Hi. I have some basic questions about the topic, especially regarding who has to charge VAT (USt) and under what circumstances such charging can be exempt.
Is there anyone who can give advice on this? or who knows a tax consultant or tax accountant whom I can approach?
The background is that as a freelancer, I am working on a project run by a company outside the EU. My agent is based in Germany (same as me), and I am a self-employed freelancing resource that my agent provides to that company (their client). I invoice my agent for the work I perform for their client. They collect the money and then pass it to me.
They do not invoice their client VAT, but insist that I have to include VAT (19% of my service fee) on the invoice I send to them. Effectively, it means that I have to pay a portion out of the service fee I earn as VAT to the German tax authority. This sounds to me illogical. A tax accountant online told me that in similar cases, the party responsible for collecting and remitting VAT (if applicable) to the German tax authority is my agent (under Reverse Charge scheme), and not me.
If no VAT is collected from the end-customer (i.e. the client of the agent, and the client is outside the EU), how can I be responsible for remitting VAT to the German tax authority?