Summary of the innovations

Two new characteristics can be registered from today in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE) with a starting date from 1 May 2024: "Postal service provider (BIPT notification)" and "Mandatary BELparcel". These characteristics are respectively granted by the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT) and the National Social Security Office (NSSO) within the framework of the new BELparcel application. Through the application, postal service providers can notify themselves if they deliver parcels up to 31.5 kg from or to Belgium. The provider of postal services who carries out this notification will obtain the characteristic "Postal service provider (BIPT notification)". In case the foreign postal service provider does not yet have a company number, the National Social Security Office will announce the entity in the CBE. By contrast, the characteristic "Mandatary BELparcel" is assigned to mandataries who carry out the notification in the BELparcel application on behalf of foreign companies.

Since 1 January 2024, CSLLs (SCRL/CVBA) no longer have capital. Consequently, for CSLLs active on that date, the capital has been automatically converted to 0 and is no longer visible in the various CBE applications. For CSLLs that ceased operations before 1 January 2024, the amount of registered capital remains available.

Following a reform of the regulations on itinerant and fairground activities in the Brussels Capital Region on 01/04/2024, a new authorisation "Itinerant activity at the consumer's home (Brussels Cap. R.)" with accompanying entrepreneurial skill will be created. Registration in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE) of this new authorisation and entrepreneurial skill will be done by the enterprise counters as of 01/04/2024.

Two new codes have been added in the code tables:

• Authorisation 50518 "Itinerant activity at the consumer's home (Brussels Cap. R.)"
• Entrepreneurial skill 20048 "Itinerant activity at the consumer's home (Brussels Cap. R.)"

More information regarding this reform can be found in the link below:

Commerçant ambulant | Bruxelles Économie et Emploi (economie-emploi.brussels)

The obligation to present proof of professional competence for five regulated professions (wholesale meat trader, dry cleaning - dyeing services, pedicure, masseur/masseuse and dental technician) will be abolished in the Brussels Capital Region on 31/03/2024. This obligation had previously been abolished in the Flemish and Walloon Regions.

As a result, the following codes for professional competences in code table will be discontinued on 31/03/2024 :

• 20010 Wholesale meat trader
• 20035 Dry cleaning - dyeing services
• 20303 Pedicure
• 20304 Masseur/masseuse
• 20306 Dental technician

Likewise, on 31/03/2024, the following codes of corresponding authorisations in code table will be discontinued :

• 50145 / 50146 Professional competence of butcher - wholesaler
• 50108 / 50109 Sectoral professional competence of dry cleaner-dyer
• 50139 / 50140 Professional competence of pedicure
• 50141 / 50142 Professional competence of masseur
• 50143 / 50144 Professional competence of dental technician

Finally, the above-mentioned professional competences and authorisations registered in the CBE will be discontinued on 31/03/2024.

Trusts and similar legal structures managed from Belgium must register with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises prior to the registration of their ultimate beneficial owners in the UBO register. This registration is carried out by the General Administration of Treasury (Federal Public Service Finance). The characteristic 00093 "Trust or similar legal structure" is entered in the entity's data.

More information on the UBO register.

As a result of the entry into force of the law of 5 November 2023 containing various provisions on economy, the CBE management service may ex-officio strike off entities that have not complied with the obligations for entering or updating their data in the register of ultimate beneficial owners (UBO register).

The striking off due to non-compliance with UBO obligations can thus be entered in the CBE since 21 December 2023.

The ex-officio striking off will be withdrawn, once, according to FPS Finance, the relevant obligations have been completed in the UBO register.

Finally, striking offs and withdrawals of striking offs are accessible via the applications and services made available to public administrations, the file containing all the public data available for reuse, and are also published in the annexes to the Belgian Official Gazette.

The law of 23 March 2019 on the Introduction of the Companies and Associations Code containing various provisions sets out that from 1 January 2024, legal entities that have adopted certain legal forms will be automatically transformed into other legal forms. The Crossroads Bank for Enterprises has therefore added, in the section on legal forms, an indication of the entity's legal form following its automatic transformation.

Furthermore, the aforementioned act provides that, for partnerships limited by shares, the function of managing director must, from 1 January 2024, be read/considered as director when the partnership is managed by a sole managing director. In this case, the CBE has added the function as it is meant to be read/considered, as well as the start date and, if applicable, the end date.

The Act of 23 March 2019 introducing the Companies and Associations Code (CAC) has made a series of changes relating to legal forms and functions.

This act provides that, from a certain date, some legal forms and functions (within certain legal forms) must be considered/read differently, even before the filing of the articles of association to comply with the provisions of the CAC and/or, as regards functions, even before the filing of the instrument of appointment or renewal.

Therefore, for certain legal forms and functions, the CBE has added the legal form/function as it should be read/considered, as well as the starting date of that form/function and, where applicable, the ending date (for functions only).

