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Belgium

Véronique De Brabanter

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Law Square

(an independent law firm in Belgium with a privileged cooperation with the PwC network)


Woluwe Garden – Woluwedal 20

1932 Sint-Stevens-Woluwe

Belgium


Tel: +32 (0)2 710 78 17

Email: veronique.de.brabanter@lawsquare.be

Website: www.lawsquare.be

Véronique De Brabanter is counsel at Law Square, an independent law firm with a privileged cooperation with the PwC network. Her practice focuses on dispute resolution and litigation related to all types of taxes.

Over a period of more than 20 years, Véronique has built up experience in advising both Belgian and international clients on procedural matters and in handling both administrative and court proceedings (such as complex transfer pricing disputes).

As a specialist in Belgian and international tax law, she assists clients in tax audits and negotiates settlements with the administrative authorities. She assists clients in developing a litigation strategy on the basis of national legislation, EU law and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and of the Human Rights Court.

Véronique also carries out risk analyses (e.g. penalties, criminal prosecution, liability of managers, etc.) and helps clients with voluntary disclosures.

Véronique has expertise in litigation aftercare and assists clients in the execution of settlements or court decisions and files requests for waiver of interest and penalties.

Véronique is a member of the Brussels Bar.

Véronique teaches local and regional tax law at the University of Ghent and regularly lectures at seminars on tax and litigation topics.

Véronique is fluent in Dutch and English.

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Luc De Broe

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Laga

Gateway Building, Luchthaven Nationaal 1J

1930 Zaventem

Belgium


Tel: +32 2 800 70 10

Fax: +32 2 800 70 01

Email: ldebroe@laga.be

Website: www.laga.be

Luc De Broe, Laga (Deloitte Legal), joined the tax controversy solutions department in 2010. Before joining, he was partner and senior counsel with Stibbe.

Luc has been a member of the Brussels Bar since 1982. He is also a professor of tax law at the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL). Between 2007 and 2013 he has been a member of the executive committee of the International Fiscal Association (IFA).

Luc is the author of numerous articles on Belgian, international and European tax law. In 1988, he was awarded the IFA's Mitchell B Carroll Prize for his manual on cross-border leasing between Belgium and the US. In 2008, he published the book "Tax Planning and the Prevention of Tax Avoidance".

Luc graduated from the KUL and earned a Master of Laws degree from the Northwestern University School of Law (Chicago, 1986). Luc also earned a degree in tax law from the Higher School of Fiscal Sciences Brussels (1987) and earned a doctorate from the KUL in 2007.

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Jurgen Gevers

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Law Square

(an independent law firm in Belgium with a privileged cooperation with the PwC network)


Woluwe Garden – Woluwedal 20

1932 Sint-Stevens-Woluwe

Belgium


Tel: +32 (0)2 710 76 05

Email: jurgen.gevers@lawsquare.be

Website: www.lawsquare.be

Jurgen Gevers has more than 17 years of experience in tax dispute resolution and litigation. Before joining Law Square, he was a partner at Antaxius Advocaten.

Jurgen assists national and multinational companies with customs and excise issues, including anti-dumping and countervailing duties as well as related tax aspects. In this context, he advises his clients on procedures and assists them in audits and criminal investigations, negotiations on amicable settlements, rulings and submissions of applications for reimbursement and remission.

Jurgen also handles disputes with the Customs and Excise Administration or the VAT authorities and assists his clients in administrative proceedings and proceedings before the civil and criminal courts, the Belgian Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court. Jurgen has been involved in cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union (e.g. C-499/14, C-351/11, C-367/09 and C-201/04).

Jurgen assists his clients in the negotiation and drafting of contracts between logistic services and importers/exporters, between importers and suppliers/customers, and between exporters and customers. He also represents them before the commercial courts in related disputes.

He teaches customs and excise in tax and accountancy management at the Karel de Grote Hogeschool in Antwerp and has published numerous tax-related articles.

