The idea of an International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) began life in 1914, with a discussion between lawyers and police from 24 countries. Officially established in 1923 and headquartered in France, INTERPOL now has 194 member countries. The organisation has been designed to enable police at each National Central Bureau (NCB) to share and access […]
IN BELGIUM AND ABROAD, banks find themselves increasingly in trouble because they accept money that may not have been taxed fully in the past. It recently happened to KBC in the Netherlands, and to Degroof-Petercam before that. Sooner or later, however, all banks will probably face the same music. The financial system has undergone a […]
THE BELGIAN COMPANY CODE (Wetboek van Vennootschappen en Verenigingen – WVV) came into effect last month. The possibility to contribute to a company’s capital with one’s work is one of the Code’s signature reforms. Or to put it in the terminology of the old code: it is now possible to contribute to the capital of […]
Our Finance Minister announced a few weeks ago the introduction – faster than expected by Europe – of a reporting requirement for accountants and tax advisers. In fact, aggressive tax planning will be the subject of the reporting. Judging from the reactions and questions of all those involved in tax advice, their response to the […]
Almost three years ago to the day, my article “Le cadastre des fortunes arrive” was published under this section. The Central Contact Point (CCP), created by the National Bank of Belgium, has been operational since mid-2015. The CCP is and was the conclusion of the exercise started in 2011 and aimed at recording assets held […]
The trees, the forest, the forester and the regulator Doctors have an unenviable position at parties. People bombard them with dozens of medical questions about their ailments, possible medication and corresponding prescriptions, let alone the situation in which and uncle or grandchild makes an unfortunate movement or breaks something. As a lawyer, fortunately, I have […]
ON CLOSER INSPECTION, money matters are not so complicated. If you earn an income from your work, you can either keep, invest or spend that money. Whatever the option, the State has a finger in every pie. There are taxes at every level. For people who work, there is the sky-high, progressive tax rate on […]
YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE A MARTIAN to not know that elections are coming. A characteristic of our constitutional system is that the House of Representatives then designates the articles of the Constitution which may be amended in the following legislature. Nothing has changed with regard to our fundamental rights for decades. The amendments to […]
THE TAX PROCEDURE of direct taxes and VAT dates back to March 1999, which is twenty years ago this month. If this anniversary may have gone unnoticed, the two decades following its introduction have by no means been plain sailing. Right from its conception, there was a suspicion that there were major flaws in the […]
FISCALITY INFLUENCES our behaviour. People avoid highly taxed transactions or income, preferring tax exemption and low tax solutions. The government has planned for that. But if the taxpayer is the one taking initiatives to pay as few taxes as possible, this is called tax avoidance or evasion. This is perceived as undesirable behaviour. The company […]
Here we see Dominic Wai of ONC Lawyers meeting firstly with Gunther Schmidt of Endemann Schmidt in Hamburg, then with Fabian Blume of Blume und Christen Partnerschaft at Fabian’s offices. Dominic stated that it was very nice meeting with both of them. Thank you for providing IR Global with the pictures. This is something […]
IR Global, the world’s largest exclusive network of advisory firms is delighted to introduce Dave van Moppes of Tuerlinckx Tax Lawyers. Dave has joined IR as our exclusive White Collar Crime Member in Belgium. Tuerlinckx Tax Lawyers is a Belgian nation-wide law firm specialised in tax law with offices in Antwerp, Westerlo, Hasselt and Liege. Tuerlinckx Tax Lawyers […]