Missing Tax ID on Invoice: Why ERPs Reject It
One of the most frequent reasons invoices are rejected by ERP systems is a missing or incomplete tax identification number for the vendor or the buyer.
Important: This is a structural issue, not a tax compliance decision.
The ERP simply cannot process the document without required identity fields.
Which tax IDs are usually required
- Vendor tax ID (VAT, EIN, RFC, NIF, etc.)
- Buyer tax ID
- Correct formatting according to country standards
Common causes
- Vendor forgot to include tax ID on the invoice header
- Tax ID present but not machine-readable
- Wrong field used (e.g. reference field instead of tax ID field)
- Tax ID partially cut off in scanned PDFs
How to fix it before resubmission
- Request a corrected invoice including all required tax IDs
- Ensure the invoice is text-based (not a scanned image)
- Verify formatting and completeness before ERP upload