# 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).

- [Validate XML](/en/xrechnung-validator?source=resource&rule=BR-DE-3)
- [Convert invoice](/en/pdf-to-xrechnung?source=resource&rule=BR-DE-3)

## 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](/resources/xrechnung/bt-37-seller-city)
- [BG-5 Seller postal address](/resources/xrechnung/bt-40-seller-country-code)
- [BT-40 Seller country code](/resources/xrechnung/bt-40-seller-country-code)

## Related Rules

- [BR-08](/resources/kosit-validator-errors/br-08-seller-postal-address-required)
- [BR-DE-4](/resources/kosit-validator-errors/br-de-4-seller-post-code-required)

## Validation Tools

- [Official KoSIT Validator](https://github.com/itplr-kosit/validator): Run the official KoSIT validator with the XRechnung configuration to check EN 16931 and XRechnung rules.
- [Convert PDF to XRechnung](/pdf-to-xrechnung): Find validation errors during conversion and review each correction.

## Related Resources

- [Official Specification](https://xeinkauf.de/xrechnung/)
- [Test Suite](https://github.com/itplr-kosit/xrechnung-testsuite)
- [All validation errors](/resources/kosit-validator-errors): Overview of the EN 16931, XRechnung and Peppol validation rules explained here.