This is a post about legal and accounting aspects of our favorite cohousing. While it might come across as boring and pedantic, I feel that I want to understand them well enough to be able to explain them to others – including the tax authorities – should they ask. I write it mostly for myself, @RichardB and @coral-board. Everyone else, feel free to skip.
About this post
I want to explain why our books are kept the way they are. They intentionally do not distinguish between money given directly to the former owner of the Chaussée de Jette site to buy it and money given to Coral Reef, which then spends it on behalf of the group.
The Reef has a dual financial architecture
As a real estate project, you can think of The Reef as consisting of two parts:
- A bunch of private individuals and families, who contribute a plot of land to build The Reef on.
- Coral Reef SoSim, who contributes the resources to contract and manage a construction company, an architect, several engineering firms etc.
- The partners in Coral Reef and the bunch of private individuals are the same people
Why this unholy mess?
To save on taxes.
- In 2024 we were offered to buy the plot in Chaussée de Jette. The owner refused an option croisée, and instead offered us an attractive discount.
- At the time the group was incomplete.
- There is a glitch in the Brussels legislation on real estate: it does not foresee cohousings like ours. So, we need to pay the tax on property purchase twice: once when we purchase the undivided site, and the second time, after receiving a building permit, when we resell the lots to ourselves.
- To save on this, the notary proposed that only a few households – those that already owned an apartment somewhere, were not planning to sell it, and therefore were not eligible for a tax rebate (abattément) anyway – would become the legal owners of the site. The rest of us would contribute to financing the purchase, in return for the promise to sell us back our lots at the same price after the permit. We would then contribute to paying the purchase tax on the undivided plot, but would then be eligible for a full rebate on the purchase tax of our individual lots later.
We keep our books within Coral Reef and include the contributions of individual households for the plot of land
The best way that I have found to report on the accounting of The Reef is this report (requires Freeagent login. You all have received an invitation to it, and if you have lost it ask me for a new one).
- On the assets side (left), you can see where we put the money: the land, the bank account, the architects fees etc.
- On the liabilities side (right), you can see where the money came from. Since all of our money comes from us, that means you can see who contributed how much.
Now, this is not great, because it shows a plot of land as an asset on Coral Reef’s balance sheet, whereas the notarial deed that certifies that we bought that plot does not mention Coral Reef at all: it mentions the names of the full members in December 2024. However, I would argue it is effectively truthful and transparent. Why? Because:
- We mutualize everything. It is not the case that the full members of 2024 “own the plot” and the full members that joined in 2025 “own the architects’ design and the bank account”, thought the former paid for the plot and the latter largely paid for the design and replenished our bank account. Instead, we all owe all the assets together, pro quota of our contribution.
- This is encoded in the accord préalable. Every time a new household joins, we include them in the accord préalable. With this, they contribute some money and gain the right to buy a lot of the land in the acte de base. More information is here: Becoming a full member of The Reef.
- It is also reported in the UBO registry for Coral Reef.
- After the acte de base in 2026, we will no longer need the accord préalable, and the discomfort will disappear. At that point, households will contribute to The Reef in two ways: in money (that is the money we confer to Coral Reef’s account) and in kind (that is our property right on our piece of the site).
For these reasons, I propose to continue to keep the books the way we do now… but of course I am eager to hear about opinions to the contrary.