What it means
The invoice can name the seller's tax representative (BG-11), the person or company the seller has appointed to account for VAT on its behalf. EN 16931 describes this party with a name (BT-62), a VAT number (BT-63) and an address (BG-12), and has no field for the language it uses. The rule fails when cac:TaxRepresentativeParty/cac:Language is in the file at all, even if empty. It checks both invoices and credit notes.
Why it matters
EN 16931 does not use a language field within the tax representative's details.
How to fix it
Leave the language element out of the tax representative's exported details. If you edit the XML, remove cac:Language from cac:TaxRepresentativeParty, including any empty occurrence. Recheck the corrected file.
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 TaxRepresentativeParty Language 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-303 still fails, and which other rules do.
Related rules
- UBL-CR-304 Leave the address ID out of the tax representative's address
- UBL-CR-305 Leave the address type out of the tax representative's address
- UBL-CR-306 Leave the address format out of the tax representative's address
- UBL-CR-307 Leave the separate PO box field out of the tax representative's address
- UBL-CR-308 Leave the separate floor field out of the tax representative's address
- UBL-CR-309 Leave the separate room field out of the tax representative's address