What it means
This rule checks that the country in the buyer's postal address (BG-8) does not contain cbc:Name inside cac:Country. EN 16931 uses the buyer country code (BT-55), a two-letter ISO code such as NL, DE or FR. This test checks only for the Name element, not whether the country code is present or correct. It applies to UBL invoices and credit notes.
Why it matters
EN 16931 uses the buyer country code (BT-55), not a separate country name element.
How to fix it
Check that your invoicing software exports the buyer country code (BT-55) in cac:Country/cbc:IdentificationCode and omits cbc:Name from that country block. If you build the XML yourself, delete cbc:Name from cac:AccountingCustomerParty/cac:Party/cac:PostalAddress/cac:Country and keep or enter the correct two-letter code in cbc:IdentificationCode. Export or save the file again and recheck it.
Once the file is corrected, check it again for free: Validate an invoice against EN 16931
Or fix the invoice in a form and download the corrected file, for 1 credit: Fix a rejected e-invoice
The rule as published
A UBL invoice should not include the AccountingCustomerParty Party PostalAddress Country Name 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-229 still fails, and which other rules do.
Related rules
- UBL-CR-230 Leave map coordinates out of the buyer's address
- UBL-CR-231 Leave the physical location out of the buyer's details
- UBL-CR-232 Leave the tax registration name out of the buyer's tax details
- UBL-CR-233 Leave the tax level code out of the buyer's tax details
- UBL-CR-234 Leave the exemption reason code out of the buyer's tax details
- UBL-CR-235 Leave the exemption reason text out of the buyer's tax details