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If you receive compensation from a foreign company for the sale of licences or even for the provision of a service, like consultancy, some foreign companies will withhold tax from this fee. The reasoning behind this withholding tax is that the compensation qualifies as a royalty or technical fee in the double taxation treaty.

On the 25th of May it will be one year to the day since the dreaded GDPR legislation took effect. The panic that took hold last year is nowhere to be seen today. So has nothing actually happened over the past year?

The number of transfer pricing checks has therefore increased dramatically since the beginning of 2019. And yet the concept of ‘transfer pricing’ still seems to be a distant concern for a great many companies. Should these companies be concerned?

Are you looking to reward your employees individually and bind them to the company to some extent? Then a stock option plan, offering discounted or free shares can offer a solution here.

It has been a daunting task, but on 28 February 2019 the new Belgian Company Code was nonetheless approved. This new Belgian Company Code will take effect in stages as from 1 May 2019. The new Code entails quite a few substantial changes; the legislator had stipulated that the new Code must be simplified and be more flexible. Below is a brief outline of a few key points:

Or maybe not? This could have been in an email from finance@vlt.be (instead of finance@vdl.be). And if you had not paid attention, all your payments to us would have gone to the bank account of a fraudster.

The European internal market has allowed many SMEs and large companies to flourish and grow. After some time, a company often wants to enter other markets and do business in and with countries outside the European Union.

With Brexit just around the corner, details on how we will need to organize our businesses tax-wise are beginning to surface. In that context, the Belgian VAT Administration finally confirmed what the consequences of Brexit are for UK companies with a Belgian VAT number.

Further to the recent legislative amendment, as of 1 January 2019, under certain conditions there is an option to apply VAT to lease agreements relating to (new) buildings. Not only does this optional levy open up the right to deduct the VAT incurred after 1 January 2019, but also the historic VAT. On 10 January 2019, on its website the Tax Authorities published a guideline concerning the refund of this historic VAT.

The law of evidentiary requirements laid down in our Civil Code needs to be changed. On 31 October 2018, the government submitted a bill on the law of evidence. Minister of Justice Koen Geens aims to make the Belgian Civil Code more in touch with people and contemporary society and is also addressing the issue of the law on evidentiary requirements.

In a previous article we told you that the Regions and the Federal State were working on the introduction of the single permit. This single permit is the combined permit which allows a national of a non-EU country to live and work in Belgium. The procedure has now been developed in full and has been in force in Belgium since 1 January 2019. This procedure means that Belgium has finally transposed Directive 2011/98/EU.

Almost 3 years after the British people voted to exit the European Union, last night, British parliament rejected by a large majority Prime Minister Theresa May’s and the European Union’s Brexit deal. A no-deal scenario is more than ever likely and it is highly recommended that companies are prepared for what comes next.

Profit shifts have been a top priority for the OECD, the G20 and Europe for some time. The result of this is the various measures that were implemented, inter alia, under the BEPS action plan. From 1 January 2019, the new CFC legislation came into effect in Belgium. With this, Belgium is taking the next step.

After months of negotiations, and against all expectations, the European Union and the United Kingdom have finally agreed on a provisional Brexit deal. But what exactly has been agreed in this separation agreement?

On 3 September, the school year started again for many young people. And things were no different at Vandelanotte. On that day we were able to welcome 14 new starters, each of them keen to be part of the Vandelanotte team.

25 May 2018 is already about three months behind us. So, it looks like it is time to evaluate whether the dreaded GDPR fines have actually become a reality. Or can we sleep easy for a bit longer? And what about our neighbouring countries? Time for a look back.

Under the influence of European directives, the UBO register is also becoming a fact of life in Belgium. This register, in which entities that are active in Belgium must include their 'ultimate beneficial owners' or 'final beneficiaries', must be completed by 30 September 2019 according to the long-awaited Royal Decree.

On 19 March 2018 the European Union and The United Kingdom have reached an agreement over a so-called transition period. But what kind of impact does the Brexit have on Belgian companies?