EN16931 / XRechnung / Peppol BIS 3 Validator

PEPPOL-EN16931-R005: VAT accounting currency code MUST be different from invoice currency code…

fatal CII UBL auto-fix

What this error means and how to fix it

A Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 rule (OpenPeppol): an extra requirement for invoices sent over the Peppol network, for example electronic addresses (BT-34, BT-49), the business process (BT-23) or code values. This is an error: the invoice is rejected until it is fixed.

Check your invoice against PEPPOL-EN16931-R005 — free

Runs the KoSIT validator 1.6.3, unmodified · result in seconds · the file is not stored · No file at hand? Try a sample invoice

Automatic fix: 9 € per file (excl. VAT where applicable). A VAT accounting currency (BT-6) equal to the invoice currency (BT-5) is removed together with the redundant tax total in that currency (BT-111). The result page shows which errors the repair removes and whether the corrected file then passes — before you pay. Many files? Pilot and Repair API.

Rule text

[PEPPOL-EN16931-R005]-VAT accounting currency code MUST be different from invoice currency code when provided.

XRechnung rule texts are published in German by KoSIT; the text above is the original.

Automatic repair

A VAT accounting currency (BT-6) equal to the invoice currency (BT-5) is removed together with the redundant tax total in that currency (BT-111).

This rule is in the deterministic set of our repair engine (UBL 2.1; measured 2026-10-23: XRechnung 15 broken test invoices accepted after repair, 45 valid invoices unchanged; Peppol BIS Billing 3: 10 official examples unchanged, 40 mutated invoices: 36 accepted after repair, 4 rejected as expected — one documented limit, two with the repair parameter switched off, one where no address could be derived; profile conversion of 33 XRechnung test invoices to Peppol: 30 accepted). For UN/CEFACT CII (Factur-X / ZUGFeRD EN 16931 XML, XRechnung CII) the engine repairs the totals chain, VAT breakdown, rounding, decimals and element order (measured 2026-10-24: 53 valid CEN and XRechnung CII invoices unchanged; 28 broken invoices: 27 accepted after repair, 1 rejected as expected because a VAT exemption reason cannot be derived). Single files: 9 € on the result page; many files: the Repair API — see Pricing.

Where the rule is checked (XPath context and test)
SyntaxSeverityContext (XPath)Test (XPath)
Peppol-UBLfatalcbc:TaxCurrencyCodenot(normalize-space(text()) = normalize-space(../cbc:DocumentCurrencyCode/text()))
XRechnung-UBLfatalnot(normalize-space(text()) = normalize-space(../cbc:DocumentCurrencyCode/text()))
XRechnung-CIIfatalnot(ram:TaxCurrencyCode) or normalize-space(ram:TaxCurrencyCode/text()) != normalize-space(ram:InvoiceCurrencyCode/text())

Source: Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 Schematron, UBL (OpenPeppol, docs.peppol.eu validation artefacts 3.0.21).

Source: XRechnung Schematron, CII (itplr-kosit/xrechnung-schematron, Apache-2.0).

Source: XRechnung Schematron, UBL (itplr-kosit/xrechnung-schematron, Apache-2.0).

Check your invoice against this rule