Holding and managing wealth — real estate, shareholdings, a portfolio — through a company can be a formidable tool: pooling, family governance, optimisation of ownership and preparation of the transfer. But it is also a choice that must be actively managed. The taxation of asset-holding companies and holdings is technical and shifting: the regime of real-estate income in a company, the treatment of capital gains, the dividends-received deduction (DRD) on shareholdings, trade-offs between liquidation reserve, dividends and capital reductions, benefits in kind linked to real estate made available, intra-group financing. Each structure raises its own questions: should this new property be held through a company or privately? How can liquidity be extracted efficiently? How can a usufruct / bare-ownership split be organised without a risk of reclassification? And above all: how can the transfer of the company itself be prepared — gifts of shares, family pacts, governance among heirs — by making use of the applicable regional rules? A poorly steered asset-holding company destroys value; well steered, it creates value over several generations.

The structuring and management of holdings and asset-holding companies is one of our teams' stated specialisations, notably within our Montgomery office. We are involved at every stage: opportunity analysis before formation (the asset-holding company is a tool, not a reflex — we will also tell you when it is not justified); legal and tax structuring of asset ownership; the company's accounting and obligations, including intra-group agreements and their documentation; optimisation of the flows between the operating company, the holding and the private estate; real-estate strategies (acquisition, financing, usufruct/bare-ownership split, rental to the director or to third parties); and planning of the transfer, in close coordination with our Wealth Management department and your notaries. Our strength: we often manage the entire ecosystem — operating company, holding, the director's estate — which guarantees the consistency of decisions.

The questions we deal with most often? "Should I buy this property through my company or privately?" — the answer depends on your horizon, the use of the property, the financing and your exit strategy; we quantify it in both scenarios. "How can I extract the liquidity accumulated in my company without an excessive tax burden?" — liquidation reserve, dividend policy, capital reductions, deferred remuneration: each lever has its conditions and its timetable. "Is my asset-holding company still justified?" — structures inherited from the past deserve a periodic review, because taxation has changed. "How can I transfer my shares to my children without losing control?" — gifts with retained usufruct, certification, statutory clauses: the tools exist and can be combined. Complex questions, concrete answers.

We support many directors in setting up their holding at a key moment: a partial sale of their operating company, the welcoming of an investor, or the desire to reinvest surplus liquidity in real estate or shareholdings. We manage the management companies and asset-holding structures of associations of professionals — such as that veterinary centre whose operating-company and partners' management-company accounts we keep. We have restructured growing family groups to adapt the structure to their size, as for that group now owning ten pharmacies. And we regularly prepare transfers: planned gifts of shares, the setting up of family governance, the organisation of the handover between generations. Let us also mention those directors we have supported in acquiring income-generating properties through their structure: a comparative company / private analysis, the arrangement of the financing, the optimisation of ownership and the anticipation, from the moment of purchase, of the future transfer — because the best succession planning begins at the moment of acquisition, not twenty years later.

Because an asset-holding company is judged over time, you need a stable, rigorous and proactive partner. Our ITAA-certified accountants and tax advisors, specialised in SMEs, holdings and asset-holding companies, follow the constant evolution of Belgian wealth taxation and alert you when your structure deserves to be adjusted — before the authorities do it for you. You benefit from a team that brings together under one roof all the necessary skills: accounting of the structures, taxation of the flows, strategy of the operations, planning of the transfer. And from a conviction: your wealth is not a file, it is a family project.