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

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

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
• to develop the accounting doctrine and, by opinions or recommendations, to determine the legal accounting principles.

FPS Economy

Federal public service (FPS) economy
The Federal public service Economy is responsible for parts of the financial and accounting regulations:

• corporate governance
• accounting law and company annual accounts (including questions for a refund of the supplementary charge for the late filing of annual accounts and questions for a derogation from Belgian accounting obligations)
• statutory audits of the annual accounts.

IBR-IRE

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

The object of the IBR-IRE is:

• to oversee the training of specialists and to provide a permanent body of specialists qualified to perform the function of auditor, with all the requirements concerning competence, independence and professional integrity
• to ensure that the work assigned to its members is properly carried out

XBRL Belgium

XBRL Belgium
On 22 November 2004, a platform was created at the headquarters of the National Bank of Belgium to encourage the use in Belgium of the "eXtensible Business Reporting Language" (XBRL) as an instrument for standardising and optimising the exchange of financial data. The Belgian XBRL platform is in the form of a non-profit organisation, and was set up on the initiative of eight bodies closely involved with financial reporting.

The primary aims of XBRL Belgium are:

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