Rule BR-S-05
A standard rated line must have a VAT rate above zero
On a line marked standard rated, the VAT rate is greater than zero. A standard rated line at 0 percent is a contradiction.
Business term BT-152, Invoiced item VAT rate (with BT-151, category code S). Source: EN 16931. Our wording, not the normative text, which is published in the Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 rule list and was checked against it on 2026-08-16.
Why it fires on invoices that look fine
Almost nobody hits this rule because they forgot the field exists. They hit it because something between their system and the document dropped it, changed its shape, or filled it with a value that is right somewhere else. These are the causes worth checking first.
- The category defaults to S in the exporter and is never set, so a genuinely exempt or reverse charge line arrives labelled standard rated with a rate of zero.
- The rate is missing entirely, which fails the same rule: standard rated means a rate applies, so there has to be one.
- A zero-value line, such as a free sample or a placeholder row, inherits the default category.
What to change
- Decide the category before the rate, not after. Most occurrences of this rule are a category that was never chosen rather than a rate that was mistyped.
- For a genuinely untaxed line, pick the category that says why: Z zero rated, E exempt, AE reverse charge, K intra-community, G export outside the EU, O not subject to VAT.
- Do not set a token 0.01 percent to satisfy the validator. It will pass here and be wrong on the buyer's VAT return.
The validator runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, and you can confirm that yourself with the network panel open.
Rules you are likely to hit next
A document that breaks BR-S-05 usually breaks one of these too, because the same mapping gap tends to affect neighbouring fields.
Questions people actually ask
- What does BR-S-05 mean?
- On a line marked standard rated, the VAT rate is greater than zero. A standard rated line at 0 percent is a contradiction.
- Which field does BR-S-05 apply to?
- BT-152, Invoiced item VAT rate (with BT-151, category code S). That is the name the semantic model uses, which is what you search for in your own system's mapping when the identifier alone does not tell you which field to look at.
- Does our validator check BR-S-05?
- Yes. Paste your invoice data into the free validator and it reports this rule with the value it actually saw, without the document leaving your browser.