2025 is approaching and that will bring some important changes for Belgian companies. Two major changes stand out: the mergers of several municipalities and the transition to the new NACEBEL codes. These developments will inevitably have an impact on your business operations, especially in terms of addresses and business information. In this article, we take a closer look at what exactly these changes mean and how you can prepare.
From 1 January 2025, 26 Flemish municipalities will merge. One merger in Wallonia (Bastogne-Bertogne) already took place on 2nd December. Although the impact of the Walloon merger will be limited, we expect that, in Flanders, many companies will have to deal with address changes. Indeed, mergers of municipalities can lead to double street names: e.g. twice Kerkstraat or Stationsstraat in the same municipality. As it can't be done, this means streets will change names. The changes will have an impact on social seats as well as on the addresses of establishment units and branches. And no doubt, this will also affect house numbers and bus numbers.
While most municipalities get a double name (e.g. Tongeren and Borgloon merge into Tongeren-Borgloon, Nazareth and De Pinte merge into Nazareth-De Pinte) or merge into a larger municipality (Kortessem also gets the name Hasselt after the merger with Hasselt), we also get a completely new municipality. Indeed, Galmaarden, Gooik and Herne will form the new municipality of Pajottegem.
It is important to remember: these administrative changes do not mean that companies physically move. They are purely formal adjustments, resulting from the new merged municipalities.
For completeness, we also include the municipalities that will merge:
Do you have business contacts in any of the above municipalities? Then, it is crucial that you copy these address changes into your records. Invoices you send to the old address may not arrive. It leads to delays in payments or, at worst, non-payment. These changes also coincide with the planned 4% wage indexation in January 2025. This means your costs will rise faster, while payments may come in slower, which in turn will negatively affect your working capital.
In addition, think about registered letters getting lost or summonses ending up at the wrong address. Or the cost of an (expensive) catalogue not reaching its recipient.
We will include the new addresses in our solutions as soon as they are officially put into use or made available by the government.
No monitoring messages will be sent as they are not real address changes. We recommend consulting a new company report or updating your addresses via API, Bulk or Data Studio to receive all new addresses.
The second major change concerns the NACEBEL codes. From 1 January 2025, a new structure will be introduced. This change follows from a European decision and is managed in Belgium by Statbel.
Where companies currently still use a seven-digit code from 2008, this will be replaced by a five-digit code. Indeed, codes at seven digits will disappear.
All active activities in the CBE that have the NACE-BEL code 2008 will have to be converted to an activity with NACE-BEL code 2025 in 2025. This conversion will be phased in by activity group. NSSO will be available beginning of January. No date is yet known for source VAT.
Companies established after 1 January 2025 will, however, be included in the new structure immediately.
For companies actively engaged in target group selections or data analysis in specific sectors, this change will have a significant impact. Companies may have to redefine their selections based on the new NACEBEL codes.
Below are the links to the official sources:
Although the adaptation to the classification NACE-2025 does not mean a direct change in business activities, it may affect the way data is processed.
The upcoming changes regarding the new merger municipalities and NACEBEL codes cannot be underestimated. They will affect your address management, billing, data analyses, target group selections, etc. It is important to make timely preparations and ensure that your systems and processes are ready for 1 January 2025.
GraydonCreditsafe will continue to monitor the situation closely. As soon as we receive more details on the exact address changes and final conversion tables, we will inform affected customers immediately. In the meantime, do you have any questions or want to know more about how these changes apply specifically to your business? Then, please, don’t hesitate to contact us.