BR-CO-09 A VAT number is missing its country prefix

What it means

VAT identifiers of the seller (BT-31), the buyer (BT-48) and the seller's tax representative (BT-63) must start with a two-letter country code, such as BE, DE or NO. Greece uses EL. At least one VAT number on this invoice doesn't start that way.

Common causes

• The VAT number is stored without the country code, for example 0123456789 instead of BE0123456789.
• A national tax or company number (not a VAT number) is put in the VAT number field.
• Spaces, dots or lowercase letters before the country code.

How to fix it

Store the full VAT number with its country prefix in the customer or company master data, without spaces or dots. Use other fields for numbers that are not VAT numbers.

Who fixes it: Whoever maintains the master data: the sender for its own VAT number and its customers' numbers, in its invoicing software.

Invoice fields involved

BT-31 BT-48 BT-63

Related rules

• BR-S-02 VAT is charged, but the seller's VAT number is missing
• NO-R-001 A Norwegian seller's VAT number isn't in the NO…MVA format
• ibr-132-ae A UAE VAT number (TRN) isn't 15 digits starting with 1 and ending in 03

This is our own plain-language explanation, not the official rule text. The official definition is in the first source below.