Legal and accounting activities
Activities
NACE division 69 · 8 activities| Activity | Registrations | Starters, 12 months | Bankruptcies, 12 months | FTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Activities of lawyers69101 | 22,318 | 2,262 | 16 | 2,016 |
| Certified accountants and tax accountants69201 | 11,387 | 475 | 13 | 12,498 |
| Other legal services69109 | 2,755 | 321 | 7 | 1,071 |
| Activities of notaries69102 | 2,260 | 112 | 0 | 6,697 |
| Other tax advisory services69209 | 2,190 | 98 | 7 | 490 |
| Activities of bailiffs69103 | 1,018 | 65 | 0 | 1,634 |
| Activities of company auditors69203 | 930 | 45 | 2 | 3,212 |
| Legal and accounting activities69202 | 113 | 34 | 0 | - |
Filed accounts
NACE division 69 · financial year 2025 · 21,328 filed annual accounts| Per financial year | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median solvency | - | - | 49.5% | 51.3% | 52.4% | 54.0% | 55.3% | 53.7% |
| Median net result | - | - | €30,883 | €34,175 | €34,896 | €38,151 | €40,930 | €43,686 |
| Filed late | 41.4% | 45.2% | 42.2% | 39.7% | 37.1% | 34.8% | 32.5% | - |
Hold your customer's or competitor's figures against them in the Sector benchmark
Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 69
2,592 employers| Size | Median | Middle half | Employers |
|---|---|---|---|
| fewer than 10 FTE | €65,300 | €51,500 to €78,800 | 2,008 |
| 10 to 49 FTE | €71,500 | €60,100 to €82,100 | 534 |
| 50 to 249 FTE | €72,000 | €65,100 to €79,700 | 39 |
Employers with the highest staff cost per FTE in this division All sectors by staff cost In the Analysis workbench
Bankruptcies
Bankruptcies per year in division 69
| Per year | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bankruptcies | 44 | 32 | 26 | 94 | 98 | 73 | 55 | 66 | 72 | 68 | 79 | 62 |
| Jobs lost | 58 | 55 | 33 | 121 | 134 | 113 | 63 | 122 | 94 | 98 | 137 | 77 |
2026 through September. Every bankruptcy, also of companies that have since left the register. Source: Statbel (Directorate-General Statistics), NACE classification of 2008.
Recent bankruptcies
| Date | Company |
|---|---|
| 04-11-2026 | FISCALE COMPTA
BE 0867.469.119 |
| 30-10-2026 | FISCLEVER
BE 0422.159.143 |
| 26-10-2026 | FISCOBEL
BE 0428.630.528 |
| 19-10-2026 | Nijboer, Christiaan
BE 0812.440.326 · sole trader · Aartselaar |
| 19-10-2026 | HAWK
BE 1023.806.195 |
| 28-09-2026 | ORGANISATION CONSTRUCT
BE 0472.038.523 |
| 25-09-2026 | Bauset, Christian
BE 0752.253.905 · sole trader · Saint-Nicolas |
| 23-07-2026 | Agio Legal
BE 0544.553.941 |
Running bankruptcies in the sector
NACE division 69Measured nationally: Of 108,642 bankruptcies of legal entities across Belgium, 49% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 28% after liquidation, 3% were withdrawn. After five years, 20% were still open. Half had ended after 26 months (a quarter after 15, three quarters after 51 months).
This counts companies with this main activity in the register on 8 November 2026. The outcome itself is not measured by sector. The activity of a company that leaves the register after its bankruptcy is too often not kept to compare closed cases fairly.
