Puh, I'm not a tax consultant, ask yours how and why that is. But you don't put VAT on off-EU invoices (not even within different EU countries I think). It's just net.

I think the reasoning is that a VAT - value _added tax_ - requires that the other party also pays VAT (you only pay the difference, the "value add"). Which simply doesn't happen if you are outside your own country. In "regular" cases this is compensated by tariffs, but there are none for consulting/dev AFAIK.

But again: ask you tax consultant :-)

In countries that have a tax agreement with Germany (e.g. Canada), the Reverse Charge procedure is used; you signalise that on your invoice. In that case, the customer is obligated to pay the VAT in their country and you bill the net amount. However, that depends on the service/product sold. If you re-sell development services, for example, you still have to pay VAT in Germany on a part of the amount billed while the rest is covered by Reverse Charge.

In my understanding, if you have a client outside of EU, you can invoice them without VAT. It's the client's responsibility to pay VAT in their own country.

So that's what I do, and on my "Umsatzsteuererklärung" form, there is a field for income that is VAT-free, where I put basically everything.