CORTHOUTS

Corthouts & Van Santvoort is an accounting and tax practice on Hoevenstraat in Lommel, in the province of Limburg. Its history is long for the profession: the office was founded in 1965 by Gustaaf Corthouts, taken over by his son Serge after his death in 1983, and incorporated in December 1997. In September 2023 the practice moved from the family house in Kerkhoven to new premises on Hoevenstraat. That continuity across three generations is useful context for a self-employed person looking for a lasting point of contact.

The team is listed by name. Serge and Tom Corthouts are presented as certified tax accountants, Petra Van Santvoort as management assistant, surrounded by seven file managers and an administrative assistant. The company is registered with the ITAA under number 50.274.490. Serge and Tom are also registered in their own names, meaning both principals are themselves accredited and not only the structure that employs them.

The first discipline is accounting: document processing, day-to-day bookkeeping and preparation of the annual accounts. The second is tax, which the firm sets out matter by matter rather than in general terms. It names personal income tax, corporate income tax, VAT and tax optimisation, but also two services few offices put forward: assistance and defence during tax audits, on VAT as well as personal and corporate income tax, and the filing and follow-up of objections through to settlement. Those are the moments when a file is actually decided, and where inside knowledge of the client's accounts counts for more than an argument built after the fact.

The third strand is support for start-ups and company formation. To that the office adds social and legal advice on running a business, announced alongside the accounting and tax work. The client base brings together self-employed professionals, small and mid-sized companies and companies being formed, from the Lommel area and northern Limburg.

The start-up strand is set out down to the formalities: checking the diplomas and certificates required for access to the profession, drawing up the financial plan and budget, choosing the legal form between sole trader, private limited company, public limited company or cooperative, applying for the enterprise number at the CBE, activating the VAT number and affiliating with the social insurance funds. The page on company formation stands out for its honesty: it lists the expected advantages, limited liability and the tax regime, but also the drawbacks most firms leave unsaid, namely the costs of formation and liquidation, more complex and therefore more expensive outsourced bookkeeping, additional social contributions and the obligation to file the accounts with the National Bank every year.

In practice, the firm opens a client portal for document flow and gives access to a file-tracking space. Documents can therefore arrive digitally without a visit to the office becoming compulsory. Opening hours are published, Monday to Friday from 9 to 12 and 13 to 16.30, with Wednesday open in the morning only and no telephone cover. The office also states that it does not answer price requests by email: because each file is quoted on its own complexity, it asks for a phone contact first. That is a clear position, and anyone looking for a posted standard rate is better off knowing it before the first call.