October 2017 Update – Option to subject professional leasing to VAT initiative cancelled

Following up on our earlier post in September, we have meanwhile been informed that the Federal Government has ultimately decided past weekend to cancel the proposed introduction of an optional mechanism to subject professional leasing to VAT for notably budgetary reasons.

We believe this is highly unfortunate. The introduction of such a system could have drastically improved the competitivity of professional tenants towards foreign competitors and could have affected the real estate market on various fronts. Importantly, the system would have eliminated the need for complex structures to make the VAT-system applicable to a priori exempted transactions.

Notwithstanding the above, it cannot be excluded that the Federal Government may still introduce more minor changes to the existing real estate VAT regimes such as regarding the putting at the disposal of storage facilities. The discussions regarding these matters is still ongoing and other initiatives may still be developed.

Our Tax practice will keep you up date regarding these evolutions via our News section.

September 2017 – Option to subject professional leasing to VAT

Bruno De Duve, who leads our Tax practice group, & Helene Mulier, summer intern, discuss in depth the recent legislative initiative of the Belgian Federal Government to allow the possibility to subject to VAT the mere letting of an immovable property to a business subject to VAT as of 1 January 2018. This draft bill may drastically improve the competitivity of professional tenants towards foreign competitors and may effect the real estate market on various fronts.

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Anouk De Graef appointed Chairman of the Georgia Business Club

Anouk De Graef, VW’s real estate partner, has been appointed Chairman of the Georgia Business Club. The Georgia Business Club is an Antwerp-based real estate platform for constructors, entrepreneurs and the liberal professions. For the time being, Georgia Business Club is composed of 56 members active in various sectors: developers, investors, architects, constructors, real estate brokers, architects, … For all Georgia Business Club’ events, please see https://lnkd.in/gCRT23Z.

Julie Borgerhoff & Koen Byttebier publish key legal guide on “Crowdfunding” in Belgium

Need crowdfunding for your ideas or projects? Crowdfunding to invest directly or through starter funds? Or crowdfunding to support not-for-profit initiatives? Our associate, Julie Borgerhoff, offers legal guidance in her book “Crowdfunding”, the first manual on the law related to Crowdfunding.

https://www.diekeure.be/nl-be/professional/7587/crowdfunding

VW’s Hospitality team assisted the Irish hotel management group PREM in the renewal of Holiday Inn Schuman

VW’s Hospitality team, consisting of partner Jacques Verhaegen and associate Florian De Rouck, assisted the Irish hotel management group PREM in the successful renewal of its management agreement with respect to the Brussels-based Holiday Inn Schuman. Prem Group manages over 40 hotels across Europe from city centre budget properties to serviced apartments and luxury country resorts.

June 2017 – Florian De Rouck co-organises international conference on ‘Moral Rights & New Technologies’

Florian De Rouck, member of VW’s IP/IT team, co-organised the international conference ‘Moral Rights & New Technologies: Creativity & Authorship in a Digital World’ with Intellectual Property and Moral Rights expert Prof. Mira T. Sundara Rajan at the University of Glasgow, U.K.. Florian participated on the conference’s panel on Information Technology and spoke about Authorship in Artificial Intelligence(AI)-type environments. For more information about the event, see https://lnkd.in/gu7TTmM and https://lnkd.in/gUd_wTh