20km of Brussels

Posted on May 28, 2014 by gielenm

Since years Deloitte is an established value at the 20km of Brussels. On Sunday 18 May some 100 colleagues from Deloitte gathered at the “Jubelpark/Parc du Cinquantenaire” to run 20 long kilometres with about 40.000 other sporty but crazy people.

Although it was a Sunday morning, we met at 8:15 with some Tax colleagues at the Deloitte offices in Diegem to ‘carpool’ to the start of the race. To be correct, we parked the car at the Woluwe shopping and then took the metro to the event. Once arrived on the site, we searched for the Deloitte-booth, where we received our running shirts, our race-number, some drinks and (healthy) snacks. Especially the drinks were much appreciated, as it was very sunny, and thus a warm day. Due to this excellent weather, measurements had to be taken, i.e. sun block flew richly.

Before the start of the run, Ronny Mosuse joined us at the Deloitte-booth to have a picture taken, as he is the ambassador of S.O.S. Children Villages, a charity actively supported by Deloitte.

At 10:00 am sharp, the kick-off for the first wave was given at the top of the “Jubelpark/Parc du Cinquantenaire”. A quite impressive moment with more than 40.000 participants and with encouraging music from Stromae, and off course… the Brabançonne. Somewhere amongst the crowd, King Filip and our very own CEO Rik Vanpeteghem were awaiting the launch of the race.

At 10:10 am it was up to our wave to start, all excited as we had all been training for some time to reach the finish, but even more important to run a decent time. The race led us through “Ter Kamerenbos/Bois de la Cambre”. Passing through the forest was very pleasant (at last a bit of shadow).

After 1:01:12 the first athlete finished. For most of the Deloitte-colleagues it took a bit longer to reach the finish. Despite the ”a-little-too-warm-to-run- day”, we all enjoyed every single minute of it (maybe I should speak for myself but I honestly did!). With the constant encouragement of the crowd along the 20km’s, all Deloitte colleagues made it to the finish. Luckily and very important on such a warm day, were the 5 water and energy drink stands during the run.

After the race we all gathered at the Deloitte-booth to celebrate our courage with some very refreshing drinks and snacks, read beers and hamburgers… Honestly we really deserved them!!

Congratulations to all Deloitte-participants who finished the race. It really was an impressive day. I don’t doubt that my colleagues and I will participate again next year. We keep on training … still today!

Thanks all for the unusual but really impressive sunny Sunday!!

CDM

Posted on May 14, 2014 by sdewilde

Hi everyone,

As I already mentioned in one of my previous blogs, being up to date is important for a Tax Consultant. Therefore, once a month, we organise a so-called “CDM” , which is short for “Current Development Meeting”. During this (lunch)meeting, all juniors and seniors of a particular service line (in my case Global Employer Solutions) and of a particular office get together to discuss an interesting article which they have read. We need to give a presentation on a “hot” topic or to give an update to the group on some new developments in the tax world. Someone of the management also participates in the meeting to moderate and to share their experience with the more junior group.

Some of the topics which were discussed during the last CDM were special tax statuses in the European Union, modifications to the tax landscape due to the 6th state reform, determination of the place of residence for social security purposes and the “legal constructions” which have to be reported in the Belgian resident income tax return as of this year. Wondering which topic I discussed? Actually, I put my last blog into action: I gave a presentation regarding the seminar I attended in Leuven.

As I just received an invite for a webinar, I think I already know what my next blog will be about! Talk to you soon!

A day of a Consultant at Deloitte

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Bram

Dear all,

I refer to my previous correspondence on this blog. Please find below an overview of my activities during a working day at Deloitte. In this case we will analyse last Wednesday in detail.

I just realise that I’m writing this blog during my lunch break.

Switch off Tax Consultant writing modus ;-).

I got op early last Wednesday (6:15 AM) because I had to prepare a meeting with one of my major clients in the Antwerp region and of course I didn’t want to arrive late! The meeting started at 8:30 and was scheduled until 10:30. A short meeting – perfect – because I still had a lot of work waiting for me at my desk.

