AML obligations for accountants and tax advisors in Belgium

Yes, where your profession appears in article 5, § 1, of the act of 18 September 2017. That list is exhaustive. Number 23° covers statutory auditors. Number 24° covers certified accountants and certified tax advisors. Number 25° covers accountants and tax accountants, and number 25°/1 covers non-regulated tax advisors.

The category you fall into settles two questions. It settles who supervises you, and it settles how high the administrative fine can run. Article 85, § 1, appoints the Institute for Tax Advisors and Accountants for certified accountants and tax advisors. For statutory auditors the authority is the College of Supervision of Auditors. The AML supervisory authority therefore differs per profession.

Article 132, § 2, sets a ceiling of 1 250 000 euro for the entities of 23° to 33°. Where the breach produced a gain or avoided a loss, that maximum may be raised to twice that amount. Article 132, § 1, allows the fine to be imposed on the responsible members of the statutory management body, of the management committee or of the senior management as well.

The act asks for four documents, and it asks for them in writing. Article 16 requires an overall risk assessment. That assessment takes account of your clients, your services, the countries involved and your delivery channels. Article 7 allows you to apply those measures in a differentiated way, according to the risk you establish yourself.

Article 8 requires policies, procedures and internal control measures proportionate to the nature and the size of your firm. A member of senior management approves them. Article 9, § 1, requires one responsible person at the highest level. Article 9, § 2, requires one or more further persons who analyse atypical transactions and file the reports.

Article 10 requires an independent channel through which your staff can report a breach confidentially and anonymously. Article 11 requires ongoing training programmes for the staff concerned. We build those documents with you through in-house AML support, and we deliver the training to your staff.

Article 47 requires you to report as soon as you know, suspect or have reasonable grounds to suspect that funds, transactions or facts are linked to money laundering or terrorist financing. You do not have to identify the underlying offence yourself. The report goes to the Financial Intelligence Processing Unit.

Article 53 draws the line. It excludes the reporting duty for information a client gives you when you ascertain that client’s legal position, or during the defence or representation in or concerning judicial proceedings. That exception falls away as soon as you take part in the money laundering yourself, give advice for money laundering purposes, or know that the client seeks such advice.

Article 55 forbids you to tell the client or a third party that information has been passed on or that an analysis is under way. That prohibition covers your staff as well. Discouraging a client from taking part in an illegal activity does not count as such a disclosure. What happens to the transaction after that is set out on our page on the anti-money laundering legislation.

Customer due diligence, and what you kept of it. Article 21 requires you to identify and verify the identity of every client with whom you enter into a business relationship. For an occasional client that duty starts at 10 000 euro, and at 1 000 euro for transfers and money remittances.

Article 23 further requires identification of the ultimate beneficial owner, with reasonable measures to verify that person’s identity. Article 4, 27°, treats a holding of more than twenty-five per cent of the voting rights, the shares or the capital as an indication. Article 74/1 requires you to report any discrepancy between the UBO register and your own records. Your identity as the reporter is never disclosed to the company concerned.

Article 33, § 1, forbids you to enter into the relationship or carry out the transaction where you cannot complete the due diligence, and requires you to end an existing relationship. Article 35 imposes ongoing vigilance during the business relationship. Article 60 requires you to keep the documents for ten years, and article 62, § 1, to erase them afterwards. An AML audit tests that file before your supervisor does.

Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 of 31 May 2024 applies from 10 July 2027. It has direct effect and does not need to be transposed into Belgian law. Directive (EU) 2024/1640 must be transposed by that same date and repeals Directive (EU) 2015/849 then.

Your exemption survives. Article 70(2) of that regulation keeps the exemption from the reporting duty for auditors, external accountants and tax advisors, for information they receive when ascertaining a legal position or during a defence in judicial proceedings. Article 70(1) allows member states to route the report through a self-regulatory body.

One threshold moves. Article 80 of that regulation introduces a Union-wide limit of 10 000 euro for cash payments for goods or services, and a member state that already had a lower limit may keep it. Belgium today keeps the prohibition in article 67, § 2, on any payment or gift in cash above 3 000 euro. Our page on compliance follows that transition.

That depends on the title under which the bookkeeper is registered. Article 5, § 1, 24° and 25°, of the act of 18 September 2017 covers certified accountants and certified tax advisors, and accountants and tax accountants. Number 25°/1 also covers non-regulated tax advisors. The list in article 5 is exhaustive. If your title is absent from it, Book II of that act does not apply to your firm.

The Institute for Tax Advisors and Accountants. Article 85, § 1, of the act of 18 September 2017 appoints that supervisory authority for certified accountants and tax advisors. For statutory auditors the authority is the College of Supervision of Auditors. Article 132, § 2, allows an administrative fine of up to 1 250 000 euro for these categories.

A legal person makes two appointments. Article 9, § 1, of the act of 18 September 2017 requires one responsible person at the highest level, within the statutory management body or the senior management. Article 9, § 2, requires one or more further persons who analyse atypical transactions and file the reports with the Financial Intelligence Processing Unit. Article 45 requires a written report under the responsibility of that second person.

Ten years. Article 60 of the act of 18 September 2017 requires identification data and supporting documents to be kept for ten years from the end of the business relationship or from the occasional transaction. The same ten-year period applies to the documents and transaction records, counted from execution. Article 62, § 1, then requires the personal data to be erased once that period expires.