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BR-08: Seller postal address (BG-5) is missing

Official message

[BR-08] An Invoice shall contain the Seller postal address (BG-5).

EN 16931 (CII) · Error · Message language: English · Version: xrechnung-3.0.2-validator-configuration-2026-08-31

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

EN 16931 (UBL) · Error · Message language: English · Version: xrechnung-3.0.2-validator-configuration-2026-08-31

[BR-08] An Invoice shall contain the Seller postal address (BG-5).

Factur-X / ZUGFeRD EN 16931 · Error · Message language: English · Version: Factur-X 1.08 / ZUGFeRD 2.4
Severity
Error The invoice is invalid and may be rejected by the recipient.
Applies to
EN 16931 (CII), EN 16931 (UBL), Factur-X / ZUGFeRD EN 16931
Affected fields
BG-5

What does this mean?

Every invoice must contain the seller postal address (BG-5). The group is missing entirely.

Typical causes

No address was entered for the seller.
The generating system omits the address group when individual address fields are empty.

How to fix the error

Provide the seller postal address, at least with the country code (BT-40, BR-09); street, city and post code should also be given.
CII: ram:SellerTradeParty/ram:PostalTradeAddress, UBL: cac:AccountingSupplierParty/cac:Party/cac:PostalAddress.
Generate and validate the invoice again.

In E-Rechnungsfreund

In the invoice form, section "Verkäufer (BG-4)" (seller), fill in the address, at least the field "Land (BT-40/55)" (country). The postal address is only output if at least one of the fields street, post code, city or country is filled in.

Example

Wrong

<ram:SellerTradeParty>
  <ram:Name>Example Ltd</ram:Name>
  <ram:SpecifiedTaxRegistration>
    <ram:ID schemeID="VA">DE123456789</ram:ID>
  </ram:SpecifiedTaxRegistration>
</ram:SellerTradeParty>

Correct

<ram:SellerTradeParty>
  <ram:Name>Example Ltd</ram:Name>
  <ram:PostalTradeAddress>
    <ram:PostcodeCode>10115</ram:PostcodeCode>
    <ram:LineOne>Musterstraße 1</ram:LineOne>
    <ram:CityName>Berlin</ram:CityName>
    <ram:CountryID>DE</ram:CountryID>
  </ram:PostalTradeAddress>
  <ram:SpecifiedTaxRegistration>
    <ram:ID schemeID="VA">DE123456789</ram:ID>
  </ram:SpecifiedTaxRegistration>
</ram:SellerTradeParty>
For developers: test expression per syntax

EN 16931 (CII) (CII)

Context: /rsm:CrossIndustryInvoice

rsm:SupplyChainTradeTransaction/ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeAgreement/ram:SellerTradeParty/ram:PostalTradeAddress

EN 16931 (UBL) (UBL)

Context: /ubl:Invoice | /cn:CreditNote

exists(cac:AccountingSupplierParty/cac:Party/cac:PostalAddress)

Factur-X / ZUGFeRD EN 16931 (CII)

Technical ID in the source: FX-SCH-A-000017

Context: /rsm:CrossIndustryInvoice

//ram:SellerTradeParty/ram:PostalTradeAddress

Related validation rules

  • BR-01: Specification identifier (BT-24) is missing
  • BR-02: Invoice number (BT-1) is missing
  • BR-03: Invoice issue date (BT-2) is missing
  • BR-04: Invoice type code (BT-3) is missing
  • BR-05: Invoice currency code (BT-5) is missing
  • BR-06: Seller name (BT-27) is missing

Last updated:
Explanation of the validation rule, not legal or tax advice.