He is a member of the Brussels Bar.

He is a Dutch native speaker and speaks English and French.

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Willem Henckens

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Laga

Luchthaven Nationaal 1 J, 1930 Zaventem

Belgium


Tel: +32 2 800 7014

Email: whenckens@laga.be

Website: www.deloitte.com; www.laga.be

Willem Henckens, Laga (Deloitte Legal), is a member of the business criminal law team.

He has significant experience as a litigator, both in civil and criminal proceedings. Recent fraud and white collar crime highlights include the defence of a bank in criminal proceedings following the sale of complex financial products, defence of a listed company against insider trading charges (including litigation before the EU Court of Justice), and representing a local businessman in a media covered fraud case relating to alleged embezzlement of funds and parallel banking charges. He is also involved in the criminal proceedings brought after the state rescue of a leading Belgian bank as lawyer of one of the former senior bank executives.

Willem has published several articles on criminal and company law topics in leading law reviews.

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Ine Lejeune

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Law Square

(an independent law firm in Belgium with a privileged cooperation with the PwC network)


Woluwe Garden – Woluwedal 20

1932 Sint-Stevens-Woluwe

Belgium


Tel: +32 2 710 78 05

Email: ine.lejeune@lawsquare.be

Website: www.lawsquare.be

Ine Lejeune has 33 years of experience in taxation. She leads the tax policy, tax dispute resolution and tax litigation practice at Law Square, an independent law firm with a privileged cooperation with the PwC network.

Ine and her team of 16 tax lawyers provide support related to all sorts of taxes (corporate income taxes, personal income taxes, customs, excise, anti-dumping duties, VAT, environmental taxes, regional and local taxes (e.g. levied by municipalities) by:

  • Developing local or globally coordinated dispute resolution and litigation strategies: to litigate, or to negotiate?

  • Developing a defence strategy for clients using national legislation, EU law, the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) and of the Court of Human Rights;

  • Assisting with regulatory and voluntary disclosures;

  • Acting on behalf of clients during audits, (fraud) investigations and raids;

  • Assisting with administrative appeals and settlement negotiations with authorities, mediation and arbitration procedures;

  • Defending clients' interests in all courts in Belgium (from the lowest to the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court), and the ECJ; and

  • Filing complaints with the European Commission (EC).

Before joining Law Square as a partner, Ine held multiple leadership positions within PwC, which she joined in 1984, including global indirect taxes network leader, global indirect tax policy leader and partner in charge of PwC's services to the EU institutions.

Ine has assisted clients with tax disputes and procedures also in Belgium, and other European countries, as well as before the ECJ. Ine has filed complaints with the EC resulting in infraction procedures and changes in national legislations resolving litigations.

Ine has been responsible for 36 studies on taxation delivered to the European Commission and the European Parliament, has provided policy services to Belgium (VAT grouping), other EU member states and non-EU countries (UAE, GCC, China and India).

She is a member of the European Commission's VAT expert group and the OECD's technical advisory group (TAG) for consumption taxes.

Ine was elected Belgian Taxman in 2009 (an annual award recognising an outstanding contribution to tax), lectures at the University of Vienna (WU) in the LLM programme in international tax law, has lectured and lectures as guest professor at other universities in Belgium, Europe and China. She has published several books and articles on EU, global and Belgian VAT, the case law of the ECJ and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. She has a master's degree in law and a postgraduate degree in tax studies.

Ine is fluent in Dutch, English and French.

She is a member of the Brussels Bar.

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Astrid Pieron

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Mayer Brown

Avenue des Arts 52

1000 Brussels

Belgium


Tel: +32 2 551 5968

Fax: +32 2 502 5421

Email: apieron@mayerbrown.com

Website: www.mayerbrown.com

Astrid Pieron's practice includes counselling on the transactional aspects of transfer pricing, tax optimisation of mergers, demergers and acquisitions, structuring of investment funds and general assistance to private equity deals.

