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BR-20: Tax representative country code (BT-69) is missing

Official message

[BR-20] The Seller tax representative postal address (BG-12) shall contain a Tax representative country code (BT-69), if the Seller (BG-4) has a Seller tax representative party (BG-11).

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

[BR-20] The Seller tax representative postal address (BG-12) shall contain a Tax representative country code (BT-69), if the Seller (BG-4) has a Seller tax representative party (BG-11).

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

[BR-20] The Seller tax representative postal address (BG-12) shall contain a Tax representative country code (BT-69), if the Seller (BG-4) has a Seller tax representative party (BG-11).

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-12, BT-69, BG-4, BG-11

What does this mean?

If the seller has a tax representative (BG-11), its postal address (BG-12) must contain a country code (Tax representative country code, BT-69). The element is missing or empty.

Typical causes

The tax representative's country was not selected.
The country appears as a name in the city or an address line instead of as a code.

How to fix the error

Enter the two-letter ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code, e.g. DE.
CII: ram:SellerTaxRepresentativeTradeParty/ram:PostalTradeAddress/ram:CountryID, UBL: cac:TaxRepresentativeParty/cac:PostalAddress/cac:Country/cbc:IdentificationCode.
Generate and validate the invoice again.

In E-Rechnungsfreund

In the invoice form ("Experte" view), section "Steuervertreter (BG-11)" (tax representative), select the country in the field "Land (BT-40/55)".

Example

Wrong

<ram:SellerTaxRepresentativeTradeParty>
  <ram:Name>Tax Representation Ltd</ram:Name>
  <ram:PostalTradeAddress>
    <ram:CityName>Köln</ram:CityName>
  </ram:PostalTradeAddress>
  ...
</ram:SellerTaxRepresentativeTradeParty>

Correct

<ram:SellerTaxRepresentativeTradeParty>
  <ram:Name>Tax Representation Ltd</ram:Name>
  <ram:PostalTradeAddress>
    <ram:CityName>Köln</ram:CityName>
    <ram:CountryID>DE</ram:CountryID>
  </ram:PostalTradeAddress>
  ...
</ram:SellerTaxRepresentativeTradeParty>
For developers: test expression per syntax

EN 16931 (CII) (CII)

Context: //ram:SellerTaxRepresentativeTradeParty

normalize-space(ram:PostalTradeAddress/ram:CountryID) != ''

EN 16931 (UBL) (UBL)

Context: cac:TaxRepresentativeParty/cac:PostalAddress

normalize-space(cac:Country/cbc:IdentificationCode) != ''

Factur-X / ZUGFeRD EN 16931 (CII)

Technical ID in the source: FX-SCH-A-000078

Context: //ram:SellerTaxRepresentativeTradeParty

(ram:PostalTradeAddress/ram:CountryID)

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.