Attestwire › Rule reference › BR-E-07

BR-E-07 A VAT-exempt charge must have a VAT rate of zero

noun · EN 16931 · fatal · BT-103

For a sample invoice, the library reports: The document level charge at charges[0] uses VAT category E (Exempt from VAT), so its VAT rate (BT-103) must be 0 (zero), but it is 19. An exempt supply carries no VAT, so neither does an adjustment to it.

Business term

BT-103

Severity

fatal

The fix

Set charges[0].vatRate to 0, or omit it — this library normalises the rate for category E either way. If you did mean to charge 19% VAT on this charge, the category should be S instead, and that will change which breakdown group it nets into.

A passing value

"vatCategory": "E", "vatRate": 0

What the library returns

The full error returned by @attestwire/en16931. It includes the rule ID, affected field and suggested correction. Developers can use this object in their application:

{
  "rule": "BR-E-07",
  "field": "BT-103",
  "severity": "fatal",
  "message": "The document level charge at charges[0] uses VAT category E (Exempt from VAT), so its VAT rate (BT-103) must be 0 (zero), but it is 19. An exempt supply carries no VAT, so neither does an adjustment to it. Note that exempt is not the same as zero rated even though both produce 0 in BT-117: an exempt supplier generally cannot deduct input tax on the related costs, which is why the two categories exist separately.",
  "fix": "Set charges[0].vatRate to 0, or omit it — this library normalises the rate for category E either way. If you did mean to charge 19% VAT on this charge, the category should be S instead, and that will change which breakdown group it nets into.",
  "example": "\"vatCategory\": \"E\", \"vatRate\": 0",
  "xpath": "/ubl:Invoice/cac:AllowanceCharge[2]/cac:TaxCategory/cbc:Percent",
  "docsUrl": "https://attestwire.com/rules/BR-E-07"
}

xpath is always a UBL path. On a CII invoice, look for the matching CII field instead.