BR-10: Buyer postal address (BG-8) is missing

StandardEN 16931-1 (European e-invoicing semantic model)SeverityError: the invoice is rejectedSyntaxUBL, CIIBusiness terms

BG-8 Buyer postal address

Applies toEvery EN 16931 invoice: XRechnung, ZUGFeRD 2.x / Factur-X (profiles EN 16931, EXTENDED, XRECHNUNG), Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, and national CIUS such as the Dutch NLCIUS or the Italian/Spanish profiles.

Official rule text

[BR-10] An Invoice shall contain the Buyer postal address (BG-8).

Why this error occurs

The rule checks that the buyer address group exists: cac:AccountingCustomerParty/cac:Party/cac:PostalAddress in UBL, ram:BuyerTradeParty/ram:PostalTradeAddress in CII. The recipient's address is a mandatory VAT invoice element. It is often missing when the customer record only has an e-mail or Peppol address, or when the export maps the delivery address but not the invoice address.

How to fix it

In UBL add cac:PostalAddress under cac:AccountingCustomerParty/cac:Party, at minimum with cac:Country/cbc:IdentificationCode (BT-55, see BR-11) and preferably cbc:StreetName, cbc:CityName, cbc:PostalZone. In CII add ram:PostalTradeAddress under ram:BuyerTradeParty with ram:PostcodeCode, ram:LineOne, ram:CityName, ram:CountryID. XRechnung additionally requires buyer city and post code (BR-DE-8, BR-DE-9).

Example (valid)

<cac:PostalAddress>
  <cbc:StreetName>Rathausplatz 2</cbc:StreetName>
  <cbc:CityName>Hamburg</cbc:CityName>
  <cbc:PostalZone>20095</cbc:PostalZone>
  <cac:Country><cbc:IdentificationCode>DE</cbc:IdentificationCode></cac:Country>
</cac:PostalAddress>

What the validator checks

Checked element (context):

UBL

/ubl:Invoice | /cn:CreditNote

Test (XPath):

exists(cac:AccountingCustomerParty/cac:Party/cac:PostalAddress)

CII

/rsm:CrossIndustryInvoice

Test (XPath):

rsm:SupplyChainTradeTransaction/ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeAgreement/ram:BuyerTradeParty/ram:PostalTradeAddress

Check your invoice

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Same check via API:

curl -F file=@invoice.xml https://einvoicechecker.com/v1/validate

Related rules

BR-01 Specification identifier (BT-24) is missing
BR-02 Invoice number (BT-1) is missing
BR-03 Invoice issue date (BT-2) is missing
BR-04 Invoice type code (BT-3) is missing
BR-05 Invoice currency code (BT-5) is missing
BR-06 Seller name (BT-27) is missing
BR-07 Buyer name (BT-44) is missing
BR-08 Seller postal address is missing

Frequently asked questions

What does BR-10 mean?

BR-10 is a en 16931 core rule: An Invoice shall contain the Buyer postal address (BG-8).

Will my invoice be rejected because of BR-10?

Yes. BR-10 is flagged "fatal"; validators (KoSIT, Peppol access points, the German ZRE/OZG-RE portals) reject the invoice until it is fixed.

Which formats does BR-10 apply to?

Every EN 16931 invoice: XRechnung, ZUGFeRD 2.x / Factur-X (profiles EN 16931, EXTENDED, XRECHNUNG), Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, and national CIUS such as the Dutch NLCIUS or the Italian/Spanish profiles. Syntax: UBL and CII.

Source: EN 16931-1:2017 schematron (CEN TC434, via Peppol BIS 3.0.20). Catalogue generated from the official schematron on 2026-10-14.