odoo/odoo · error · ValidationError

The country of the foreign VAT number could not be detected.

Error message

The country of the foreign VAT number could not be detected. Please assign a country to the fiscal position.

What it means

Constraint on account.fiscal.position: when foreign_vat is set, country_id must be filled — the VAT number's country cannot be auto-detected from the number alone in this flow, so the fiscal position must state it. Raised from _validate_foreign_vat_country on create/write.

Source

Thrown at addons/account/models/partner.py:123

            position.tax_map = dict(tax_map)

    @api.depends('account_ids.account_src_id', 'account_ids.account_dest_id')
    def _compute_account_map(self):
        for position in self:
            position.account_map = {al.account_src_id.id: al.account_dest_id.id for al in position.account_ids}

    @api.constrains('zip_from', 'zip_to')
    def _check_zip(self):
        for position in self:
            if bool(position.zip_from) != bool(position.zip_to) or position.zip_from > position.zip_to:
                raise ValidationError(_('Invalid "Zip Range", You have to configure both "From" and "To" values for the zip range and "To" should be greater than "From".'))

    @api.constrains('country_id', 'country_group_id', 'state_ids', 'foreign_vat')
    def _validate_foreign_vat_country(self):
        for record in self:
            if record.foreign_vat:
                if not record.country_id:
                    raise ValidationError(_("The country of the foreign VAT number could not be detected. Please assign a country to the fiscal position."))
                if record.country_id == record.company_id.account_fiscal_country_id:
                    if not record.state_ids:
                        if record.company_id.account_fiscal_country_id.state_ids:
                            raise ValidationError(_("You cannot create a fiscal position with a foreign VAT within your fiscal country without assigning it a state."))
                if record.country_group_id and record.country_id:
                    if record.country_id not in record.country_group_id.country_ids:
                        raise ValidationError(_("You cannot create a fiscal position with a country outside of the selected country group."))

                similar_fpos_count = self.env['account.fiscal.position'].search_count([
                    *self.env['account.fiscal.position']._check_company_domain(record.company_id),
                    ('foreign_vat', 'not in', (False, record.foreign_vat)),
                    ('id', '!=', record.id),
                    ('country_id', '=', record.country_id.id),
                ])
                if similar_fpos_count:
                    raise ValidationError(_("A fiscal position with a foreign VAT already exists in this country."))

    @api.onchange('country_id', 'foreign_vat')

View on GitHub (pinned to 1e661df964)

Solutions

1. Set the country matching the foreign VAT number on the fiscal position.
2. Or derive it in scripts from the VAT prefix (first two letters) before create().
3. Leave foreign_vat empty if the position is not a fiscal-representation position.

Example fix

# before
env['account.fiscal.position'].create({'name': 'DE VAT', 'foreign_vat': 'DE123456789'})  # ValidationError

# after
env['account.fiscal.position'].create({
    'name': 'DE VAT', 'foreign_vat': 'DE123456789',
    'country_id': env.ref('base.de').id,
})

def fpos_country_ok(vals):
    return not vals.get('foreign_vat') or vals.get('country_id')

When it happens

Trigger: create()/write() on account.fiscal.position with foreign_vat set and country_id empty (and no detectable country via country_group_id); e.g. creating an EU fiscal position for a foreign VAT registration without picking the country.

Common situations: VAT-identification setup for foreign subsidiaries; import of fiscal positions where the country column is missing; users expecting the VAT number prefix (e.g. 'BE0123...') to auto-set the country.

Related errors

• You cannot create a fiscal position with a foreign VAT withi
• You cannot create a fiscal position with a country outside o
• This entry contains taxes that are not compatible with your
• Invalid "Zip Range", You have to configure both "From" and "
• A fiscal position with a foreign VAT already exists in this

AI-assisted analysis of odoo/odoo@1e661df964 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2264be418a06590b. Report an issue: GitHub.