Invoice Format for Foreign Clients from India (GST and LUT)

If you freelance from India for clients in the US, the UK or Europe, your invoice does two jobs. It asks the client for payment, usually in dollars, pounds or euros. And if you are registered for GST, it is the document that shows your work is an export of services: a zero-rated supply, normally billed with no GST at all.

This guide covers when work for a foreign client counts as an export, when you need GST registration, the choice between a Letter of Undertaking (LUT) and paying IGST, what the export invoice should show, invoicing in a foreign currency, the payment paperwork (FIRC and e-BRC), and a worked example in US dollars. For the basics every invoice needs, such as line items and numbering, start with how to make an invoice as a freelancer.

Not tax advice. Export rules under GST have conditions and exceptions, and they change. Everything below was read on official pages (CBIC, the GST portal, DGFT and the Gazette of India) on 6 November 2026; the list is at the end. Check your own case with your CA before you rely on it.

Is your work an export of services?

Section 2(6) of the IGST Act says a supply of services is an export when all five conditions are met:

1. you, the supplier, are located in India;
2. your client is located outside India;
3. the place of supply is outside India;
4. you are paid in convertible foreign exchange, or in Indian rupees where the Reserve Bank of India permits it;
5. you and the client are not merely establishments of the same person, such as your own branch abroad.

The third condition needs care. For most services to a client abroad, section 13 of the IGST Act puts the place of supply at the client's location. Some services have their own rules: work on goods the client makes physically available to you, services that need the client to be physically present, services connected with land or buildings, and events. Those are supplied where the work is done, the property is or the event is held, so they may not be exports.

CBIC's copy of section 13 also shows clause (b) of section 13(8), the rule that placed intermediary services at the supplier's location, omitted from 30 March 2026 by the Finance Act 2026. If you arrange services between other parties, ask your CA how that change applies to your contracts.

If any condition fails, the work is not an export, and normal GST rules apply.

Do you need GST registration?

Under section 22 of the CGST Act, registration is required once your aggregate turnover in a financial year exceeds ₹20 lakh (₹10 lakh in the special category states named in that section). Aggregate turnover includes exports of services.

Notification 10/2017-Integrated Tax also exempts service providers making inter-State supplies from registration while their aggregate turnover stays within ₹20 lakh (₹10 lakh in special category states). So a freelancer who only supplies services and stays under the threshold is generally not required to register. Your CA can confirm this for your case.

If you are not registered:

• you have no GSTIN and charge no GST, so your invoice is an ordinary invoice with no tax on it;
• you cannot file an LUT, which is for registered persons;
• the advice below on currency, clear details and payment proof still applies.

Zero-rated: LUT, or pay IGST and claim a refund

Section 16 of the IGST Act makes exports of services zero-rated supplies, and it lets you take input tax credit for them. In practice there are two routes:

	Export under LUT	Export on payment of IGST
Tax on the invoice	None	IGST at the rate for your service
Cash flow	No tax paid upfront	You pay the IGST, then claim it back
Refund you can seek	Unused input tax credit	The IGST you paid
Before invoicing	An LUT for the financial year, on the portal	Nothing extra
Endorsement	"...WITHOUT PAYMENT OF INTEGRATED TAX"	"...ON PAYMENT OF INTEGRATED TAX"

Since 1 October 2023, section 16(3) makes the bond or LUT route the standard one, and paying IGST then claiming a refund is open to what the government notifies. Notification 01/2023-Integrated Tax, as amended by Notification 05/2023-Integrated Tax, notifies all goods or services except certain listed goods, so exporters of services can still choose either route. For most freelancers the LUT is simpler, because no tax leaves your account.

How the LUT works

• Where: on the GST portal, under Services > User Services > Furnish Letter of Undertaking (LUT), in Form GST RFD-11.
• For how long: you pick the financial year it covers. File a new one for each financial year, before that year's first export invoice.
• What it takes: the details of two witnesses and a signature with DSC or EVC. The portal then issues an ARN, a reference you can keep with your invoices.
• Who can file: the portal's FAQ says any registered person exporting without paying IGST, unless prosecuted for tax evasion of ₹2.5 crore or more.
• What you promise (rule 96A): if payment for the services does not arrive in convertible foreign exchange (or rupees where RBI permits) within one year of the invoice date, or the longer period allowed under FEMA, you pay the IGST with interest within 15 days after that period.