Astrid heads Mayer Brown's European transfer pricing centre and coordinates transfer pricing strategies and controversies in Europe. She currently participates in the EU Platform for Tax Good Governance and has previously served as a non-governmental member to the EU Joint Transfer Pricing Forum, advising the EU Commission on transfer pricing matters (2012 to 2015).

Before joining Mayer, Astrid practised in Brussels and Luxembourg with two of the world's leading tax and accounting firms: Deloitte (2002 to 2006) and Arthur Andersen (1981 to 2002).

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Philippe Renier

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Law Square

(an independent law firm in Belgium with a privileged cooperation with the PwC network)


Woluwe Garden – Woluwedal 20

1932 Sint-Stevens-Woluwe

Belgium


Tel: +32 2 710 78 37

Email: philippe.renier@lawsquare.be

Website: www.lawsquare.be

Philippe Renier is a director (advocaat vennoot/avocat associé) at Law Square, an independent law firm with a privileged cooperation with the PwC network.

Philippe has more than 17 years of experience in tax law in various leading law firms.

Philippe has extensive experience assisting national and multinational industrial and financial companies with complex tax controversy issues. He has an excellent reputation and good contacts with the tax authorities. Philippe has significant experience undertaking remedial action after an audit by the special tax inspectors' team, as well as tax settlement procedures before tax authorities and the public prosecutor, thereby using mediation and negotiation techniques.

As a tax litigator, Philippe has significant experience on complex tax litigation procedures before all Belgian and European courts with specific regard to tax fraud, withholding tax claims, transfer pricing, permanent establishment issues and anti-avoidance rules.

Philippe has experience assisting multinational industrial and financial clients (banks) for EEC Arbitration Convention procedures, as well as on claims and ruling requests (involving domestic and EU law, application of tax treaties, anti-avoidance rules, and the non-discrimination principle).

Philippe litigated/is litigating some milestone cases before the European Court of Justice, including one on excess dividend deductions received by taxpayers (C-499/07) and another on tax fairness and the tax on dividends (C-68/15).

He has also successfully defended cases before the Belgian Constitutional Court.

Philippe is a professor at the University of Brussels where he lectures on tax procedural law. He is linked to the University of Hasselt as a voluntary researcher in the area of tax law.

He has published numerous tax-related articles in matters that concern national and international tax litigation. He regularly lectures on specialised tax seminars and is frequently quoted in the press.

Philippe is a member of the Brussels Bar. He is a Dutch native speaker, is fluent in French and English and proficient in Spanish.

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Johan Speecke

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Laga

Doorniksewijk 12

8500 Kortrijk

Belgium


Tel: +32 56 59 43 41

Fax: +32 56 74 41 49

Email: jspeecke@laga.be

Website: www.laga.be

Johan Speecke, Laga (Deloitte Legal), is a founding partner of the law firm Laga. Before this, he was a partner at the Tournicourt & Vanistendael law office.

As a senior partner of the tax team, Johan specialises in tax litigation, advising companies and individuals during the administrative process (advice on tax challenges leading to final assessments, negotiations with both local and central tax administration, individual rulings, claims against assessments, notices, among others) as well as before the tax and criminal courts both in Belgium (Court of First Instance, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court) and elsewhere in Europe.

Johan is a professor at the Brussels Fiscal High School and at the Ghent University and a permanent member of the editorial staff of the Tijdschrift voor Fiscaal recht. He holds a degree in law from the University of Leuven (KUL) and a degree in economics from EHSAL.

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Danny Stas

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Laga

Gateway building, Luchthaven Nationaal 1 J

1930 Zaventem

Belgium


Tel: +32 2 800 70 11

Mobile: +32 476 548 902

Email: dstas@laga.be

Website: www.laga.be

Danny Stas, Laga (Deloitte Legal), is the managing partner and the head of the tax advisory practice.

