There were 941,991 VAT-registered enterprises in Belgium on 31st December 2017

Enterprises
There were 941,991 VAT-registered enterprises in Belgium on 31st December 2017

The three sectors with the largest number of enterprises subject to VAT are "profesionnal, scientific and technical activities" (section M), "wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles" (section G) and "construction" (section F). "Accommodation and food service activities" (section I) and "other service activities" (section S) complete the top 5.

The importance of "profesionnal, scientific and technical activities" in the population of enterprises subject to VAT has sharply increased between 2014 and 2017. In 2017, the sector of "profesionnal, scientific and technical activities" registered a somewhat higher number of active enterprises than "wholesale and retail trade". One year earlier, "wholesale and retail trade" was still the largest sector.

The increase of the number of taxpayers in the "profesionnal, scientific and technical activities" is due to the mandatory registration in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises as enterprise subject to VAT for lawyers (since 2014) and for company managers, representatives in the day-to-day management, liquidators and members of the board of directors (since 2016) acting as natural persons.

In the top 10, we also find the sectors "information and communication" (section J) "arts, entertainment and recreation" (section R) and "administrative and support service activities" (section N). These sectors also recorded strong growth results in 2017. However, the size of the sector "agriculture, forestry and fishing" has decreased.