Investing in Wallonia | Setting up a business | The Crossroads Bank for Enterprises
 The Crossroads Bank for Enterprises is a register that pools all the identification data concerning enterprises and their business entities. It contains the data of the national register of legal entities, of the Trade Register, of VAT and of the national office for social security (ONSS) and is updated by the competent bodies who enter the data.
From now on, enterprises only have to pass on their identification data to the authorities once. They must simply communicate the unique enterprise number allocated to them and the services concerned can automatically retrieve the necessary data from the BCE. What better example of administrative simplification!
THE DATA ENTERED INTo THE BCE
The Crossroads Bank for Enterprises registers the data relating to the following persons :
1) legal entities under Belgian law;
2) legal entities under foreign or international law with a registered office in Belgium or that have to be registered in compliance with an obligation laid down by Belgian law;
3) all natural persons, legal entities or associations
· operating as a commercial company or craft or
· subject to social security taxes as employers or
· subject to VAT or
· practising as an independent an intellectual, liberal or service activity |
4) as well as the business entities of the persons under point 1°, 2° et 3°, as long as the registration of these business entities is necessary for the execution of the Belgian law.
DATA LISTED IN THE BCE RELATING TO THE enterprise
· Names
· Company name (for natural persons : surname and first name)
· Trading name (optional)
· Abbreviation (optional)
· Address
· Legal form (=> S.P.R.L., S.A., foreign company, … )
· Legal status (=> normal status, launch or close of bankruptcy proceedings, merger, … )
· Functions
Giving the function and the national register number or register bis number (for natural persons) or the enterprise number (for legal entities) of persons :
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o exercising a representative function (founder, business manager, …) ;
o holding the required professional qualifications (at the outset : basic knowledge of business management, professional aptitudes for the 42 regulated professions)
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· Activities : give one or several of the company’s NACE codes.
· Qualities : authorisations, registrations, etc. covered by the various administrations.
· Financial data (date of the beginning and close of the financial year, month of the AGM).
· Bank account numbers (giving the objective)
· Links with the business entities and the other companies
· Links towards the publications in the Belgian Official Gazette (publication date and number.)
· Links towards the balance sheet data (the date of deposit at the National Bank of Belgium.)
DATA LISTED IN THE BCE RELATING TO THE BUSINESS ENTITY
· Commercial name (optional)
· Address
· Professional activities in the business entity
· Activities
· Qualities
· Links with the company
ENTERPRISE NUMBER AND BUSINESS ENTITY NUMBER
a) Enterprise number
The authorities have introduced a unique enterprise number that must be the unique key for the identification of companies.
This enterprise number replaces the trade register number, the number of the National Register of Legal Entities and the VAT number.
c) Business entity numbers
A business entity is understood to mean any place that can be geographically identified by an address, where at least one of the company’s activities is exercised or from which the activity is exercised (workshop, plant, shop, point of sale, office, mine, head office, registered office, warehouse, agency, subsidiary).
e) Use of the enterprise number and of the business entity number
The enterprise number is compulsory in all contacts between enterprises and the administrative and legal authorities, as well as in the relations between the latter.
The allocation of the enterprise number does not exempt the companies from their legal obligations, in particular, to be subject to VAT, to be registered with the national office of social security as an employer, to request all the specific authorisations required in relation to the sector of activity.
f) Mention of the enterprise number
For all the enterprises below that are subject to VAT, including ASBL (not for profit companies), the enterprise number must be preceded by the words (VAT BE).
How ?
For all the enterprises below that are subject to VAT, including ASBL (not for profit companies), the company number must be preceded by the words “VAT BE ».
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