diff --git a/src/formulas/parser.ts b/src/formulas/parser.ts
index 9560e1df13..1afd2a59bd 100644
--- a/src/formulas/parser.ts
+++ b/src/formulas/parser.ts
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import { DEFAULT_ERROR_MESSAGE } from "../constants";
 import { parseNumber, removeStringQuotes } from "../helpers/index";
 import { _t } from "../translation";
 import { DEFAULT_LOCALE } from "../types";
-import { BadExpressionError, InvalidReferenceError } from "../types/errors";
+import { BadExpressionError, CellErrorType } from "../types/errors";
 import { rangeTokenize } from "./range_tokenizer";
 import { Token } from "./tokenizer";
 
@@ -113,7 +113,11 @@ function parseOperand(tokens: Token[]): AST {
     case "STRING":
       return { type: "STRING", value: removeStringQuotes(current.value) };
     case "INVALID_REFERENCE":
-      throw new InvalidReferenceError();
+      return {
+        type: "REFERENCE",
+        value: CellErrorType.InvalidReference,
+      };
+
     case "REFERENCE":
       if (tokens[0]?.value === ":" && tokens[1]?.type === "REFERENCE") {
         tokens.shift();
diff --git a/tests/evaluation/parser.test.ts b/tests/evaluation/parser.test.ts
index 8626e241bc..00ff8ba05f 100644
--- a/tests/evaluation/parser.test.ts
+++ b/tests/evaluation/parser.test.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { astToFormula, parse } from "../../src";
-import { InvalidReferenceError } from "../../src/types/errors";
+import { CellErrorType } from "../../src/types/errors";
 
 describe("parser", () => {
   test("can parse a function call with no argument", () => {
@@ -168,7 +168,10 @@ describe("parser", () => {
   });
 
   test("Can parse invalid references", () => {
-    expect(() => parse("#REF")).toThrowError(new InvalidReferenceError().message);
+    expect(parse("#REF")).toEqual({
+      type: "REFERENCE",
+      value: CellErrorType.InvalidReference,
+    });
   });
 
   test("Cannot parse empty string", () => {