BR-CO-09

The VAT identifiers of the seller (BT-31), the tax representative (BT-63) and the buyer (BT-48) must begin with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code. Greece is permitted to use “EL” instead.

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

Official rule text

The Seller VAT identifier (BT-31), the Seller tax representative VAT identifier (BT-63) and the Buyer VAT identifier (BT-48) shall have a prefix in accordance with ISO code ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 by which the country of issue may be identified. Nevertheless, Greece may use the prefix ‘EL’.

Why does BR-CO-09 happen?

Master data usually holds the number without the prefix, because the country lives in a field of its own. The mapping then copies the digits alone — “811234567” where “DE811234567” is required.

How do you fix BR-CO-09?

Prepend the country code and strip any spaces: cac:PartyTaxScheme/cbc:CompanyID with a cac:TaxScheme/cbc:ID of VAT in UBL, ram:SpecifiedTaxRegistration/ram:ID with schemeID="VA" in CII.

In the XML

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

Fails

<cac:PartyTaxScheme>
  <cbc:CompanyID>811234567</cbc:CompanyID>
  <cac:TaxScheme><cbc:ID>VAT</cbc:ID></cac:TaxScheme>
</cac:PartyTaxScheme>

Fixed

<cac:PartyTaxScheme>
  <cbc:CompanyID>DE811234567</cbc:CompanyID>
  <cac:TaxScheme><cbc:ID>VAT</cbc:ID></cac:TaxScheme>
</cac:PartyTaxScheme>

NormAPI provides technical validation, not tax or legal advice.