Op 28 January 2022, a link to the "COSTA" database has been added to the "external links" section. This link appears only for registered entities legal person and refers to the statutes and their updates (coordinated statutes) insofar as they concern notarial deeds filed from 01/05/2019. This link also refers, since 13 May 2022, to the powers of representation of legal persons with regard to third parties, when the delegations of these powers are included in the statutes resulting from notarial acts.

As of 18/04/2018, the name of Kind en Gezin has been changed to "Opgroeien Regie". In order to take this name change into account, the description of the authorisation code 61000 "Child and Family permit" in the KBO was adapted to "Childcare (Flemish Community)".

Following the merger between the SSSSO (formerly ONSS-APL) and the NSSO, the "Employer NSSO-Local and Provincial Administrations" capacities (recorded at entity level), and the "Activities NSSO-LPA" (recorded at entity level and at the level of the business units) are converted into NSSO capacities and NSSO activities as of 1 January 2022.

On September 30, 2020, the Institute of Accountants and Tax Consultants (IAB-IEC) and the Institute of Accounting Professionals and Tax Experts (BIBF-IPCF) have merged and the new Institute for Tax Advisors and Accountants (ITAA) was created.

The titles related to the exercise of the profession have been adapted, leading to the creation of following new authorisation codes in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises :

• 12517 Certified tax advisor or certified (tax) accountant
• 13517 Trainee certified tax advisor or trainee certified (tax) accountant
• 22517 Accountant or tax accountant
• 23517 Trainee accountant or trainee tax accountant
• 14517 Registered on seperate list public register ITAA

September 30, 2020 has been assigned as the start date for these new codes.

The four former codes of the IEC and the IPCF are discontinued from September 29, 2020 :

• 10517 Recognised by the Institute of Accountants and Tax Consultants
• 11517 Trainee of the Institute of Accountants and Tax Consultants
• 20517 Recognised by the Institute of Accounting Professionals and Tax Experts
• 21517 Trainee of the Institute of Accounting Professionals and Tax Experts

The authorisations with the former codes were converted. In concrete terms, the authorisations 10517, 11517, 20517 and 21517 that were active on 30/09/2020 were discontinued on 29/09/2020 and for each of these authorisations, respectively, an authorisation 12517, 13517, 22517 and 23517 was created with start date 30/09/2020.

For more information, please visit the ITAA website.

As of 10 September 2021, the registration of branches in the CBE has been amended.

The contact details of the branch are no longer registered at the branch level, but at the level of the corresponding business unit.

Since March 16 2021, a new characteristic with code "00072 - Identified within the framework of Working in Belgium - WIB" has been registered in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises. The National Social Security Office (ONSS-RSZ) assigns this new characteristic to foreign entities that submit an application via the "Working in Belgium" platform and are not yet registered in the CBE. The ONSS-RSZ will first register the entity in question.

The following characteristics can no longer be registered in the CBE :

• The characteristic 00001-ESD service provider ;
• The characteristic 00002-non-EU service provider ;
• ESD-activities.

The "00001-ESD service provider" and "00002-non-EU service provider" characteristic codes as well as the "ESD001" activity code are, therefore, discontinued in the code tables "characteristic" and "activities" respectively.

Code 019 "Discontinuation of a ESD-non-EU entity " is also discontinued in the code tables "legal status" and "reason for discontinuation of the entity".

Those codes will be discontinued on the date of the release (i.e. 20/11/2020).

Finally, the aforementioned characteristics and activities will be discontinued in the CBE.

Since 6 July 2020, the address of the oldest active establishment unit is no longer displayed in the data of the entities natural persons themselves. If you would like information on the establishment units, please consult the list of establishment units.

The foreign entities, which are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) and have a branch in Belgium, can be automatically deleted in the CBE when they are stopped in their registry of origin. The automatic deletion is only possible with a notification of the discontinuation from the European Business Registers Interconnection System (BRIS).

In concrete terms, the CBE performs the following operations:

On the date mentioned in the notification:

• stopping of the foreign entity, with "Deletion following the stopping in a registry of the EEA" as stopping reason;
• stopping of the branch (address);
• registration of the legal situation "Deletion following the stopping in a registry of the EEA".

Afterwards, the deletion is published in the Annexes to the Belgian Official Gazette.

The new reason for the cessation and legal situation are available in the table of codes "Legal data".

On 1 May 2019, the qualification "company with a social purpose" and the legal form "agricultural company" were repealed.

Since 12 November 2019, the "Accounting law - Audit - Cooperatives" department of the Directorate General for Economic Regulation of the FPS Economy registers in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE) an authorisation for each cooperative society recognized as a "social enterprise".

Since the same date, this department also registers in the CBE an authorisation for each general partnership, limited partnership, private limited company and cooperative society recognized as an "agricultural enterprise".

The request for recognition can be sent to the aforementioned department with the help of the form provided to this end.

From 1 January 2020 on, private limited liability companies will no longer have capital. As a result, the capital of these entities, active on that date, will automatically be converted to "0" and will no longer be visible in the different applications of the CBE, except for CBE Select, where the displayed capital corresponds to '0'.