What the export invoice should show

Rule 46 of the CGST Rules lists what a tax invoice contains. For an export of services, the points that matter are:

• your name, address and GSTIN;
• a consecutive serial number of up to 16 characters (letters, numbers, hyphen or slash), unique for the financial year;
• the date of issue;
• the client's name and address, the address of delivery and the country of destination, in place of the state details used for Indian clients;
• the SAC (services accounting code) of your service, with as many digits as CBIC requires for your turnover;
• a description of the services, the total value and the taxable value after any discount;
• the rate and amount of tax: nil under an LUT, or the IGST charged;
• whether tax is payable on reverse charge, the place of supply, and your signature or digital signature (rule 46 says a signature is not required on an electronic invoice issued under the Information Technology Act, 2000; ask your CA whether that covers your PDFs).

Rule 46 also requires one of two endorsements on export invoices, word for word. Under an LUT:

SUPPLY MEANT FOR EXPORT/SUPPLY TO SEZ UNIT OR SEZ DEVELOPER FOR AUTHORISED OPERATIONS UNDER BOND OR LETTER OF UNDERTAKING WITHOUT PAYMENT OF INTEGRATED TAX

When you pay IGST instead:

SUPPLY MEANT FOR EXPORT/SUPPLY TO SEZ UNIT OR SEZ DEVELOPER FOR AUTHORISED OPERATIONS ON PAYMENT OF INTEGRATED TAX

Two more points. If your aggregate turnover in any year since 2017-18 went over ₹5 crore, e-invoicing applies (an IRN and a QR code), under Notification 10/2023-Central Tax. And a few details are not on the rule 46 list but help the client and your CA: the currency, your bank details for foreign currency, your LUT's ARN and financial year, and the client's own tax number if they ask for it.

Invoicing in US dollars, euros or pounds

Invoice in the currency of your contract. GST still counts in rupees: rule 34 of the CGST Rules says that for services, the exchange rate for working out the value is the rate determined under generally accepted accounting principles for the date of the time of supply. Note the rate you use and its date with each invoice, so your CA can report the rupee value.

What the client pays and what reaches your account will rarely match exactly, because of conversion and bank or platform charges. Keep the invoice at the agreed amount and ask your CA how to record the charges.

Getting paid: FIRC and e-BRC

Proof that foreign currency arrived matters three times: for the payment condition of an export, for the one-year promise of your LUT, and for any GST refund. Rule 89 asks refund claims for exported services to list the invoices with their Bank Realisation Certificates or Foreign Inward Remittance Certificates.

• FIRC. Your bank or payment platform can issue a foreign inward remittance certificate, or an advice under another name, for each payment from abroad. Ask for it and file it with the invoice it pays.
• e-BRC. DGFT's electronic Bank Realisation Certificate. Banks send inward remittance messages to DGFT, and exporters self-certify e-BRCs against them on the DGFT website, which needs an Importer-Exporter Code (IEC). DGFT says e-BRCs support Foreign Trade Policy benefits and GST refunds, with separate IT and non-IT categories for services.

Whatever you use, make the trail easy to follow: the same client name, invoice number and amount on the invoice, the payment and the certificate.

Payment proof only helps once the money arrives. Agree clear payment terms before you start, ask for a deposit on large projects, and follow up late invoices with polite payment reminder emails.

Worked example: a USD invoice under an LUT

Ananya Rao is a freelance web developer in Pune, Maharashtra. She is registered for GST and filed her LUT for 2026-27. She bills Northwind Labs Inc. in Austin, Texas, for work done in October. Names, numbers and the exchange rate are made up; put your own details where you see brackets.

• From: Ananya Rao, Pune, Maharashtra, India. GSTIN: [your GSTIN]
• To: Northwind Labs Inc., 100 Example Avenue, Austin, TX 78701, United States
• Invoice: INV-0007, dated 6 November 2026, due 6 December 2026
• Place of supply: outside India. Country of destination: United States. Currency: USD

Description	SAC	Qty	Rate	Amount
Web app development, sprint 3	[your SAC]	40 hours	$45.00	$1,800.00
Code review and deployment support	[your SAC]	1	$200.00	$200.00
Taxable value				$2,000.00
IGST				Nil (LUT)
Total due				$2,000.00

Notes on the invoice:

