ITAA

Institute for Tax Advisors and Accountants (ITAA)
The professions of accountant and tax advisor are regulated by the Act of 17 March 2019. This legislation ratified the merger of the the Institute of Accountants and Tax Consultants (IAB-IEC) and the Institute of Accounting Professionals and Tax Experts (BIBF-IPCF), thereby creating the Institute of Tax Advisors and Accountants (ITAA). The law was implemented by royal decree on 11 September 2020. In view of the internationalisation of the profession, the institute uses an English-language name (ITAA).

The ITAA has various tasks:

• It promotes the interests of its members.
• It manages a public register and provides registration for those wishing to exercise the profession of accountant or tax advisor.
• It oversees access to the profession by organising regular entrance exams, traineeships and aptitude tests.
• It monitors correct observance of the rules of professional ethics by its members as well as continuing education.
• It issues - and monitors compliance with - standards and recommendations with a view to ensuring correct professional practice.

CNC-CBN

Accounting Standards Board  (CNC-CBN)
The Accounting Standards Board was set up by the Royal Decree of 21 October 1975 establishing an Accounting Standards Board (implementing Article 13 of the Act of 17 July 1975 on business accounting). Its head office is in the Brussels-Capital Region.

 The tasks of the CBN-CNC are to:

• advise the government and Parliament at their request or on its own initiative on matters relating to accountancy and annual accounts;
• establish accounting literature and, by way of opinions and recommendations, formulate consistent accounting principles.

FPS Economy

Federal Public Service (FPS) Economy
The Federal Public Service Economy is responsible for certain parts of the financial and accounting legislation:

• corporate governance;
• accounting law and the annual accounts of companies (including requests for a refund of the surcharge for the late filing of annual accounts and for a derogation from Belgian accounting obligations);
• the statutory audit of annual accounts.

IBR-IRE

Institute of Auditors (IBR-IRE)
All auditors, i.e. both individual auditors and audit firms, must be registered with the Institute of Auditors, a public institution established by the Act of 22 July 1953.

The purpose of the IBR-IRE is to:

• oversee the training and ensure the organisation of a body of specialists qualified to perform the function of company auditor, with all relevant guarantees in terms of competence, independence and professional integrity;
• ensure that the tasks entrusted to its members are properly performed.

XBRL Belgium

XBRL Belgium
On 22 November 2004, a platform was created at the National Bank of Belgium to encourage the use in Belgium of the “eXtensible Business Reporting Language” (XBRL), to standardise and optimise the exchange of financial information. The platform takes the form of a non-profit association and was set up at the initiative of eight bodies closely concerned with financial reporting.

The primary aims of XBRL Belgium are to:

• encourage and support the use in Belgium of XBRL, an open technical standard for simpler and more efficient compilation, exchange and processing of financial and business data;
• develop, make available and maintain the modified taxonomies necessary for that purpose.