BR-CO-14:Invoice total VAT amount must equal the sum of VAT category tax amounts
Fix: Verify each TaxSubtotal (BR-CO-17), then rewrite cac:TaxTotal/cbc:TaxAmount (BT-110) as the half-up rounded sum of the category tax amounts (BT-117) using Decimal arithmetic, and recompute cac:LegalMonetaryTotal/cbc:TaxInclusiveAmount. If a TaxSubtotal is missing or duplicated, fix the breakdown rather than just the total. Upload your invoice to fix this automatically.
BR-CO-14 fires when the document-level VAT total (BT-110, cac:TaxTotal/cbc:TaxAmount) does not equal the sum of the VAT category tax amounts (BT-117, each cac:TaxSubtotal/cbc:TaxAmount). It is the aggregation sibling of BR-CO-17 (which validates one category at a time) and one of the most common Peppol calculation failures, because a single off-by-0.01 in any TaxSubtotal cascades up into this total.
Engine Classification
BLOCKED: This is a VAT calculation mismatch. We cannot determine if the total or individual category amounts are wrong. Tax calculations must be verified by source system.
Confidence: 90% · Applied automatically in pipeline
What is BR-CO-14?
BR-CO-14 is a fatal validation rule defined in the EN 16931 specification. It validates the TaxAmount)) to two decimals. Failures: round-then-sum vs sum-then-round drift; a single wrong TaxSubtotal (BR-CO-17); a stale or pre-discount TaxTotal on multi-rate invoices; banker's vs half-up rounding; a dropped or extra TaxSubtotal; credit-note sign handling negating the total but not every subtotal. element under TaxAmount = round(sum(cac:TaxSubtotal in the UBL invoice XML.
When this rule fires, the invoice is rejected by Peppol access points and never reaches the buyer.
Target path: The schematron checks cac:TaxTotal/cbc:TaxAmount = round(sum(cac:TaxSubtotal/cbc:TaxAmount)) to two decimals. Failures: round-then-sum vs sum-then-round drift; a single wrong TaxSubtotal (BR-CO-17); a stale or pre-discount TaxTotal on multi-rate invoices; banker's vs half-up rounding; a dropped or extra TaxSubtotal; credit-note sign handling negating the total but not every subtotal.
Why This Error Matters
Invoice rejected. VAT total mismatch causes tax reporting issues and payment discrepancies.
BR-CO-14 is a hard failure — the invoice must be corrected and re-sent before it can reach the recipient.
Invoice Navigator can automatically correct this error in your pipeline. The fix is applied with full audit evidence, so your compliance trail remains intact.
Validator Behavior
- ·Causes invoice rejection
- ·Error returned: BR-CO-14
- ·Specification: EN 16931
How to Fix It
Group by tax category
Find all lines with same TaxCategory/ID and Percent
Sum line amounts
Add LineExtensionAmount for each group
Set TaxableAmount
Must match sum for that category
Before / After
<cac:TaxTotal><cbc:TaxAmount currencyID="EUR">285.01</cbc:TaxAmount><cac:TaxSubtotal><cbc:TaxableAmount currencyID="EUR">1000.00</cbc:TaxableAmount><cbc:TaxAmount currencyID="EUR">190.00</cbc:TaxAmount><cac:TaxCategory><cbc:ID>S</cbc:ID><cbc:Percent>19.00</cbc:Percent><cac:TaxScheme><cbc:ID>VAT</cbc:ID></cac:TaxScheme></cac:TaxCategory></cac:TaxSubtotal><cac:TaxSubtotal><cbc:TaxableAmount currencyID="EUR">1357.00</cbc:TaxableAmount><cbc:TaxAmount currencyID="EUR">95.00</cbc:TaxAmount><cac:TaxCategory><cbc:ID>S</cbc:ID><cbc:Percent>7.00</cbc:Percent><cac:TaxScheme><cbc:ID>VAT</cbc:ID></cac:TaxScheme></cac:TaxCategory></cac:TaxSubtotal></cac:TaxTotal>
<cac:TaxTotal><cbc:TaxAmount currencyID="EUR">285.00</cbc:TaxAmount><cac:TaxSubtotal><cbc:TaxableAmount currencyID="EUR">1000.00</cbc:TaxableAmount><cbc:TaxAmount currencyID="EUR">190.00</cbc:TaxAmount><cac:TaxCategory><cbc:ID>S</cbc:ID><cbc:Percent>19.00</cbc:Percent><cac:TaxScheme><cbc:ID>VAT</cbc:ID></cac:TaxScheme></cac:TaxCategory></cac:TaxSubtotal><cac:TaxSubtotal><cbc:TaxableAmount currencyID="EUR">1357.00</cbc:TaxableAmount><cbc:TaxAmount currencyID="EUR">95.00</cbc:TaxAmount><cac:TaxCategory><cbc:ID>S</cbc:ID><cbc:Percent>7.00</cbc:Percent><cac:TaxScheme><cbc:ID>VAT</cbc:ID></cac:TaxScheme></cac:TaxCategory></cac:TaxSubtotal></cac:TaxTotal>
Technical Reference
The schematron checks cac:TaxTotal/cbc:TaxAmount = round(sum(cac:TaxSubtotal/cbc:TaxAmount)) to two decimals. Failures: round-then-sum vs sum-then-round drift; a single wrong TaxSubtotal (BR-CO-17); a stale or pre-discount TaxTotal on multi-rate invoices; banker's vs half-up rounding; a dropped or extra TaxSubtotal; credit-note sign handling negating the total but not every subtotal.Code Example
190.00 + 95.00 = 285.00, so BT-110 must be 285.00; the before document wrote 285.01 (a stale total). The after rewrites BT-110 as the exact sum of the BT-117 subtotals.Common Causes
- ·Document VAT total not equal to the rounded sum of category tax amounts: round-then-sum vs sum-then-round drift, a wrong subtotal, a stale total on multi-rate invoices, banker's vs half-up rounding, a dropped/extra TaxSubtotal, or credit-note sign handling.
Seeing this in production? The API handles BR-CO-14 automatically. See the fix response →
Commonly Seen In
Frequently Asked Questions
Your document VAT total (BT-110) does not equal the sum of the per-category VAT amounts (BT-117). The usual cause is the exporter writing a separately-calculated grand total instead of summing the category subtotals it just rendered, leaving a one-cent gap on multi-rate invoices.
Yes, with high confidence (0.90). After confirming each TaxSubtotal is correct (BR-CO-17), we rewrite BT-110 as the exact sum of the category tax amounts, round half-up, and recompute TaxInclusiveAmount. Manual review is only needed when a TaxSubtotal block is missing or duplicated.
BR-CO-17 validates one category: TaxAmount = TaxableAmount * Rate / 100. BR-CO-14 validates the roll-up: TaxTotal/TaxAmount = sum of all category TaxAmounts. A BR-CO-17 failure frequently triggers BR-CO-14, so fix the category rule first.
Yes — the document totals chain. BR-CO-15 checks TaxInclusiveAmount = TaxExclusiveAmount + TaxTotal/TaxAmount and BR-CO-16 checks the amount due. After correcting the VAT total you must recompute TaxInclusiveAmount or BR-CO-15 fails.
Related Errors
Last updated: 2 June 2026
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