restarts paperwork on both sides.

Where must the RCS number appear?

For a Sàrl, the company's documents must state the company name, the words 'société à responsabilité limitée', the registered office, the RCS registration number and the capacity of the signatory of the document (the share capital mention is no longer obligatory). In practice that means letterhead, invoices, contracts and the website footer.

The two elements templates lose are the registration number and the signatory's capacity. A template carries the name and the legal form because they are part of the brand. Those two have to be typed in by whoever built it. A simplified company carries an extra rule: the name must appear on all company documents followed by the mention SARL-S.

Common questions

How recent does an extract have to be? There is no statutory expiry on an extract. The recency window is set by whoever asked for the document, so read the request rather than assume a figure. The more important check is whether a filing has published since the date on its face.

Can someone else order an extract of my company? Yes. The RCS is a public register and any person can obtain an extract of any registered entity, with no reason given. The RBE works differently, as LBR announced: since July 2026, consulting an entity's RBE file or ordering an RBE extract requires stating a reason for each consultation, recorded under article 13(2bis) of the amended law of 13 January 2019.

Does a name-availability certificate reserve my company name? No. The check is made by submitting an electronic request for a certificate of name availability to Luxembourg Business Registers before incorporating, and it attests whether the requested name or names are available compared with the names of persons already registered with the RCS. The certificate is valid from the moment it is issued until the name is entered in the RCS — but it does not reserve the name: any available name may be taken by the first person who requests it when registering with the RCS. It costs 4.75–10 euros depending on the version and stays downloadable for 20 days, per guichet.

What does the registration filing itself cost? The initial registration fee is 10–106 euros, depending on the legal form. Later filings are priced per act under the same grand-ducal tariff, so a statutory amendment does not cost what a registration costs. The portal prices your specific filing before you confirm it, and that is the figure to act on.

Keeping the register current

The register's clock starts at the act, not when the file comes back to the top of the pile. Three habits keep the entry true:

1. Treat the filing as part of the event. The change is finished when it is filed, inside the 1-month window, and before you order the extract anyone asked for.
2. Reconcile the RCS and the RBE after every change of manager or shareholder. The deadlines are the same length and run from different trigger points, which is how they drift apart.
3. Audit the footer once a year against the mentions the law requires. The list has changed and a template does not update itself.

Put the approval date in the calendar, not the filing date. Whoever is preparing the annual accounts and filing them with the RCS must land them inside guichet's 7-month outer limit. The 6-month approval leg is what quietly eats the filing month.