What it means
UBL lets the legal entity details of a party say until when its registration is valid. EN 16931 has no field for this. The seller's legal entity only holds the legal name (BT-27), the company registration number (BT-30) and additional legal information (BT-33). This rule fails whenever cbc:RegistrationExpirationDate is present, even if it is empty.
Why it matters
This rule is a warning, so the invoice is still accepted. The recipient's software has no field for the date and ignores it. It is worth fixing when your software adds the date by default, so that the file only holds what the standard defines.
How to fix it
Check the company details of your own company in your invoicing software for a registration expiry date, and look for an export option that leaves it out. If you build the XML yourself, delete cbc:RegistrationExpirationDate from cac:AccountingSupplierParty/cac:Party/cac:PartyLegalEntity.
The rule as published
A UBL invoice should not include the AccountingSupplierParty Party PartyLegalEntity RegistrationExpirationDate Where this rule applies
| Rule set | Version |
|---|---|
| EN 16931 (UBL) | 1.3.17 |
| EN 16931 (UBL credit note) | 1.3.17 |
| XRechnung 3.0 (UBL) | 3.0.2 |
| XRechnung 3.0 (UBL credit note) | 3.0.2 |
| Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (invoice) | 2026.5 |
| Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (credit note) | 2026.5 |
| SI-UBL 2.0 / NLCIUS (invoice) | 2.0.3.13 |
| SI-UBL 2.0 / NLCIUS (credit note) | 2.0.3.13 |
| France CTC (UBL invoice) | 1.4.0-04 |
| France CTC (UBL credit note) | 1.4.0-04 |
| CIUS-RO UBL Invoice 1.0.9 | 1.0.9 |
| CIUS-RO UBL Credit Note 1.0.9 | 1.0.9 |
Check your file
Drop your e-invoice to see whether UBL-CR-179 still fails, and which other rules do.