Step 1 · Assess
A business we would hold ourselves.
What we do, in detail
Four functions, all carried out for companies we hold an interest in.
Program 01 · On our own account
Holding participations
We hold what we hold with our own money, which is the whole distinction from an investment firm. There is no fund, no mandate from outside investors and no pooling of anybody else's capital, and consequently no FSMA authorisation, because none of what we do requires one. Approaches asking us to manage or place money are declined.
Step 2 · Acquire
With our own capital.
Step 3 · Hold
With a long horizon.
Step 4 · Support
Through the management function.
Step 1 · Define
What the service actually is.
Step 2 · Deliver
By identified people.
Step 3 · Document
What was done, and when.
Step 4 · Price
On a defensible basis.
Program 02 · Real work, documented
Management support
A management fee has to correspond to services actually rendered, by identifiable people, at a price that can be justified. Fees without substance get disallowed, and the adjustment hits the paying company as well as the one invoicing. So we record what was done, who did it and how the fee was arrived at, rather than issuing a round number each quarter.
Program 03 · A named individual
Governance and representation
Where a company holds a directorship in Belgium it must designate a permanent representative, a natural person who carries the same liability as if they held the mandate personally. That is not a formality: it puts an individual's name and exposure behind the seat. We designate one and we declare conflicts of interest as the Code requires.
Step 1 · Mandate
Whether to accept it at all.
Step 2 · Representative
A named individual designated.
Step 3 · Serve
With the duties that attach.
Step 4 · Declare
Conflicts, as the Code requires.
Step 1 · Accounts
Prepared and filed in format.
Step 2 · UBO
Confirmed every year.
Step 3 · Thresholds
Consolidation checked.
Step 4 · Refer
Tax and audit to the professions.
Program 04 · Including the forgotten one
Corporate obligations
The UBO register requires an annual confirmation and is the obligation most often missed, because nothing visible reminds anyone. Consolidated accounts become necessary once statutory thresholds are crossed, which a group can do without noticing. Both are handled rather than discovered. Accountancy and tax themselves go to an ITAA-registered professional.
Got a business or a corporate matter to discuss?
An enquiry costs nothing, and we will say quickly if it is outside what we do.