BR-38

Every document-level charge (BG-21) must carry a reason — in plain text (BT-104), as a code (BT-105), or both. An amount with no justification is something the recipient cannot check.

Severity: Error
Applies to: CII, UBL
Rule set: v2026-01-31

Official rule text

Each Document level charge (BG-21) shall have a Document level charge reason (BT-104) or a Document level charge reason code (BT-105).

Why does BR-38 happen?

This rule and BR-CO-22 are one check written twice in the norm. They always report together: a single missing reason produces two error codes, not two errors.

How do you fix BR-38?

Set cbc:AllowanceChargeReason or cbc:AllowanceChargeReasonCode inside cac:AllowanceCharge in UBL, ram:Reason or ram:ReasonCode in CII. That clears BR-CO-22 at the same time. On the code and the text agreeing, see BR-CO-22 as well.

In the XML

A UBL fragment. The CII path is named above — same change, different element names.

Fails

<cac:AllowanceCharge>
  <cbc:ChargeIndicator>true</cbc:ChargeIndicator>
  <cbc:Amount currencyID="EUR">50.00</cbc:Amount>
</cac:AllowanceCharge>

Fixed

<cac:AllowanceCharge>
  <cbc:ChargeIndicator>true</cbc:ChargeIndicator>
  <cbc:AllowanceChargeReason>Mengenrabatt</cbc:AllowanceChargeReason>
  <cbc:Amount currencyID="EUR">50.00</cbc:Amount>
</cac:AllowanceCharge>

NormAPI provides technical validation, not tax or legal advice.