# PEPPOL-EN16931-R053

> Exactly one VAT category grouping (BG-23) must be provided per combination of VAT category code and rate. Duplicate or missing cac:TaxTotal/cac:TaxSubtotal groupings trip this rule.

Checked against Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 2026.5

Canonical: https://einvoicecheck.eu/rules/peppol-en16931-r053

## Official rule text

Only one tax total with tax subtotals MUST be provided.

## Why did my invoice fail PEPPOL-EN16931-R053?

The invoice must contain exactly one cac:TaxTotal that holds the VAT breakdown (cac:TaxSubtotal) in the document currency. A second TaxTotal is only allowed when it carries the VAT total in the accounting currency (BT-111) and it must not include subtotals, so overall no more than one TaxTotal with subtotals may exist.

## Common causes

- Two cac:TaxTotal elements both containing cac:TaxSubtotal blocks.
- The accounting-currency TaxTotal (BT-111) was emitted with subtotals instead of a bare TaxAmount.
- Duplicate TaxTotal produced by concatenating VAT breakdowns from multiple sources.

## How do I fix it?

```
Keep one TaxTotal with subtotals: <cac:TaxTotal><cbc:TaxAmount currencyID="EUR">25.00</cbc:TaxAmount><cac:TaxSubtotal>...</cac:TaxSubtotal></cac:TaxTotal>. Any BT-111 TaxTotal must have only <cbc:TaxAmount> in the accounting currency and no TaxSubtotal.
```