BR-11 Buyer country code missing

The buyer's address needs a country code, such as DE or FR.

What the rule says

The Buyer postal address shall contain a Buyer country code (BT-55).

The rule's official wording (CEN / KoSIT). The German XRechnung rules are published in German.

Why it happens

The customer's address has no country code (BT-55).

How to fix it

Set the customer's country as a two-letter ISO code, such as DE.

Applies to

Every EN 16931 e-invoice: XRechnung, ZUGFeRD / Factur-X, Peppol and others.

Check your invoice again Create an invoice that passes

More about BR-11

The buyer's country code is what the tax rules compare with the seller's country. A reverse charge or intra-EU invoice is only consistent if the buyer is in another EU country; an export needs a buyer outside the EU. Without the code, none of these checks can work.

Use the ISO 3166-1 two-letter code. For the United Kingdom that's GB. VAT IDs for goods trade in Northern Ireland start with XI, but that prefix belongs to the VAT ID, not to the address.

The fields involved

BT-55 Buyer country code: CII ram:BuyerTradeParty/ram:PostalTradeAddress/ram:CountryID; UBL cac:AccountingCustomerParty/cac:Party/cac:PostalAddress/cac:Country/cbc:IdentificationCode

Typical situations

Customer records imported from a spreadsheet had the country written out as text.
The country field is optional in the software and was skipped for domestic customers.
A foreign address was entered entirely in the street lines, including the country.

Example

The country inside the buyer's address in CII:

<ram:BuyerTradeParty>
  ...
  <ram:PostalTradeAddress>
    ...
    <ram:CountryID>AT</ram:CountryID>
  </ram:PostalTradeAddress>
</ram:BuyerTradeParty>