HowtoinvoiceinternationalclientsfromIndia
The invoice itself changes very little. What changes is everything around it — the banking, the evidence you have to keep, and the wording that makes the supply zero-rated.
8 minute read · Updated
Short answer
Invoice an overseas client in the currency you have agreed to be paid in, include your SWIFT or BIC code alongside your account details, and put the export endorsement on the document — either “Supply meant for export under bond or Letter of Undertaking without payment of integrated tax” or “Supply meant for export on payment of integrated tax”, depending on which route you use. Keep the FIRC or bank advice your bank issues on receipt, since evidence that payment arrived in convertible foreign exchange is one of the conditions for a service to qualify as an export.
Currency, and why it is not a small decision
Invoice in the currency you will be paid in — usually the client's. Invoicing in rupees and asking a US client to send dollars leaves the exchange rate and the conversion spread undefined, and whoever did not define it absorbs the difference.
Formatting follows the currency, and getting this wrong signals amateurism immediately. A USD invoice uses Western digit grouping — $120,000.00, not $1,20,000.00 — and if you print the amount in words it should read “One Hundred Twenty Thousand Dollars”, not “One Lakh Twenty Thousand”. Your GST return still reports in rupees at the applicable rate; the document the client receives should be entirely in theirs.
Banking details that actually work
An IFSC code is a domestic routing code and means nothing to a bank abroad. An inbound international transfer needs:
- The account holder's name exactly as the bank holds it. A mismatch here is the single most common cause of a returned or held transfer.
- The account number.
- Your bank's SWIFT or BIC code.
- The bank's branch name and full address.
- The IFSC as well — some corridors ask for it, and it costs nothing to include.
Also state the purpose of the remittance in plain language on the invoice. The receiving bank asks for it under FEMA reporting, and if you have not supplied it they will contact you before releasing the funds — which is how a two-day transfer becomes a two-week one.
The export endorsement
Exports are zero-rated, and there are two routes to that status. Which one you use determines a line of wording that has to appear on the face of the invoice.
| Under LUT / bond | With IGST paid | |
|---|---|---|
| You charge IGST | No | Yes |
| You recover it via | Refund of input tax credit | Refund of the IGST paid |
| Cash flow | Better — nothing goes out | Worse — paid, then reclaimed |
| Endorsement on the invoice | “…under bond or Letter of Undertaking without payment of integrated tax” | “…on payment of integrated tax” |
Most regular exporters file a Letter of Undertaking for exactly the cash-flow reason. Whether yours is current, and which route applies to you, is a question for your accountant — put the resulting wording in the notes field and it prints on the document.
Export of services is a status, not a description
A supply of services counts as an export only when a specific set of conditions is met — concerning where the supplier and the recipient are located, where the service is used, that the two are not merely establishments of the same person, and that payment is received in convertible foreign exchange.
That last condition is the one with a filing consequence. Keep the FIRC, or the bank advice that has largely replaced it, for every payment. It is what evidences the foreign-exchange receipt, and it is the document that gets requested when a refund claim is examined — often long after you have stopped thinking about that invoice.
Practical differences worth planning for
- Payment takes longer. Two to five working days is normal for a wire, before the client's own approval cycle. Set due dates accordingly.
- Fees are deducted en route. Intermediary banks take a cut. Agree in writing who absorbs it, or you will be short and it will be awkward.
- Your client may need a W-8BEN or local equivalent. Ask early; it is routine paperwork that becomes urgent at exactly the wrong moment.
- Write dates unambiguously. “23 September 2026”, never 09/23 or 23/09 — the two readings differ by months and nobody notices until they do.
- Time zones affect due dates. A date is a date; do not add “by 5pm” unless you say whose 5pm.
The reference
Export invoice format
What an export invoice must carry, the endorsement that depends on whether you export under LUT or with tax paid, and how to handle foreign currency.
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Questions people ask
Exports of services are zero-rated, so you either export under a Letter of Undertaking and charge no IGST, claiming a refund of input tax credit, or you charge IGST and claim a refund of the tax paid. Which route applies is a decision to take with your accountant, and the invoice must carry the corresponding endorsement either way.
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