What it means
When the seller has a Swedish address and a VAT number (BT-31) that starts with SE, that VAT number must have exactly 14 characters after whitespace normalisation. The check removes leading and trailing whitespace and collapses each internal run of whitespace to one space before counting. This rule checks length, not whether the characters after SE are digits.
Why it matters
A number of the wrong length cannot be a valid Swedish VAT number.
How to fix it
Open the seller details in your invoicing software and look at the VAT number. Remove spaces, hyphens and dots so it reads SE, ten digits and 01, for example SE556677889901. In the UBL XML it is cbc:CompanyID in the cac:PartyTaxScheme that has the tax scheme VAT, under cac:AccountingSupplierParty.
Once the file is corrected, check it again for free: Validate a Peppol BIS invoice
Or fix the invoice in a form and download the corrected file, for 1 credit: Fix a rejected e-invoice
The rule as published
Read the rule on the publisher's site
Where this rule applies
| Rule set | Version |
|---|---|
| Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (invoice) | 2026.5 |
| Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (credit note) | 2026.5 |
Check your file
Drop your e-invoice to see whether SE-R-001 still fails, and which other rules do.
Related rules
- SE-R-002 The part after SE must be numeric
- SE-R-003 A Swedish organisation number must be numeric
- SE-R-004 A Swedish organisation number must have 10 characters
- SE-R-005 Swedish tax registration must read Godkänd för F-skatt
- SE-R-006 Swedish VAT category S allows only rates 6, 12 and 25
- SE-R-007 A Plusgiro account number should be numeric