20km of Brussels

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

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

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