Yeah, the accounting is there, but not the actual transfer. I.e. you're not transferring the actual money to France, which the French finance ministry would then have to send back to the German one once it got it from the French company (in order for the German one to give it back to the company buying the product).

And the accounting is there because of tax fraud, I guess. And I also guess that the US has a similar accounting system where they have to report the amount purchased per tax bracket and the IDs of the companies they bought from.

You don't pay VAT on intra-EU B2B transactions; the buyer adds the VAT amount at their country's rate to both the amount to pay and the amount to claim back, cancelling it out.

The reverse charge is still VAT being paid, just differently.

How so if the net liability change is nil? No extra money comes out of your account, it's just a paper charge that cancels itself.

If I have misinterpreted it, I would very much like to know so I can inform my accountant. VAT is enough of a hairy mess as it is.

This, reverse charge.