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BR-CO-18
blocked

The invoice carries no VAT breakdown

An invoice must contain at least one VAT breakdown group (BG-23), even when it carries no tax at all.

A financial field: the expected value is computed and offered, never written into the document — the correction is the issuer's to make. Test your invoice to find out whether it is affected.

The message your validator prints

Copied verbatim from the sealed artefact: this is the exact sentence the check prints when this rule fails.

[BR-CO-18]-An Invoice shall at least have one VAT breakdown group (BG-23).

Quoted from schematron-cen 1.3.16, licensed under EUPL-1.2.

Common searches around this code

These phrases mirror what an integrator searches for: code, syntax, rule, business field and correction.

BR-CO-18 The invoice carries no VAT breakdownBR-CO-18 CEN EN 16931 Schematron[BR-CO-18]-An Invoice shall at least have one VAT breakdown group (BG-23).BR-CO-18 correction

Test your file with this error in mind

Upload the invoice involved: the report will say whether this code appears, where it appears in the document, and whether Factlint can only report it or also fix it.

To automate this check in an ERP flow, call the validation API and link every returned code to its public page.

Why this error happens

The case comes up almost exclusively on invoices without VAT — reverse charge, exemption, small-business relief. The issuer concludes there is nothing to break down, whereas the standard expects precisely a zero-rate breakdown carrying the exemption reason.

How to fix it

Add the BG-23 group matching the invoice's regime. Its taxable base and tax amount are financial fields: Factlint computes them and returns them in `suggested_value`, without ever writing them.

Reason it is blocked:

financial_field_policy

XML correction example

BEFORE (invalid)
<!-- aucun ram:ApplicableTradeTax au niveau document -->
AFTER (compliant)
<ram:ApplicableTradeTax>
  <ram:CalculatedAmount>0.00</ram:CalculatedAmount>
  <ram:TypeCode>VAT</ram:TypeCode>
  <ram:CategoryCode>AE</ram:CategoryCode>
  <ram:RateApplicablePercent>0.00</ram:RateApplicablePercent>
</ram:ApplicableTradeTax>