ATALEX

ATALEX is a fiduciary firm and member of the ITAA, formed by the association of six experienced professionals in bookkeeping, accountancy and tax and legal advice. The firm is based in Waterloo and has a second office in Brussels. Its aim is to give business owners a single point of contact for all their management questions, rather than passing them from one adviser to the next depending on whether the subject is accounting, tax or legal.

The team brings different profiles together. Catherine Wittamer and Sonia Taho are partners and certified accountants and tax advisers. Elpidio Mensah is a partner and management consultant. Jérôme Stevigny, Thibaut Gourdin and Alexandre de Chestret are partners and tax lawyers. They are supported by legal and accounting staff. The firm works in pairs: an accounting professional and a tax lawyer work together on each file, so that the same problem is examined from both angles from the outset.

The foundation remains that of a fiduciary firm: bookkeeping and tax returns for corporate income tax and personal income tax. The firm also offers the review and correction of accounts, checking existing books, identifying errors or irregularities and putting them right. An organisation assignment looks at the company's accounting administration: analysis of current processes, points to improve and the introduction of simpler day-to-day solutions.

On the tax side, ATALEX describes itself as specialised in tax and wealth optimisation, with strategies built case by case to reduce the tax burden while securing assets. Its tax defence work covers responding to an audit, settling a dispute and dealing with the authorities. Legal advice focuses mainly on tax law, commercial law, civil law and social law.

The life of the company takes up a large part of the activity. For company formation, the firm draws up the financial plan, helps choose the structure, drafts specific clauses for the articles of association and handles registration with the BCE and for VAT. It then supports operations on capital: capital increases or reductions, conversion, contribution of a branch of activity, merger, demerger and liquidation. It also assists shareholders who wish to exercise their rights, in particular to inspect documents or examine the management.

In mergers and acquisitions, the service covers both buying and selling: business valuation, support in negotiations, due diligence, legal, tax and financial organisation of the deal, financing, drafting of share transfer agreements and shareholder agreements, through to closing. For financing needs, the firm prepares and manages credit applications, from the analysis of needs to the assembly of the file.

Part of the offer is aimed at businesses in difficulty, with an analysis of the situation and the introduction of recovery plans. Financial advice and analysis complement this work by identifying risks and growth opportunities. Day to day, clients access their documents through the online Mon Atalex area, based on Clearfacts. The offices are open Monday to Friday.