CRB

Company formation - Belgium

The Belgian BV (SRL): Formation, Cost and Requirements

Register a Belgian BV/SRL from anywhere, with no minimum share capital to lock up and no notary visit required in person.

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  • No minimum share capital (Art. 5:1 CSA)
  • One founder is enough
  • Incorporation in 5 to 10 working days on the notarial platform (Art. 2:22/1 CSA)
Belgium only Brussels business district, where a non-resident founder registers a Belgian BV/SRL.

What Is a BV/SRL, and What We Do

BV (besloten vennootschap) and SRL (société à responsabilité limitée) name one Belgian legal form in two languages, not two entities (Art. 5:1 CSA). Until 1 January 2020 it was called BVBA or SPRL; the name changed by operation of law, not the statute itself. A Belgian BV is not a Dutch BV: same abbreviation, a different country's statute.

A BV/SRL is Belgium's default limited liability company belgium; compare it against the other forms there if a different one fits better. We coordinate the articles and financial plan for the notary, the registry filing, and the KBO/BCE and UBO registrations. We are not the notary, and not a nominee director for hire.

What BV/SRL Formation Includes

Six pieces of work, all handled inside one file.

  • The Articles and the Constitutive Deed

    We draft the articles and prepare the constitutive deed the notary executes, covering governance, share classes and whether the default transfer lock-up (Art. 5:63 CSA) stays or is disapplied.

  • The Financial Plan and Initial Own Funds

    No minimum capital is required (Art. 5:1 CSA). We build the seven-part financial plan (Art. 5:4 §2 CSA), the document a court can call for after an early failure (Art. 5:16, 2 CSA).

  • Coordinating the Notarial Execution and Registry Filing

    We prepare the file the notary executes, then track the enterprise-court filing due within 30 days of the deed (Art. 2:8 §1 CSA), the trigger for legal personality (Art. 2:6 §1 CSA).

  • KBO/BCE Registration and VAT Activation

    We register the company at an accredited business counter, assign NACE-BEL activity codes and establishment units, and activate the VAT identification on form 604A before trading starts.

  • Powers of Attorney for Absent Founders

    A founder who will not appear signs by authentic or private proxy (Art. 5:11 CSA); we arrange the proxy in the form the Belgian notary requires.

  • The Share Register and the UBO Filing

    We open the share register kept at the company's seat (Art. 5:24 CSA) and file the UBO register entry within 30 days of incorporation, plus the annual confirmation the register requires afterward.

What we do not do: execute the deed ourselves (a Belgian notary does), act as a nominee director, or promise a bank account or a date for one.

Who This Is For

  • A Non-Resident Founder

    No residency rule applies to directors or shareholders (Art. 2:147 CSA), and no minimum capital locks up your funds before revenue arrives (Art. 5:3 CSA).

  • A Foreign Company Opening a Belgian Entity

    A parent company abroad can hold the BV directly, useful for a Belgian subsidiary that trades under its own enterprise number rather than as a branch.

  • A Founder Choosing Between a BV and a Cooperative

    One founder is enough for a BV. A cooperative needs several members working together and suits a shared, member-driven venture instead of a single owner's company.

How the Process Works

The BV/SRL incorporation sequence and its statutory deadlines Eight grouped steps from choosing the name to publishing and registering. The deed carries 5 or 10 working days under Art. 2:22/1 CSA, the registry filing 30 days under Art. 2:8 §1 CSA, and the UBO entry 30 days. The bank account step has no published timeline. 5 or 10 working days Art. 2:22/1 CSA 30 days to file Art. 2:8 §1 CSA 1 Name, activities and seat 1 to 3 days 2 Company bank account no published timeline 3 Financial plan 2 to 5 days 4 Articles and the deed 2 to 5 days 5 Contribution in kind, if any adds 1 to 3 weeks 6 Execute the deed 7 File at the registry 8 Publish, register and activate UBO within 30 days
The BV/SRL incorporation sequence, with its three hard statutory deadlines and the one step Belgium does not put a clock on.
  1. Choose the name, activities and seat. Client, with us. Practice estimate: 1 to 3 days. Covers a name check in the KBO/BCE public search, NACE-BEL activity codes, and the Region that decides the competent registry and the deed's language.
  2. Open the company bank account. Client, with the bank. The least predictable step: no Belgian authority publishes a timeline for it, and cash paid up at the deed needs a special EEA account first (Art. 5:9 CSA).
  3. Draft the financial plan. Client's figures, with us or an accountant. Practice estimate: 2 to 5 days. Must cover the seven Art. 5:4 §2 items over at least two years, signed by the founders, then held by the notary.
  4. Draft the articles and the deed. The notary works from our draft. Practice estimate: 2 to 5 days, longer for bespoke articles. Using the platform's model deed is what keeps the file on the 5-working-day track.
  5. Add a contribution in kind, if any. Founders plus an independent réviseur d'entreprises. Adds 1 to 3 weeks in practice. Requires the founders' special report and the auditor's report, both filed and published (Art. 5:7 §1 CSA).
  6. Execute the deed. Executed by a notary: in person, by proxy, or by videoconference. The platform route finishes within 10 working days, or 5 where every founder is a natural person on the model deed (Art. 2:22/1 CSA).
  7. File at the registry. The notary files electronically, within 30 days of the deed (Art. 2:8 §1 CSA). Legal personality begins on the day of filing, not on the day the deed was signed (Art. 2:6 §1 CSA).
  8. Publish, register and activate. The registry filing triggers Moniteur belge publication (Art. 2:14 CSA), KBO/BCE registration, VAT activation on form 604A, and the UBO register entry, due within 30 days of incorporation.

