Not sure this is what you want, but if I need to send some attribute only if it is not empty, then I declare it as: @XmlElement(name = "StatementDate", required = false) public final Date getStmtDate() { return this.stmtDate; } If I want the the attribute to be sent even if it is empty, I use nillable=true This would not work if you want to prevent a non-empty attribute from being sent though. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4170065#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...