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. In UBL a postal address can carry a code saying which layout or format the address follows. EN 16931 has no field for that; its address fields cover address lines, city, postcode, country subdivision and country. The rule fails when cac:TaxRepresentativeParty/cac:PostalAddress/cbc:AddressFormatCode is in the file at all, even if empty.
Why it matters
EN 16931 does not use an address format code for the tax representative's postal address.
How to fix it
Leave the address format code out of the tax representative's exported postal address. If you edit the XML, remove cbc:AddressFormatCode from cac:TaxRepresentativeParty/cac:PostalAddress. Keep the other address details and 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 PostalAddress AddressFormatCode 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-306 still fails, and which other rules do.
Related rules
- 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
- UBL-CR-310 Leave the separate block name field out of the tax representative's address
- UBL-CR-311 Leave the separate building name field out of the tax representative's address
- UBL-CR-312 Leave the separate building number field out of the tax representative's address