Documents You Will Need

  • Passport or national ID for every founder, director and beneficial owner
  • Proof of residential address for each of them
  • The company name plus two backup alternatives
  • The intended activities, matched to NACE-BEL codes
  • The Belgian seat address and its Region
  • The shareholding split and the intended UBO chain
  • The financial-plan figures: funding sources, guarantees given, two years of projections
  • Evidence of title and value, where a contribution in kind is intended
  • A proxy in the form the notary accepts, for a founder who will not appear

Whether an apostille or a sworn translation is required for a foreign document is not established from any official source: confirm the notary's own requirement before you assume one applies.

Not Sure a BV Is the Right Form?

Compare the BV/SRL against the NV/SA, the cooperative and the partnership forms, or tell us what you are building.

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What Belgium Itself Charges

What the Belgian state and the notary publish for a standard, cash-funded BV/SRL incorporation with one establishment unit. Our own fee is never listed here.

A hand working a calculator beside euro banknotes, a laptop and printed figures, the setting in which Belgian state costs get added up.
Published Belgian state and notarial tariffs for a standard, cash-funded BV/SRL incorporation, one establishment unit (notaris.be, ejustice.just.fgov.be, economie.fgov.be, 2026).
What Belgium charges Amount Detail
Notarial fee, BV/SRL incorporation EUR 217 + EUR 298 excl. VAT Fixed tariff from 1 January 2024, cash-funded model-deed incorporation only
Moniteur belge publication, electronic filing EUR 236.50 excl. VAT, EUR 286.17 incl. Tariff for filings from 1 March 2026
Moniteur belge publication, paper filing EUR 292.90 excl. VAT, EUR 354.41 incl. Same tariff page
KBO/BCE registration, one establishment unit EUR 111.50 2026 rate, indexed annually
Standard-route total About EUR 863 excl. VAT Sum of the four lines above; the KBO fee's VAT treatment is not published, so no combined incl.-VAT figure is given
The three published cost buckets of a standard BV/SRL incorporation Notarial fees of EUR 515, made of EUR 217 and EUR 298. Moniteur belge publication of EUR 236.50 on the electronic route. KBO/BCE registration of EUR 111.50. Together about EUR 863 excluding VAT. EUR 515 Notarial EUR 217 + EUR 298 EUR 236.50 Moniteur belge electronic filing EUR 111.50 KBO/BCE one establishment unit About EUR 863 excl. VAT in total
The three published cost buckets that make up the standard BV/SRL incorporation, each cited to its own source.

Article 5:12, 7 CSA obliges the constitutive deed itself to state the total, at least approximate, cost of forming the company: a founder can check that figure against the table above. Once the BV/SRL exists, belgium corporate income tax runs at 25 percent, or 20 percent on the first EUR 100,000 for a qualifying small company (Art. 215 CIR 92).

Problems This Page Answers That the SERP Does Not

  • The Share-Transfer Lock-Up Nobody Mentions

    By default, selling or gifting shares needs approval from at least half the shareholders holding three quarters of the shares, with three statutory exceptions (Art. 5:63 CSA). The articles can disapply it.

  • What a BVBA Actually Became

    The name changed automatically from 1 January 2020: BVBA read as BV even where the articles were never amended (Art. 39 §2, introducing law). Articles had to conform by 1 January 2024 (Art. 39 §1).

  • Setting Up Without Flying to Belgium

    A founder can sign by authentic or private proxy (Art. 5:11 CSA), or use the platform route within its statutory limits (Art. 2:22/1 CSA). Its login needs a Belgian eID or itsme, not by rule.

  • The Financial Plan Protects the Founders' Case

    If the company fails within three years on manifestly insufficient funding, founders answer for it personally, but the financial plan the notary keeps is the evidence a court reviews first (Art. 5:16, 2 CSA).

