BR-CO-26: Your business has no identifier. How to fix it

What the rule checks

The rule checks that your customer can identify you as the supplier automatically. For that, at least one of three fields must be present: a seller identifier (BT-29), the seller's legal registration identifier (BT-30), such as a commercial register number, or the seller's VAT number (BT-31). The tax number (BT-32) is not one of the three, so it does not satisfy the rule.

Why files fail it

• You are a small business under § 19 UStG with a tax number and no VAT number. Your software correctly writes the tax number to BT-32, but none of the three required fields is filled. This is the most common cause.
• The commercial register number appears only in the PDF footer, not in the structured data.
• Your customer gave you a supplier number, but it is only on their purchase order and never made it into your invoice.

How to fix it

1. 1If you have a VAT number, enter it with its country prefix in "Seller VAT identifier" (BT-31). That alone satisfies the rule.
2. 2Without a VAT number, use "Seller legal registration identifier" (BT-30), for instance for your commercial register number, or "Seller identifier" (BT-29), for instance for the supplier number your customer gave you.
3. 3The tax number still stays in "Seller tax registration identifier" (BT-32). It satisfies BR-DE-16, just not this rule.
4. 4In our form it is the "Business reference number" field under "Your details"; its value is sent as BT-29. If no VAT number is entered, the form will not create the invoice until this field is filled.