Reference

BR-DE-3 Seller city must be provided

Under § 14 Abs. 4 Nr. 1 of the German VAT Act (UStG) and XRechnung Schematron validation rules, the seller postal address (BG-5) must contain the city name (BT-37). While the European standard EN 16931 allows city names to be optional in specific international address profiles, German tax and procurement law requires a complete registered business address to establish local tax jurisdiction and verify corporate register matching.

Problem Description

ERROR

German XRechnung rule (KoSIT, BR-DE) · XRechnung 3.0

Context and Significance

Tax authorities and automated verification algorithms validate the seller address against national VAT databases (VIES / BZSt). Omission of the city invalidates the tax receipt status of the invoice.

Solution

In your company settings or ERP master data, ensure the registered city is populated in the address record. In UBL 2.1 syntax, populate <cbc:CityName> within <cac:AccountingSupplierParty><cac:Party><cac:PostalAddress>. In UN/CEFACT CII syntax, populate <ram:CityName> within <ram:SellerTradeParty><ram:PostalTradeAddress>. Do not combine the postal code and city into the street line (BT-35).

Quick actions

Validate XML Convert invoice

Valid Examples

Seller postal address with BT-37 = "Berlin", postal code "10115", and country code "DE"
Seller postal address with BT-37 = "Frankfurt am Main", postal code "60311", and country code "DE"

Invalid Examples

Seller address specifies street and postal code but leaves cbc:CityName / ram:CityName empty
City name merged into street address line (BT-35) while leaving BT-37 element completely missing

Code Examples

Valid XML

<cac:PostalAddress>
  <cbc:StreetName>Friedrichstraße 100</cbc:StreetName>
  <cbc:CityName>Berlin</cbc:CityName>
  <cbc:PostalZone>10117</cbc:PostalZone>
  <cac:Country>
    <cbc:IdentificationCode>DE</cbc:IdentificationCode>
  </cac:Country>
</cac:PostalAddress>

Invalid XML

<cac:PostalAddress>
  <cbc:StreetName>Friedrichstraße 100</cbc:StreetName>
  <cbc:PostalZone>10117</cbc:PostalZone>
  <cac:Country>
    <cbc:IdentificationCode>DE</cbc:IdentificationCode>
  </cac:Country>
</cac:PostalAddress>

Affected Fields

BT-37 Seller city

BG-5 Seller postal address

BT-40 Seller country code

Validation Tools

Official KoSIT Validator

Run the official KoSIT validator with the XRechnung configuration to check EN 16931 and XRechnung rules.

Convert PDF to XRechnung

Find validation errors during conversion and review each correction.