The accounting and tax advisory firm M.A.T.S. was founded in 1990 by Joëlle Vanhecke and Yves Mottet. Laurent Cardon joined the firm in 2004 and became a partner in 2011.
The engagements handled by the firm are standard in nature, yet each partner, while being a generalist, has developed areas of specialisation. Personal income tax and non-resident tax (foreign executives, salary-split arrangements, inpatriates) for Joëlle; corporate income tax and special assignments (liquidations, transformations) for Yves; and accounting organisation, audit and digitalisation for Laurent.
Firmly convinced of the importance of training future generations, the three partners were active for many years within the ITAA (Joëlle served as President of the traineeship committee and delivered training sessions and courses in personal income tax; Yves and Laurent were members of examination panels; Yves delivered training in corporate income tax; Yves and Laurent serve respectively as president and treasurer of a professional association of tax advisors, providing training to professionals).
In 2026, our firm comprised 9 staff members and 3 partners. The time had nonetheless come to step back and consider the future — something difficult to do when you are constantly caught up in day-to-day demands. The evolution of technology, management tools, and above all the ever-growing administrative burden, represent an increasingly significant workload that cannot be borne by a single person. With two of the three partners reaching the age of wisdom, it had become essential to take a position on the future of the entity, in the shared interest of clients, staff and partners.
These reflections led us to join BFS at the beginning of April 2026. As to why this choice, the answer is straightforward. Taking into account that the objective was to meet each person's aspirations, we wanted certain conditions to be fulfilled: