RELIEF: “Invalid length in TIN of owner.”
Five causes, in the order to check them.
The “TIN of owner” is the taxpayer’s own TIN in the header of the file, and on every detail line. RELIEF wants exactly nine digits there.
Check these, in order
- Hyphens or spaces.
226-787-173must be226787173. - The branch code is still on it. A full TIN such as
226-787-173-00000is nine digits plus a branch code. Only the first nine go in the file. - The header and the lines disagree. Every detail line repeats the owner’s TIN. If one differs from the header, the file is wrong.
- The file name does not match. A file named for one TIN with another inside is easy to make when you reuse an old file.
- Taxpayer type. A vendor guide for another system points to the classification (company or individual) in the company profile as a cause of this exact message. Make sure it matches whose TIN it is. QNE’s note on it.
Also nine digits, not zero
Suppliers and customers on detail lines follow the same rule: nine digits, and not all zeros. A receipt with no TIN cannot go in the file. ClockIN lists those lines separately so you can type the TIN in, or leave the line out on purpose.
What the owner line should look like
In our files the header starts H,P,"226787173","COMPANY NAME",… for purchases (or H,S, for sales), and each detail line ends with the same TIN and the period date.
Questions
Is the branch code ever in the file?
Not in the owner TIN, in the files we make. Only the first nine digits are used.
My TIN is correct and it still fails. What next?
Run the file through the free checker and read the first line it flags. A fix for the first problem often clears the rest.
Skip the hard part
Photograph the papers. ClockIN checks every line and makes the files.