I got back at the office at 12:30. So far for that peaceful afternoon :-)… it was time for (VAT) action! I started with reviewing a Belgian and French VAT return from one of our clients, discussed and interesting VAT issue with a partner and wrote a complex advice on the simplification of triangulation.

Suddenly, at 16:00 everyone started packing their stuff… I didn’t realise what was happening, is everyone taking half a day vacation? Was my watch broken? But then I realised: today is our team event!

We went out to have a dinner with the whole VAT team followed by some drinks and a party at Café Local! Also our new colleagues, who will be joining our team in September 2014, participated in the event. Below you can see a picture of the party crew :-).

Welcome again Katinka and Jorren! We look forward to your arrival in September. In the meantime I noticed that my lunchbreak is running to an end. VAT is calling!

Switch on Tax Consultant writing modus.

Bram

External seminar in Leuven

Posted on April 29, 2014 by sdewilde

Your pension is probably not the most important thing on your mind. However, pensions, and more specificly supplementary pensions, are becoming more and more important, also for our business. Another hot topic is the blue and white collar harmonisation. Combine these two items, and you get the “interesting” discussion of the influence of the blue and white collar harmonization on occupational pension schemes.

I attended a seminar of the “Leergang Pensioenrecht” in Leuven which dealt with this subject. Minister of Pensions Alexander De Croo kicked off with stressing the importance of occupational pensions. Next, the draft legislation regarding the reform of the occupational pensions was analysed. To conclude, the process which the sectors and companies have to go through was explained.

Perhaps it is a good idea to give a small presentation to my colleagues to update them on this matter. To be continued!

Work hard – Play hard

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Joke Persoons

Hello everyone!

Long time no see – maybe not entirely true – Let’s say I was present at the “Weekend Away” and “One weekend in Avoriaz” :-).

Both weekends were AMAZING. At Deloitte we work hard, but we play hard as well.

During my first post I already informed you that I was in Love with my Mini and that I liked shopping, well I have a nice picture to share with you “Primark versus Mini”

Maybe nice to know, the above picture was taken RIGHT AFTER the skitrip, while other persons went to work or to sleep, Dominique and I went shopping! Maybe that falls more under the category “play hard”, but still, we are true Deloitters!

Hope you all enjoy life as we do. If not… You should!

Hope to see you soon! Hopefully I can then write about our next city trip with the girls – God I hope so!!!

Joke

Weekend away

Posted on March 27, 2014 by dominiquewellens

Hola everyone!

Dominique here…I just want to give you some insights on the work-life balance at Deloitte and how great it can be to be spontaneous!

A few weeks ago my friend and I were dreaming of “Sun and Sangria”. She came up with the brilliant idea “a city trip to the lovely capital of Spain”. I quickly arranged a day off at work and we booked our flight. Later that week, we were talking about our trip to friends and immediately we sold on the idea; so they also booked a flight. In the end we went to Madrid with 7 girls: Joke, Steffi, an ex-Deloitter, three true Deloitters and myself. Deloitte was definitely represented in style :-). Let me tell you just this: We are all connected in the great circle of life Deloitte.

(from left to right: Joke, Steffi and myself)

I asked a colleague (thank you Kevin) to drop us off at the airport and so we took off direction t sunny Spain on Friday afternoon (I left the office earlier than usual, but at Deloitte flexibility is key!)

I had such an amazing weekend! Madrid is a very lovely city and we had so much fun! (Can you imagine, 7 girls, sangria’s and shops everywhere? :-))
Here are some snap shots from our girls-weekend:

(Check out our sunglasses!)
(cocktail time!)

(The group)

(A bit of shopping)

I’m already dreaming of a new city trip… Maybe I’ll ask for another day off…right now :-). So, hasta la vista!

Dominique

Deloitte Football Cup

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Bram

Did I mention already that I played football for 18 years? When my Tax colleagues asked me to compete against Audit and Fiduciare in the official “Deloitte Antwerp Office Football Cup” I didn’t hesitate for a second. Also, Laga, an independent Law firm participated in the tournament. Piece of cake, right?

