BR – Core rules of EN 16931

BR-08: seller postal address missing

ErrorEN 16931 business rule (CEN)

Official message

[BR-08]-An Invoice shall contain the Seller postal address.

Source: CEN EN 16931, version 1.3.16

What the message means

The invoice contains no address for the issuer. Name and address of the supplying business are mandatory on every invoice; without them the recipient cannot deduct input tax and cannot attribute the invoice to a company. In an electronic invoice the address must be a block of its own, not part of the name and not free text.

How to fix it

Add a PostalAddress block under AccountingSupplierParty/Party with at least the country code (BT-40); XRechnung also requires the postcode (BT-38) and the city (BT-37) of the seller.

Before – invalid

<cac:AccountingSupplierParty>
  <cac:Party>
    <cac:PartyName><cbc:Name>Muster GmbH</cbc:Name></cac:PartyName>
  </cac:Party>
</cac:AccountingSupplierParty>

After – corrected

<cac:AccountingSupplierParty>
  <cac:Party>
    <cac:PartyName><cbc:Name>Muster GmbH</cbc:Name></cac:PartyName>
    <cac:PostalAddress>
      <cbc:StreetName>Musterstraße 12</cbc:StreetName>
      <cbc:CityName>Berlin</cbc:CityName>
      <cbc:PostalZone>10115</cbc:PostalZone>
      <cac:Country><cbc:IdentificationCode>DE</cbc:IdentificationCode></cac:Country>
    </cac:PostalAddress>
  </cac:Party>
</cac:AccountingSupplierParty>

Frequently asked

What must the seller address contain at a minimum?

Under EN 16931 only the country code (BT-40). XRechnung additionally requires the city (BT-37) and the postcode (BT-38).

Is the address inside the name enough, say "Muster GmbH, Berlin"?

No. The check reads only the PostalAddress block. Details in the name, in free text or on the PDF do not count.

Also seen when …

The invoicing software exports only the company name; the address sits in the letterhead of the PDF.
The address block exists but holds no elements because the master data is empty.
The address was captured in a free-text field instead of street, postcode and city.

Fields concerned

BG-5
BT-40

Related rules

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Technical details

UBL · Context (XPath): /ubl:Invoice | /cn:CreditNote
UBL · Schematron test: exists(cac:AccountingSupplierParty/cac:Party/cac:PostalAddress)
CII · Context (XPath): /rsm:CrossIndustryInvoice
CII · Schematron test: rsm:SupplyChainTradeTransaction/ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeAgreement/ram:SellerTradeParty/ram:PostalTradeAddress

Explanation written on 14 September 2026