# BR-O-05

Quoted from a public specification. This page is not a validator, and it is not tax, legal, or accounting advice.

- Country: EU
- Syntax: UBL
- Severity: fatal
- Statement language: en
- Last verified: 2026-10-18

## Official statement

> An Invoice line (BG-25) where the VAT category code (BT-151) is "Not subject to VAT" shall not contain an Invoiced item VAT rate (BT-152).

Source: https://docs.peppol.eu/poacc/billing/3.0/rules/ubl-tc434/BR-O-05/

Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, May 2026 release, EN 16931 model bound to UBL

Severity note: fatal, from the Flag column of the Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 UBL rules index retrieved 2026-10-18.

## Plain-language reading

An invoice line whose VAT category is "Not subject to VAT" must not contain an invoiced item VAT rate (BT-152). The official message says "shall not contain", and it includes "the" before "VAT category code". The published context matches an invoice line or a credit note line. The category comparison is cbc:ID) = 'O' with spaces around =. The tax-scheme comparison is cbc:ID)='VAT' with no space before =. The test is not(cbc:Percent). It requires the percent element to be absent. It does not compare a rate to 0.

## What to change

On a line coded O, omit the invoiced item VAT rate (BT-152).

## Illustration

Illustration of the condition in the official statement. Not an example published by the source.

**Fails the stated condition.** A line uses category code O and includes a percent element.

**Passes the stated condition.** A line uses O and has no percent element.

## Published context and test

Copied from the source. Not reimplemented on this page.

```
cac:InvoiceLine/cac:Item/cac:ClassifiedTaxCategory[normalize-space(cbc:ID) = 'O'][cac:TaxScheme/normalize-space(upper-case(cbc:ID))='VAT'] | cac:CreditNoteLine/cac:Item/cac:ClassifiedTaxCategory[normalize-space(cbc:ID) = 'O'][cac:TaxScheme/normalize-space(upper-case(cbc:ID))='VAT']
```

```
not(cbc:Percent)
```

[All rule notes](https://einvoicegoblin.com/rules/index.md) · [JSON](https://einvoicegoblin.com/rules/BR-O-05.json) · [HTML](https://einvoicegoblin.com/rules/BR-O-05/) · [llms.txt](https://einvoicegoblin.com/llms.txt) · [Invoice page](https://einvoicegoblin.com/) · [Privacy](https://einvoicegoblin.com/privacy.html)