Danny is a tax lawyer specialised in VAT, in particular with respect to real estate, public authorities and healthcare, and eco taxes as well as contributions. As a Laga partner, Danny focuses on VAT consulting for Belgian clients in the private and public sectors and the broad corporate market at national and international level.

In the real estate industry, Danny focuses on VAT consulting for clients in the private (e.g. real estate developers, REITs, hotel operators, etc.) and public sectors. Besides the specific VAT topics (e.g. reduced VAT rates, VAT exemptions, VAT recovery for public infrastructure that should be transferred to a public authority), he has good knowledge of alternative financing of real estate and transfer duties. In that respect, Danny has specific expertise with the commercialisation of hotel rooms and units in senior housing properties.

Danny advises public authorities (communities, universities) and non-profit associations on the VAT treatment of investments and divestments in real estate. In case of an investment, he also advises on the exploitation in a tax beneficial way. Besides the envisaged investments, he also assists those entities with the VAT regime of the subsidies they grant/receive and with mergers.

In the healthcare sector, Danny assists hospitals and operators of senior housing with the scope of the VAT exemption for medical services, the application of reduced VAT rates (e.g. senior housing), the implementation of cost sharing arrangements, as well as representation towards the Belgian VAT authorities.

Besides providing VAT advisory services, Danny assists numerous clients in all kind of litigation files before tax courts and the constitutional court (cf. VAT controversy regarding online betting, VAT controversy regarding the exemption for medical services, wealth tax). These clients are privately owned entities, public authorities and the Ministry of Finance.

Danny is a lecturer at the University of Leuven (KUL). In addition, Danny is a regular speaker at internal and external seminars (cf. master in public private partnerships, international indirect tax, tax aspects of senior housing), has written many articles on VAT and has co-authored a number of books.

Danny has more than 20 years of experience in indirect tax consultancy/litigation. He holds a master's degree in tax law and accountancy (cf. Vlerick Management School) and has a law degree from the Catholic University of Leuven. He is a member of the Council of the Brussels Bar.

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Annick Visschers

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Laga

Gateway building, Luchthaven Nationaal 1 J

1930 Zaventem

Belgium


Tel: +32 2 800 70 72

Mobile: +32 477 72 98 31

Email: avisschers@laga.be

Website: www.laga.be

Annick Visschers, Laga (Deloitte Legal), joined the firm's tax controversy solutions team in 2010. Before this, Annick practiced at Stibbe until 1999.

A member of Brussels Bar since 1996, Annick specialises in Belgian and international law and focuses on tax risk management (preventing disputes and resolving business issues), tax litigation (defending clients before Belgian tax courts, the Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice), tax recovery and criminal tax matters.

Annick is a member of the editorial staff of the journal Révue Générale du Contentieux Fiscal and CFO-magazine and of the editorship (doctrine) of the Tijdschrift voor Fiscaal Recht. She is also the author of numerous articles on tax risk management and the investigative powers of the tax authorities.

Annick graduated from the University of Leuven in 1995 and studied tax law at the Free University of Brussels.

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Thierry Afschrift

Afschrift

Patrick Boone

PwC

Thierry Charon

Loyens & Loeff

Christian Chéruy

Loyens & Loeff

Victor Dauginet

Dauginet

Guido De Wit

Linklaters

Thierry Denayer

Stibbe

Caroline Docclo

Loyens & Loeff

Daniel Garabedian

Liedekerke

Axel Haelterman

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Alain Huyghe

Baker McKenzie

Nicolas Lippens

Linklaters

Bernard Peeters

Tiberghien

Véronique Slachmuylders

KPMG

Patrick Smet

Allen & Overy

Reinhold Tournicourt

Monard Law

Dirk van Stappen

KPMG

Xavier Van Vlem

PwC

Henk Vanhulle

Linklaters

Isabel Verlinden

PwC

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