What is BR-IC about?
The VAT category "Intra-community supply" (code K) covers tax-free supplies of goods to a business in another EU country, under section 4 no. 1b together with section 6a of the German VAT Act. In German B2B trade it applies when a seller ships goods to a customer holding a valid foreign VAT identifier in another Member State. The common thread: rate 0, tax amount 0, and the invoice must carry the proof of exemption. That means the VAT identifiers of both seller AND buyer, a reason for the exemption, plus details of the delivery date or invoicing period and of the destination country. The BR-IC rules enforce exactly these mandatory details and the zero values in the VAT breakdown.
All rules in group BR-IC
If an invoice contains a line, an allowance or a charge with VAT category 'Intra-community supply', the VAT breakdown must hold exactly one entry with VAT category code (BT-118) 'Intra-community supply'.
If an invoice line has invoiced item VAT category code (BT-151) 'Intra-community supply', the invoice must contain the Seller VAT identifier (BT-31) or the Seller tax representative VAT identifier (BT-63), and the Buyer VAT identifier (BT-48).
If a document level allowance has VAT category code (BT-95) 'Intra-community supply', the invoice must contain the Seller VAT identifier (BT-31) or the Seller tax representative VAT identifier (BT-63), and the Buyer VAT identifier (BT-48).
If a document level charge has VAT category code (BT-102) 'Intra-community supply', the invoice must contain the Seller VAT identifier (BT-31) or the Seller tax representative VAT identifier (BT-63), and the Buyer VAT identifier (BT-48).
If an invoice line has invoiced item VAT category code (BT-151) 'Intra-community supply', the invoiced item VAT rate (BT-152) must be 0 (zero).
If a document level allowance has VAT category code (BT-95) 'Intra-community supply', the allowance VAT rate (BT-96) must be 0 (zero).
If a document level charge has VAT category code (BT-102) 'Intra-community supply', the charge VAT rate (BT-103) must be 0 (zero).
In a VAT breakdown with VAT category code (BT-118) 'Intra-community supply', the VAT category taxable amount (BT-116) must equal the sum of the net line amounts of that category minus allowances plus charges.
In a VAT breakdown with VAT category code (BT-118) 'Intra-community supply', the VAT category tax amount (BT-117) must be 0 (zero).
A VAT breakdown with VAT category code (BT-118) 'Intra-community supply' must carry a VAT exemption reason code (BT-121) meaning 'Intra-community supply' or the matching VAT exemption reason text (BT-120).
If an invoice has a VAT breakdown with VAT category code (BT-118) 'Intra-community supply', the actual delivery date (BT-72) or the invoicing period (BG-14) must not be empty.
If an invoice has a VAT breakdown with VAT category code (BT-118) 'Intra-community supply', the deliver to country code (BT-80) must not be empty.
Check BR-IC automatically
Instead of digging through the XML by hand you can validate your ZUGFeRD or XRechnung file online – you get every violation with rule ID, affected field, fix and XPath, as a readable report or as JSON through the API.