BR-CO-26 Seller can't be identified

The seller needs a VAT number, a tax registration number or a legal registration number, so the buyer can identify them.

What the rule says

In order for the buyer to automatically identify a supplier, the Seller identifier (BT-29), the Seller legal registration identifier (BT-30) and/or the Seller VAT identifier (BT-31) shall be present.

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

Why it happens

The seller has no VAT ID (BT-31), no legal registration number (BT-30) and no seller identifier (BT-29), so the buyer's system can't tell who sent the invoice. Common for small businesses without a VAT ID.

How to fix it

Add your VAT ID, your company registration number, or a seller identifier. Without a VAT ID, your tax number can serve as the seller identifier; Filekin's Create Invoice does this automatically.

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-CO-26

The buyer's system needs at least one identifier that points to exactly one seller: a seller identifier (BT-29, such as a supplier number or GLN), a legal registration number (BT-30, such as HRB 12345), or a VAT ID (BT-31). The name and address alone aren't enough, because they're not unique.

Watch out for the German tax number (Steuernummer, such as 12/345/67890). In the file it's stored as the seller's tax registration (BT-32), and BT-32 does not count for this rule. That's why small businesses without a VAT ID often see BR-CO-26 even though their tax number is on the invoice. Writing the tax number also as the seller identifier (BT-29) solves it. Filekin's Create Invoice does this automatically when you enter a tax number and no VAT ID.

The fields involved

BT-29 Seller identifier: CII ram:SellerTradeParty/ram:ID (or ram:GlobalID); UBL cac:AccountingSupplierParty/cac:Party/cac:PartyIdentification/cbc:ID
BT-30 Seller legal registration identifier: CII ram:SellerTradeParty/ram:SpecifiedLegalOrganization/ram:ID; UBL cac:AccountingSupplierParty/cac:Party/cac:PartyLegalEntity/cbc:CompanyID
BT-31 Seller VAT identifier: CII ram:SellerTradeParty/ram:SpecifiedTaxRegistration/ram:ID schemeID="VA"; UBL cac:AccountingSupplierParty/cac:Party/cac:PartyTaxScheme/cbc:CompanyID (TaxScheme VAT)
BT-32 Seller tax registration identifier (tax number): CII ram:SellerTradeParty/ram:SpecifiedTaxRegistration/ram:ID schemeID="FC"; UBL cac:AccountingSupplierParty/cac:Party/cac:PartyTaxScheme/cbc:CompanyID (TaxScheme other than VAT)

Typical situations

A small business (Kleinunternehmer) has only a tax number and no VAT ID.
A freelancer without a company registration entered only name and address.
The VAT ID was written with the wrong scheme, such as FC instead of VA, so it's read as a tax number.

Example

A seller without a VAT ID, identified by the tax number (CII):

<ram:SellerTradeParty>
  <ram:ID>12/345/67890</ram:ID>
  <ram:Name>Anna Beispiel Design</ram:Name>
  ...
  <ram:SpecifiedTaxRegistration>
    <ram:ID schemeID="FC">12/345/67890</ram:ID>
  </ram:SpecifiedTaxRegistration>
</ram:SellerTradeParty>