Welcome to the Field

Japanese company Yusen Logistics is growing in Benelux. In ‘On a roll’ , Finance Director Timmy Adriaens reveals Grant Thornton’s help in takeovers and mergers.

Employers are now required to register all formal and informal training in a separate database, the Federal Learning Account (FLA).

Discover the significant changes in Belgian insolvency law following the implementation of the Law of 7 June 2023, which transposes the European Restructuring Directive. Key reforms include enhanced roles for the Chamber for Companies in Difficulty, updated extrajudicial amicable agreements, new private agreement procedures, and the introduction of silent bankruptcy. These changes aim to provide more options for entrepreneurs in difficulty, ensuring the continuity of economically viable businesses. Learn more about these developments and their impact on the Belgian insolvency landscape

The home working trend continues to grow and has significant tax implications. The Netherlands and Belgium recently reached an agreement on the interpretation of the concept of "permanent establishment" in the tax treaty between the two countries. This agreement is intended to provide employers with more clarity as to whether and under what circumstances remote working can be deemed to create a permanent establishment.

Following last month’s release of IFRS 18 ‘Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements’, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has published another new standard — IFRS 19 ‘Subsidiaries without Public Accountability: Disclosures’ (the Standard). The new Standard creates a reduced set of disclosures that certain in-scope entities can elect to apply instead of the disclosure requirements set out in other IFRS. IFRS 19 will work alongside other IFRS, with eligible subsidiaries applying the measurement, recognition and presentation requirements set out in other IFRS and the revised disclosures outlined in IFRS 19. The objective of the Standard is to alleviate the reporting burden for subsidiaries without public accountability.

On 9 April 2024 the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published a new standard, its first since 2017. The new standard, IFRS 18 ‘Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements’ (the Standard) replaces IAS 1 ‘Presentation of Financial Statements’ and will impact every reporting entity that currently uses International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The objective of the Standard is to improve how information is communicated in an entity’s financial statements, particularly in the statement of profit or loss and in its notes to the financial statements.

On 19 December 2023, Belgium implemented the Pillar 2 legislation introducing a minimum effective tax rate of 15% for multinational enterprise groups (MNEs) or large domestic groups with consolidated annual revenues exceeding €750 million. The rules are applicable for financial years commencing on or after December 31, 2023.

For multinationals, transfer pricing is a tremendous challenge. In a new ‘On a roll’ video, Head of Tax Arnaud Thienpont explains the approach at AGC.

Each year, new Standards and amendments are published by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) with the potential to significantly impact the presentation of a complete set of financial statements.

In the course of 2023, the European Mobility Directive was transposed into Belgian law. As a result of this transposition, a number of new restructuring methods were introduced, including the simplified sister merger, the main features of which are explained below.

The assessment system for legal structures was introduced in 2015. It soon acquired a nickname: the Cayman Tax. This new form of taxation was supposed to allow income of certain legal structures – such as trusts, foreign foundations and low-taxed foreign entities – to be subject to tax on the part of the Belgian founders. Over the years, these regulations have been through several thorough revisions. The House of Representatives recently approved a bill that once again sharpens the Cayman’s teeth. We briefly discuss the most important changes.

Until 1 January 2024, the erection of signboards in Flanders was still subject to rules dating from the 1930s and 1950s. As these rules were very outdated and not adapted to the various modern options, the Flemish Government definitively approved the Regional Publicity Regulation 2023 on 12 May 2023. This regulation has two substantive objectives: the promotion of good spatial planning and road safety. The regulation applies to all signboards put up from 1 January 2024 onwards. Existing signboards therefore remain subject to the old rules. What are the main changes under the new regulation? We will briefly go over them here.

As was the case last year, many VAT changes came into force on 1 January this year. One change in particular concerns the formalities for applying the VAT deduction scheme according to the general pro rata method. Since 1 January 2023, these formalities had already applied to the deduction method according to actual use. Mixed taxable persons applying the general pro rata deduction method are now also affected. This gives the VAT administration better insight into mixed taxable persons and their right to deduction, regardless of the method used.

When a car is provided by an employer to an employee or director and the beneficiary also uses the car for private purposes a taxable benefit in kind is generated. This benefit in kind is subject to withholding taxes. The taxable value of the benefit is added to the taxable remuneration, the total is subject to withholding taxes. Benefits in kind are normally taxed on their market value. With regard to company provided cars the value is determined on a lump sum basis.

Unfortunately, every company is confronted with outstanding customer receivables at year-end. Sometimes this is simply an oversight on the part of the customer, but it may relate to amounts whose collection is in doubt because the customer disputes the invoice or is experiencing financial problems. In the latter case, the question arises how and when you can reflect this loss in your bottom line.

Since 1 September 2023, stricter rules have applied to debt recovery, in order to protect consumers against unreasonably high interest rates and aggressive recovery practices. Companies with B2C activities therefore need to adapt their contractual conditions and recovery process to the new rules. We briefly list the changes.