Spread across the country
by region and province · 27,308 of 42,721 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat- Flanders
- Wallonia
- Brussels
- Abroad
This sector's balance sheets on the map, by municipality and down to the address
Largest employers
NACE division 69 · staff from the latest accounts- 1 Deloitte Accountancy, Tax & Legal ServicesZaventem 706 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 2 Moore Finance & TaxBrussels 674 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 3 PricewaterhouseCoopers BedrijfsrevisorenMachelen (Brab.) 564 FTEfinancial year 2026
- 4 Ernst en Young BedrijfsrevisorenMachelen (Brab.) 536 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 5 SBB BEDRIJFSDIENSTENLeuven 534 FTEfinancial year 2025
Joint committees
from the latest accounts of 4,314 companies- 336 Liberal professions 2,925
- 216 Notaries' employees 852
- 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 467
- 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 321
- 307 Insurance brokers and agencies 9
- 335 Services and support for business and the self-employed 9
- 302 Hotels and catering 8
- 323 Building management, estate agents and domestic staff 7
Show the 12 others
- 201 Independent retail 5
- 144 Agriculture 3
- 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 3
- 329.02 Socio-cultural sector 3
- 330 Health institutions and services 3
- 101 Mining 2
- 102 Quarries 2
- 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 2
- 112 Garages 2
- 124 Construction 2
- 140.03 Road transport and logistics for third parties 2
- 209 White-collar workers in metal manufacturing 2
Source: the annual accounts at the National Bank. One filing can name more than one committee.
18 of the 26,969 companies in NACE division 69 have a parent company abroad. Main parent countries: Luxembourg (5), Netherlands (5) and France (4). Together they employ 166 of the division's 27,617 FTE: 0.6%, against 14% for Belgium as a whole.
Subsidies in this sector
per register · legal entities with an enterprise number- Flemish subsidies €31.7m awarded
- Federal transfers 46.4m amount as published
- Wallonia-Brussels Federation €1.4m paid
- EU budget €148.3m attributed share
- EU research €17.6m EU contribution
Insights on Legal and accounting
Balance sheet and result. The median net result of €43,752 is above Belgium's €16,500. Return on equity of 34.0% is above Belgium's 15.9%. 3.1% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium.
Bankruptcies. In 12 months, 1.0 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 79% of the 87 other NACE divisions. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.0% is below Belgium's 0.2%. By size, the median bankruptcy probability is 0.0% at under 10 FTE, 0.0% at 10 to 49 FTE and 0.1% at 50 to 249 FTE.
Inflow and structure. Brussels holds 18.7% of the seats, against 12.5% in Belgium. 36.1% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. In 12 months, 8.0 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is more than in 60% of the 86 other NACE divisions.
Staff and filing. 32.5% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 3,014 of the 27,617 FTE: 10.9%.
Direction. Median solvency rose from 49.5% in financial year 2020 to 53.7% in financial year 2025. The median net result rose from €30,883 in financial year 2020 to €43,686 in financial year 2025. In 2025, Statbel counted 79 bankruptcies and 137 jobs lost, against 73 bankruptcies in 2020.
The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 08-11-2026 05:30.
Method and sources
Every company registered today counts under its main activities in the KBO. Establishment units do not count. Staff counts once, under the employer's first main activity, from its latest accounts and only where it fits the staff costs. The count follows the NACE 2025 classification, the version in which code 69 exists.
The bankruptcies over five years count only companies still registered today, because the activity of a company that left the register is not kept. So they are fewer than the bankruptcies of those years, and the figure is not a probability for the future. Over twelve months the count is nearly complete, because a bankrupt company stays registered while its bankruptcy runs. A company with more than one main activity counts in each of those sectors.
The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other NACE divisions rests on an overview of every division, counted again each night. Each division is counted in the version of the NACE classification in which it exists. A standing such as "more than in 80%" compares with the other divisions that have the figure. A division's bankruptcy probability is the median over its companies with a score. Belgium here counts the 1,276,474 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,509 registrations publish no activity.
Each median is the value of the middle company, computed over the annual accounts of financial year 2025, and is shown only from 30 accounts. A share (loss-making, negative equity) counts that year's accounts with that trait. Accounts are late when they are filed after the statutory deadline. Missing or 90 days late counts the companies with accounts missing today, or whose latest were filed more than 90 days after the deadline. The dossier follows the same rule.