Everything an Indian freelancer needs to bill global clients confidently and stay fully compliant at home. Four rulebooks, one page, no jargon we don't explain.
RBI and FEMA don't care what you do for a living. They care how the money arrived, what it was tagged as, and how fast it landed.
To bring each invoice's money into India, counted from the invoice date. The single hardest deadline. Delays need a bank-routed extension.
How long to keep invoices, contracts, credit advices and e-FIRAs — your defence file in any FEMA or tax review.
Can sit in an EEFC account without instant conversion — but unused funds must convert to INR by end of the next month.
AD Category-I banks or RBI-approved platforms (Wise, Payoneer, PayPal and peers). No RBI approval needed — just the right pipe.
P0802 software · P0806 information services · P0803 / P0807 consulting · P1001 creative. The code drives your bank's reporting — and yours.
Your proof of foreign-exchange receipt. GST zero-rating, refunds and audits all lean on it. Collect and file every one.
SOFTEX applies mainly to STPI/SEZ-routed software exports. The newer EDF requirement asks service exporters to declare invoices so inward money can be matched and closed in EDPMS.
Zero-rated is not exempt. You charge no GST, but you still register once liable, file, and report every export rupee.
You're in India · client is outside India · place of supply is outside India · payment arrives in convertible forex (FIRC is proof) · you and the client aren't branches of one entity.
File Form RFD-11 once a year on the GST portal, then invoice foreign clients at 0% IGST. No tax paid upfront, no cash stuck.
Charge 18%, recover it later. Legal — but it parks your working capital with the department while you wait.
Aggregate turnover — exports count. ₹10 lakh in special-category states. Below it, voluntary registration unlocks the LUT and input-credit refunds.
It expires with the financial year. Refile RFD-11 before your first export invoice, or your 0% billing loses its legal cover.
Report export turnover at 0%, monthly or under QRMP. Registered exporters can claim refunds of unutilised input tax credit on business expenses.
As professional income, at slab rates. The good news is Section 44ADA.
Under 44ADA, half your gross receipts is simply deemed taxable profit — no books, no audit, no expense-tracking. Available on professional receipts up to ₹75 lakh when ≥95% arrives digitally.
Foreign clients deduct no Indian TDS. Under 44ADA, pay 100% by 15 March; under regular provisions, quarterly. Shortfalls attract 1% a month.
ITR-4 for presumptive filing; ITR-3 if you keep books and claim actual expenses. Forex converts at the SBI TT buying rate on the date of receipt.
Separate freelance money from personal funds — clean trails for ITR, GST refunds and any scrutiny.
Free. Opens collateral-free credit, delayed-payment protection and scheme access.
Not needed for pure service exports. Your PAN doubles as the IEC. Take it only for goods or DGFT incentives.
Only when software exports are STPI/SEZ-routed or your bank specifically asks.
The standing translations live here. The dated diary — warnings as they land, contributed by the CAs, with tags and a calendar — is Eagle Eye. Official text is linked. Not legal advice — your CA still signs.
Until now a lot of freelancers treated a Wise credit and a FIRC as “done.” The new regulations say every export of services needs an Export Declaration Form. Software, design, writing, teaching on Zoom — if the client is abroad, it is an export. The switch flips on 1 October, not “sometime later.”
You do not file a form per invoice. You bundle every foreign invoice from that calendar month into one EDF. Invoice in October? File by 30 November. Your AD bank then has five working days to put it into EDPMS. Miss the window often enough and credits get slower, not because RBI froze you overnight, but because the bank cannot match money to a declaration that isn’t there.
A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 20 · 16 Jan 2026 ↗ · EDF form (PDF) ↗
If a single EDPMS entry is ₹10 lakh or less, your bank may close it on a declaration that the money has arrived — you do not need a novel of paperwork. Several such entries can go in one quarterly declaration. That is the relief. It is not a free pass to skip the EDF itself.
The EDF says you exported. The realisation rule says the rupees (or the EEFC dollars) must actually arrive, generally within fifteen months of the invoice — eighteen if you billed in INR. Sit on an unpaid invoice past that and future exports can be restricted to full advance or a letter of credit. Collect. Match. Close.
The diary keeps going as circulars land. Open Eagle Eye →
Tell it who paid you. It raises the invoice, matches the money, files what's due. First month free for founding members.
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