BR-E-05 error EN 16931

BR-E-05 — exempt / reverse-charge line has a non-zero rate

What it means

Lines in the exempt (E), reverse-charge (AE), intra-community (K) or export (G) categories carry no VAT on the invoice, so their rate must be 0. A non-zero rate contradicts the category.

What triggers it

A line uses category E, AE, K or G with a rate other than 0.

How to fix it

Set rate 0 on the line and state the reason in the VAT breakdown:

{ "vat": { "categoryCode": "AE", "rate": "0" } }

The reason why no VAT is charged goes on the VAT breakdown group (BT-120/BT-121), not the line — see BR-E-10.

Check your invoice now. Paste it into the free validator — it flags BR-E-05 and every other EN 16931, Peppol and XRechnung rule, each with the fix.

Or run the same check via API:

curl -X POST https://fakturwire.com/v1/validate \
  -H "authorization: Bearer $FW_KEY" \
  -d '{"invoice": { ... }, "profile": "en16931"}'

Related rules

← All EN 16931 / Peppol / XRechnung rules