The arena where we would celebrate our glorious victory was the sports hall of the University of Antwerp.

The Tax Consultants decided to participate with 2 teams… To make the cup final more dramatic, we thought ;-).

The first match we had to play was against Laga, the independent law firm to whom Deloitte appeals regularly to assist their clients with legal matters. After 10 minutes we were 4-0 behind, so much for our glorious victory… In the end we lost the game with 9-3. Rematch against Audit! Although they did beat the other Tax team, and they had considerably more football talent, we managed to keep a clean sheet at half time. In the end we did lose however, 2-6.

So… big final between Audit and Laga, and the two Tax teams could fight to become best ‘loser’. But first, and now I will catch the guys their attention, there was a ‘girls only’ match between Tax and Audit. It was a heroic game in which both teams showed a lot of dedication!

After two thrilling matches, our colleagues from Audit won both the women’s and the men’s cup! And … we became third after defeating the CIT-team (CIT = Corporate Income Tax)!

Congratulations to Audit, but I’m sure Tax will strike back … Maybe next year with you in our team?

Bram

In-house training – technology and soft skills

Posted on February 21, 2014 by sdewilde

Being a good Tax Consultant means more than mastering a good tax technical knowledge. It also requires managing certain technology and soft skills. Therefore Deloitte often organises in-house learning sessions to which you can voluntarily subscribe, such as PowerPoint presentation skills, Excel advanced, Personal branding,… This week I attended the learning session “Priority Management Programme – working smart with MS Outlook”.

The day before the course I received a questionnaire to complete so that I could already get a feeling of the learning objectives and how much improvement could be made. I won’t tell you my score, but there was still some margin left 🙂

The learning session kicked off with a sandwich lunch (in my opinion food is always a good way to start!). After everyone had shortly introduced themselves and had “confessed” their main issues regarding time management, Katie, the instructor, taught us plenty of useful tips and tricks on how to improve our daily planning, manage tasks and follow up on pending items and how some very convenient features of MS Outlook, of which I didn’t know the existence before, could assist in all of this.

I left the course with the mission to succeed in this “new way of working”. In two weeks, I have a personal coaching session with Katie to tackle my specific points of attention and to follow up on whether the progress in efficiency and planning is already heading in the right direction. I’ll keep you posted!

One weekend in Avoriaz – Deloitte shortski 2014

Posted on February 21, 2014 by gielenm

Thursday 13 February 2014 – Day of departure
After some careful organisation the time to leave on a short ski trip was finally there. Registrations opened at 6PM after a long day of work!
Deloitte offered pizza as a farewell dinner and a cozy sweater to keep us warm on the bus. 23 of our colleagues joined the short ski and were all excited to leave for France!

Friday 14 February 2014 – Valentine ski
An 11 hour bus ride was followed by a first day on the slopes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the sun, but snow that accompanied us on our way downhill. After an exhausting but snowy morning, we gathered for hamburgers and French fries and ended our day with a fun après ski at our hotel. For dinner we had a typical and very cheeeeeeezy French raclette/fondue.
After a glass of two we went to the ‘Shooters’ bar for some additional, well-deserved, après ski drinks. Accompanied by a cover band, we danced the night away…

Saturday 15 February 2014 – Off to Switzerland
After a great party on Friday, we hit the slopes on Saturday morning! After a couple of descents, our dear colleague Bart decided to take over the lead. Due to the lack of sleep, we ended up in Switzerland with an invalid ski pass and had to bargain our way back to France. No hard feelings Bart 🙂 … as some of us had never skied in Switzerland before (read: it was fun!). After a refreshing hot shower, we all gathered in one of the hotel rooms for apéro! Again, the night ended in the bar.

Sunday 16 February 2014 – Snowworld
The brave ones hit the slopes one last time. Due to the heavy snowfall, we had weak knees at the end of the day.
The others went out for lunch and shopping or visited the Aquariaz wellness center. Same as the weekend started, we concluded it with pizza’s for dinner before getting onto the bus back home.