You are about to work with a Belgian company — as a buyer, a supplier, a partner or an investor — and you want to know who you are dealing with. Belgium publishes a lot about its companies, and almost all of it can be searched online, for free: the register of the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises, the annexes of the Belgian Official Gazette, the annual accounts filed with the National Bank, the European VAT database and the Peppol e-invoicing directory. Here is the order in which to read them, and what each one tells you.
Step by step: where to look, what to read
Identify the company in the register
The enterprise number appears on every quote, invoice, website and letter of a Belgian company. It is written with ten digits, for example 0123.456.789, and the company's VAT number is the same number preceded by BE. Search it in the CBE public search (available in English, French, Dutch and German), or in the Idonis company search. Check:
- The exact name and legal form. A trade name or a logo is not a company. The documents you receive must come from the registered entity.
- The status. Active, or in liquidation, judicial reorganisation, bankruptcy: shown in the register.
- The start date, the registered office and the activities (NACE codes). A company created last year has no accounts yet; an activity far from what it sells you is a question to ask.
Read the Belgian Official Gazette
Incorporation, articles of association, appointment and resignation of directors, transfer of the registered office, capital changes, dissolution: every act is published in the annexes of the Official Gazette, in French, Dutch or German depending on where the company is based. Two questions: who can sign for the company today, and what changed recently. A registered office transfer followed by a change of directors within a few weeks deserves a careful read.
Read the annual accounts
Every Belgian company files its annual accounts with the Central Balance Sheet Office, within seven months of its year-end; they can be read in the Consult application. Most SMEs file an abbreviated or micro format, without turnover — that is normal. Four figures to start with:
Look at the filing date too: accounts missing for more than a year are a signal in themselves. The guide Reading Belgian SME accounts goes through each item, and the glossary defines every ratio.
Check the VAT number
The VIES service says whether a Belgian VAT number (BE + the enterprise number) is valid on the day you check, and often shows the registered name and address. If you sell to a Belgian business from another EU country without charging VAT, its valid VAT number is one of the conditions. A VAT number that does not match the enterprise number on the same document is an inconsistency to clear up.
Check Peppol registration
Since 1 January 2026, VAT-registered businesses established in Belgium must exchange structured
electronic invoices with each other, in principle through the Peppol network
(FPS Finance, e-invoicing). A Belgian company's Peppol
identifier is usually 0208 followed by its enterprise number. You can check it in the
Peppol Directory or with the
Peppol ID lookup. Peppol identifies the sender; it does not check the bank account
on the invoice.
Put the signals together
No single source gives a verdict. What matters is how the sources line up — and the questions they raise:
Which guide for your situation
- You pay a deposit to a Belgian supplier: Checking a Belgian supplier before paying a deposit.
- You receive an invoice, or a request to change bank details: Checking a Belgian supplier invoice.
- You sell on credit to a Belgian customer: Assessing a Belgian customer before selling on credit.
- You hire a contractor for building works in Belgium: How to check a Belgian building contractor.
- You read a set of abbreviated accounts: Reading Belgian SME accounts.
- You follow many companies for clients: Accounting firms: monitoring Belgian client companies.
How Idonis turns the filed accounts into a solidity score is explained, with its limits, on the method page.
Before you commit to a Belgian company
- The enterprise number on your documents matches an active company, under the same name.
- Nothing in the Official Gazette over the last 24 months that changes who signs for it, without an explanation.
- Accounts filed less than a year ago; equity positive, no overdue tax or social security debts.
- VAT number valid in VIES and consistent with the enterprise number.
- Peppol registration checked if you invoice or are invoiced in Belgium.
- Any new bank account confirmed by phone on a number you already had.
Sources
- FPS Economy, Crossroads Bank for Enterprises: public search.
- FPS Justice, annexes of the Belgian Official Gazette (companies).
- National Bank of Belgium, Central Balance Sheet Office and Consult.
- European Commission, VIES VAT number validation.
- FPS Finance, e-invoicing in Belgium ; OpenPeppol, Peppol Directory.