Liedekerke enhances its tax capabilities with the arrival of Pierre Desenfans who returns to the Belgian firm as partner as of 16 November 2020.
Pierre Desenfans specialises in Belgian and international tax law and has developed throughout his career a recognised expertise in real estate taxation (all real estate transactions, structuring of real estate projects, real estate investment funds taxation,...). His practice covers income tax, VAT and registration fees. He advises companies in the day-to-day monitoring of their tax affairs - whether they are listed companies, SMEs or family businesses - and assists them both in contentious and non-contentious matters.
With over 15 years of experience in real estate taxation, Pierre has a profound knowledge of the real estate sector, the needs of clients and the financial and operational aspects of the sector.
Pierre is a regular speaker at conferences and is the author of numerous publications on tax law. He is a lecturer for the Certificate in Real Estate Taxation at the UCL where he is in charge of lectures on direct corporate tax relating to real estate transactions and real investment trusts/real estate investment funds. He holds a law degree from the Université catholique de Louvain (2005) and a degree in tax law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (2006) and is a Member of the Brussels Bar.
Together with Lievin De Wulf, who joined the firm a year ago, Pierre will help to further expand Liedekerke’s growing Tax Practice. Supported by five lawyers, and working seamlessly with the firm’s other practices, they will service a broad range of the firm’s Belgian and international clients in advisory as well as litigation and will support them in all types of transactions, from corporate, through finance, commercial and real estate transactions.
Liedekerke’s Tax practice advises Belgian and international clients with respect to tax issues arising on their domestic or cross-border transactions as well as on contentious tax matters. The lawyers’ tax advisory work relates to domestic and international tax structuring and tax advisory in the fields of mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings or reorganisations, joint-ventures, capital markets, corporate finance, structured finance, private equity, funds, real estate transactions, and employee and executive incentive plans. They also assist Belgian and international clients in resolving their tax disputes or tax investigations, advising clients on information requests, tax audits and tax dawn raids, and assisting them in the settlement of tax disputes. Finally they assist clients in any administrative tax controversy with the tax authorities and in tax litigation before the Belgian tribunals and courts of appeal, as well as before the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and the European courts.
Lievin De Wulf, Partner in the Tax practice, comments: “With Pierre joining our steadily growing Tax team, we will be able to further meet our clients’ needs in the area of tax law and real estate tax. This is a great addition to our team as our specialisms are complementary and I look forward to working closely with him and further positioning our practice as a leading player in tax matters in Belgium”.
Yves Delacroix, Head of the Real Estate practice, adds: “We are very delighted that Pierre returns to our firm. I have worked with Pierre on real estate transactions on many occasions in the past as he has a recognised expertise in real estate tax, both national and international and structuring of projects, which is very valuable to our practice. Whatever project we embark on, we know that we can count on Pierre's dedication and deep understanding of the characteristics of the market and industry of the client".