Why Work With Us

Maarten De Wilde, Formation and corporate structuring lead, prepared this page. Aurelie Lambert, Tax, licensing and compliance lead, reviewed it. Updated 25 September 2026.

From our practice. A file built on the platform's model deed with only natural-person founders keeps to the statutory 5-working-day track; a corporate founder or bespoke articles moves it to the 10-working-day track, outside the fixed notarial tariff.

Related Services

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does the Belgian state charge to incorporate a BV?

Notarial EUR 217 plus EUR 298 excl. VAT, Moniteur belge EUR 236.50 electronic or EUR 292.90 paper, and KBO/BCE EUR 111.50 per establishment unit: about EUR 863 excluding VAT for a standard, cash-funded, model-deed incorporation. The KBO fee's VAT treatment is not published, so no single incl.-VAT total is given.

Can I be held personally liable if the company fails?

Only under narrow conditions: the company is declared bankrupt within three years of incorporation and the initial own funds were manifestly insufficient for the planned activity (Art. 5:16, 2 CSA). The financial plan the notary keeps is the document a court reviews to decide.

Can I sell or transfer my shares in a BV freely?

Not by default. Art. 5:63 CSA requires written approval from at least half the shareholders holding three quarters of the shares, with three statutory exceptions. The articles may disapply the rule; a transfer made without approval does not bind the company or third parties.

Can I set up a Belgian BV without travelling to Belgium?

Yes. A founder can sign by authentic or private proxy (Art. 5:11 CSA), or the notary can use the digital platform route within its 5 or 10-working-day limits (Art. 2:22/1 CSA). The platform's login runs on a Belgian eID or itsme in practice.

Does a BV need a Belgian director or a Belgian shareholder?

No. The CSA sets no residency requirement for directors or shareholders (Art. 2:147 CSA). A non-EU founder who will actually be self-employed inside the company needs a professional card, a separate regional approval decided by the Region of the seat, not a company-law rule.

How long does it take to set up a BV in Belgium?

The only hard official numbers are 5 or 10 working days on the notarial platform route (Art. 2:22/1 CSA) and 30 days to file at the registry (Art. 2:8 §1 CSA). The bank account step has no published timeline anywhere, and it usually decides the real schedule.

What documents do I need to register a company in Belgium?

Passport or ID for every founder, director and beneficial owner, proof of address, the company name and two alternatives, the intended activities and seat, the financial-plan figures, and a proxy for anyone who will not appear. Whether an apostille or sworn translation is needed is not settled from any official source.

What do I have to do in the 30 days after incorporation?

File the deed at the enterprise court registry within 30 days (Art. 2:8 §1 CSA), then file the UBO register entry within 30 days of incorporation. VAT must be activated on form 604A before trading starts, though it carries no fixed 30-day clock of its own.

Did my BVBA have to be converted into a BV, and what happened if nothing was done?

Nothing had to be converted: the name changed automatically by operation of law from 1 January 2020, BVBA reading as BV even where the articles were never amended (Art. 39 §2, introducing law). What was compulsory was bringing the articles into line with the Code by 1 January 2024 (Art. 39 §1).

What does BV mean in Belgium?

BV stands for besloten vennootschap, the Dutch name of the form the French version of the same statute calls société à responsabilité limitée, SRL. It is one legal form written in two official languages, not two different companies (Art. 5:1 CSA).

Is a BV the same as an SRL?

Yes. Which name appears on the deed depends on the Region and the language used, not on any difference in the underlying legal form: both refer to the same company type created under the same articles of the CSA (Art. 5:1 CSA).

What is the difference between a BV and a BVBA?

None in substance: BVBA is the pre-2020 abbreviation for the same legal form now called BV. The name changed by operation of law from 1 January 2020 (Art. 39 §2, introducing law); a company that never updated its articles is still a BV today, running on outdated clauses.

Is a Belgian BV the same as a Dutch BV?

No. The abbreviation is identical, but Belgium and the Netherlands run different company-law statutes: a Belgian BV is created under the Belgian CSA (Art. 5:1 CSA), and a Dutch BV under Dutch law. Do not treat guidance written for one as applying to the other.

Is a BV the same as an LLC?

Not exactly. The closest English description is a private limited company. A BV is a separate Belgian taxable person, subject to Belgian corporate income tax in its own right (Art. 215 CIR 92), which is not the same legal or tax structure as a US LLC.

How much share capital does a BV need?

None. Art. 5:1 CSA removed the minimum-capital requirement; instead, Art. 5:3 CSA asks for sufficient initial own funds for the planned activity, justified in the financial plan required under Art. 5:4 CSA and kept by the notary, not filed with the deed itself.

Start Your BV/SRL Formation

Send us the founders, the activities and the seat, and we return a formation plan built on the figures above, not a generic quote.

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