Set Up a Company in Belgium While Living in France

Keep your home in France, set up your company in Belgium

Set Up a Company in Belgium While Living in France

We are J. Jordens, and many clients contact us from France, with no plan to move, to set up their company in Belgium. Good news: this is entirely possible, and here we explain the points of attention specific to this situation.

Living in France does not prevent you from setting up a Belgian company

Belgian law does not require the founder or director to reside in Belgium to set up an SRL/BV or SA/NV. What is mandatory, however, is that the company have a registered office located in Belgium. This is precisely where domiciliation comes into its own: it allows you to have an official Belgian address without having to move.

The question of tax residency

This is the point most often misunderstood. Setting up a company in Belgium does not automatically change your personal tax residency, which remains in France if that's where the centre of your vital interests is located. However, the company itself will be Belgian for tax purposes if its place of effective management is in Belgium, and will therefore be subject to Belgian corporate tax (ISOC). The double taxation treaty between France and Belgium precisely governs the allocation of taxing rights between the two states, to avoid the same income being taxed twice.

What we specifically recommend

• Register your company's office at a reliable Belgian address that can receive your official mail and administrative notices.
• Appoint a clearly identified manager, who can be yourself, with no Belgian residency requirement.
• Anticipate the accounting question with an expert familiar with Franco-Belgian cross-border situations.
• Check your personal situation with a tax advisor if you also carry out professional activity in France.

Managing your Belgian company remotely

Thanks to digital tools and suitable support, it is entirely possible to run a Belgian company from France: electronic signature of documents, online banking for the Belgian professional account, remote meetings with your accountant. Our firm is experienced in supporting this type of director and guides you step by step, including for procedures requiring a one-off presence in Belgium.

Our support from Brussels

Based in Uccle, our firm has formed more than 30,000 companies since 1948, many of them for directors residing in France. We handle drafting the articles of association, the registered office service, complete registration in the mandatory registries, for VAT and for UBO, taking into account the specifics of your cross-border situation.

The accountant's role in this arrangement

We systematically recommend choosing an accountant familiar with Franco-Belgian cross-border situations. This choice avoids many filing errors, particularly regarding the allocation of income between the two countries. If you wish, we can direct you to professionals we know who regularly support our clients residing in France.

One-off trips to plan for

Even while managing your company mostly remotely, certain steps remain simpler with a one-off presence in Belgium: initial opening of the professional bank account at certain institutions, signing the notarial deed if your situation requires it, or specific administrative appointments. We tell you in advance when your presence, or that of a representative, will actually be useful, so you can plan your schedule accordingly.

In short, living in France is never an obstacle to setting up a solid, fully compliant Belgian company, provided you properly structure the registered office, accounting management and cross-border tax follow-up of your activity from the outset.

If you live in France and wish to set up your company in Belgium, contact us: we explain, with full transparency, the procedures and timeline suited to your project.