BR-IC-04 error EN 16931

BR-IC-04 — intra-community supply without buyer VAT ID

What it means

For an intra-community supply (category K) the buyer must be VAT-registered in another EU country — that is what justifies the 0% rate. The buyer’s VAT identifier (BT-48) is therefore mandatory. BR-IC-02 requires the seller’s.

What triggers it

Any line uses category K and buyer.vatId is empty.

How to fix it

Set the buyer’s VAT ID and verify it in VIES:

{ "buyer": { "vatId": "DE123456789" } }

If the buyer’s VAT number is not valid in VIES, the supply is not a zero-rated intra-community supply — you would have to charge VAT. Free tool coming: /tools/vat-check/.

Check your invoice now. Paste it into the free validator — it flags BR-IC-04 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