For private limited liability companies discontinued before 01.01.2020, the amount of the registered capital remains available.

On 1 May 2019, the legal form "professional association" was withdrawn.

Since 1 August 2019, for each NPO recognised as a professional association or federation of professional associations, an authorisation has been registered in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises by the "Intellectual Professions and Legislation Service" of the FPS Economy.

Professional associations or federations of professional associations that were active on 1 May 2019 are presumed to be recognised as professional association (PO) or federation of professional associations (FPO) and will get the authorisation automatically if they have been transformed into a NPO by 31 December 2023 at the latest.

NPOs existing on 1 May 2019 or established after that date that wish to be recognised as PO or FPO, must submit an application to the Intellectual Professions and Legislation Service.

More information

Since 1 July 2019, the authorisations necessary for the operation of a driving school (exploitation of a driving school (Brussels-Capital Region) and the licences for the operation of an establishment unit by an approved driving school (driver training (Brussels-Capital Region)) have been included in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises. These authorisations, referred to in the Royal Decree of 11 May 2004 on the approval conditions for motor vehicle driving schools, are registered by the Brussels Regional Public Service (SPRB-GOB). They may be suspended for a given period of time or permanently withdrawn in the event of non-compliance with the regulations.

For more information

The entry into force of the Companies and Associations Code on 01.05.2019 causes certain changes to the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE) and its applications.

Legal forms

The code table "legal data" is adapted. New codes of "legal forms" have been created while other codes have stopped. Corrections are also brought to some abbreviations. These adaptations are available in the code table "Legal data" , subpage "legal forms". In addition, the search list by legal form has been adapted in the "search by name" module of the Public Search.

Legal functions

New codes of "legal functions" have been created. They are available in the code table "Legal data" , subpage "functions". The list of persons authorised to represent the registered entity has also been adapted.

Reopening of liquidation proceedings

In case of a deficit liquidation and if it appears that one or more assets have been forgotten, the company court can order a reopening of the liquidation proceedings. As a result, the legal person regains the legal personality. A registered entity "legal person" may now, when it is discontinued in conclusion of the liquidation, get an active status, with "Reopening of the liquidation proceedings" as legal situation.

This new legal situation is available in the code table "Legal data" , sub "legal situation".

Adaptation of the denominations

As far as non-profit associations are concerned, the term "operation centre" is replaced by "branch".

Registration of the company in the foreign register

When a Belgian legal person transfers its registered office to a foreign country, it must provide its foreign identification number, which will be included under the heading "external identification number".

Removal of the capital

The capital of the legal forms referred to in the Companies and Associations Code is removed from the CBE except for the limited companies, the European companies and the European cooperative partnerships.

At the beginning of January 2019, some active addresses were automatically converted in the CBE. These modifications are the result of:

• the merger of 15 municipalities in the Flemish Region ( more info ).
• new district boundaries in Antwerp and Ekeren.
• the change in the composition of the administrative districts in Hainaut ( more info ).

What are the consequences for the CBE data?

• The addresses of registered entities Natural person, registered entities Legal person, establishment units and branches were automatically modified in the CBE provided the address is correctly registered in the CBE and it can be linked to an address which is officially recognized by the municipality.
• These ex officio adaptations of addresses will be published automatically and free of charge in the annexes to the Belgian Official Gazette if your registered entity is subject to a publication obligation.

In short, good news!

The registered entity must take no steps to adapt the address in the CBE or to publish this change in the annexes to the Belgian Official Gazette.

For further information regarding the address modifications in the CBE, please contact the CBE helpdesk at helpdesk.kbo@economie.fgov.be

Companies and associations must however adapt their statutes. This can be done at the time of the next amendment of the statutes, after the publication of this address change.

The entry into force on 01/11/2018 of the company law reform implies a number of important changes for the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE) and its applications.

What changes ?

1. The concept of 'enterprise' disappears.

   From now on the term 'enterprises' will no longer be used in the CBE, but will be replaced by 'registered entities' or simply 'entities'. The terms 'enterprise number' and 'Crossroads Bank for Enterprises', on the other hand, are retained.

2. The terms 'craft business' and '(non-)commercial' characteristic are abolished.

   As a result of the abolition of the concepts of trader and craftsman, the characteristics of 'commercial company', 'non-commercial company under private law' and 'craft business' operating on 31 October 2018 will be converted into the new characteristic of 'enterprise subject to registration'.
   In other words, on 1 November 2018 the new characteristic of 'enterprise subject to registration' will be automatically granted.

3. The distinction between the civil and commercial character of the company disappears.

   On 1 November 2018 legal forms starting with 'Civil company in the form of' will automatically be converted into a legal form that no longer refers to the civil nature.

4. Several contact details can be registered in the CBE.

   An entity can have several contact details of the same type in the CBE. For example, an entity can have two or more e-mail addresses or telephone numbers. An entrepreneur can also change these data free of charge at any time via My Enterprise.