• SUPPLY MEANT FOR EXPORT/SUPPLY TO SEZ UNIT OR SEZ DEVELOPER FOR AUTHORISED OPERATIONS UNDER BOND OR LETTER OF UNDERTAKING WITHOUT PAYMENT OF INTEGRATED TAX
• LUT ARN [your ARN], financial year 2026-27
• Value in rupees: ₹1,70,000.00 at ₹85.00 per US dollar (an example rate; use the one your CA applies under rule 34)
• Please pay by bank transfer in USD to [your account details], quoting INV-0007

If Ananya exported on payment of IGST instead, the invoice would carry the "ON PAYMENT OF INTEGRATED TAX" endorsement and the IGST amount, and she would claim that IGST back as a refund. When the money arrives, she files the bank's remittance certificate with INV-0007: it also shows she kept her LUT promise for this invoice.

Common mistakes

• Charging CGST and SGST to a foreign client. An export under an LUT carries no GST.
• Using the LUT wording without a valid LUT for that financial year, or forgetting to file the new one in time.
• Treating every foreign client as an export without checking the place of supply and how you are paid.
• Losing the payment proof. Without it, the one-year LUT promise and any refund claim are hard to support.

Key takeaways

• Work for a client abroad is an export of services only when all five conditions of section 2(6) of the IGST Act are met.
• Below ₹20 lakh of aggregate turnover (₹10 lakh in special category states), a services-only freelancer is generally not required to register; ask your CA.
• Registered? Export under an LUT with no IGST, or pay IGST and claim a refund. File the LUT for each financial year before invoicing.
• The invoice needs the rule 46 details, the client's address and country, and the exact export endorsement.
• Invoice in your contract's currency, note the rupee value, and keep a FIRC or e-BRC for every payment.

Sources

Official pages, read on 6 November 2026:

• CBIC, IGST Act section 2 (export of services), section 13 (place of supply) and section 16 (zero-rated supply)
• CBIC, CGST Act section 2 (aggregate turnover) and section 22 (registration)
• CBIC, CGST Rules rule 34, rule 46, rule 89 and rule 96A
• CBIC, Notification 10/2017-Integrated Tax (registration exemption for services)
• Gazette of India, Notification 05/2023-Integrated Tax, amending Notification 01/2023-Integrated Tax
• GST portal, FAQ on furnishing a Letter of Undertaking
• GST portal, Notification 10/2023-Central Tax (e-invoicing above ₹5 crore)
• CBIC, press release on HSN and SAC digits on invoices
• DGFT, Electronic Bank Realisation Certificate (eBRC) and e-BRC exporter manual

How Clodou helps

Clodou is an AI back office for freelancers and small teams: you ask in a sentence, and it writes the invoice.

• Indian wording. Set your workspace country to India: the tax line reads GST, your number prints after "GSTIN", and INR is suggested as your currency. Once your GSTIN is in Settings, every invoice is titled "TAX INVOICE", zero-rated exports under an LUT included. A client's number prints as "GSTIN" when it has the GSTIN format and as "Tax ID" otherwise, so a foreign client's VAT number or EIN gets a neutral label.
• Export invoices in your client's currency. Name the currency (USD, EUR, GBP and others) and the invoice stays in it, never converted. "Invoice Northwind Labs in USD for 40 hours of development at $45 and a $200 support fee, with no tax", then add the endorsement to the notes.
• The notes print on the PDF. There is no LUT field: the endorsement, your ARN, the place of supply and the rupee value go in the notes. The SAC code can go in each line's description.
• Indian clients too. Set CGST and SGST as your default taxes in Settings, and ask for IGST on an invoice to a client in another state. Each tax prints on its own line, and a line can be taxed differently or not at all.
• Getting paid. Record what the client paid, in the invoice's currency, as a card an owner or admin approves. Payment reminders are prepared the same way, and by default nothing is emailed to a client before approval.

Know the limits before you rely on it. Clodou cannot tell an exempt supply from a zero-rated one, so an invoice for exempt services is also titled "TAX INVOICE", where the rules expect a bill of supply; without a GSTIN in Settings, an invoice with no tax is titled "INVOICE". Numbers run INV-0001 onwards without restarting each financial year. The PDF carries no signature. Clodou does not generate IRNs or e-invoices, file LUTs or GST returns, claim refunds, convert currencies or produce FIRCs or e-BRCs.

Every new workspace starts with a 14-day Team trial, no card needed. After that, the Free plan includes 20 AI requests and 3 quotes or invoices a month; Solo is $29 and Team $79 a month per workspace.