BR-CO – Conditions and calculations

BR-CO-26: seller without an identifier (BT-29, BT-30 or BT-31)

ErrorEN 16931 business rule (CEN)

The rule's own wording

[BR-CO-26]-In order for the buyer to automatically identify a supplier, the Seller identifier (BT-29), the Seller legal registration identifier (BT-30) and/or the Seller VAT identifier (BT-31) shall be present.

Source: CEN EN 16931, version 1.3.16

The fix in the XML

Give the seller a VAT identifier (PartyTaxScheme with VAT), a legal registration identifier (PartyLegalEntity/CompanyID) or another identifier (PartyIdentification/ID). One of the three is enough; several are allowed.

Before – invalid

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

After – corrected

<cac:AccountingSupplierParty>
  <cac:Party>
    <cac:PartyName><cbc:Name>Muster GmbH</cbc:Name></cac:PartyName>
    <cac:PartyLegalEntity>
      <cbc:RegistrationName>Muster GmbH</cbc:RegistrationName>
      <cbc:CompanyID>HRB 123456</cbc:CompanyID>
    </cac:PartyLegalEntity>
  </cac:Party>
</cac:AccountingSupplierParty>

Meaning of the rule

The seller cannot be identified unambiguously: identifier, legal registration number and VAT identifier are all missing. The recipient needs at least one of them to match the supplier automatically in its own system and to post the invoice. Without one only the name remains, and a name is not reliable enough for an automated match.

What usually goes wrong

The VAT identifier is stored in the master data but is not written into the tax block on export.
Small businesses without a VAT identifier have entered neither a registration number nor any other identifier.
The only identifier carries the scheme SEPA (creditor identifier), which does not count for this check.

Questions and answers

I am a small business without a VAT identifier – what do I enter?

BT-32 does not count for BR-CO-26. Use the registration number in BT-30 or your own identifier in BT-29, such as a GLN. With the usual VAT codes XRechnung also requires a VAT identifier, tax number or tax representative.

Does the national tax number count as an identifier under BR-CO-26?

No. The rule accepts only BT-29, BT-30 and BT-31. The tax number in BT-32 does not count for BR-CO-26.

EN 16931 fields

BT-29
BT-30
BT-31

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The rule in detail

UBL · Context (XPath): cac:AccountingSupplierParty
UBL · Schematron test: exists(cac:Party/cac:PartyTaxScheme[cac:TaxScheme/normalize-space(upper-case(cbc:ID))='VAT']/cbc:CompanyID) or exists(cac:Party/cac:PartyIdentification/cbc:ID[not(@schemeID = 'SEPA')]) or exists(cac:Party/cac:PartyLegalEntity/cbc:CompanyID)
CII · Context (XPath): //ram:SellerTradeParty
CII · Schematron test: (ram:ID) or (ram:GlobalID) or (ram:SpecifiedLegalOrganization/ram:ID) or (ram:SpecifiedTaxRegistration/ram:ID[@schemeID='VA'])
UBL · Context (XPath): cac:AccountingSupplierParty
UBL · Schematron test: exists(cac:Party/cac:PartyTaxScheme[cac:TaxScheme/normalize-space(upper-case(cbc:ID))='VAT']/cbc:CompanyID) or exists(cac:Party/cac:PartyIdentification/cbc:ID) or exists(cac:Party/cac:PartyLegalEntity/cbc:CompanyID)

Explanation written on 14 September 2026

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