For Foreign Merchants
For Indian Businesses
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Expert insights on cross-border payments, global trade, and international finance.
A certificate of origin in India is the document that proves where goods were made, and it decides whether an importer can claim the lower customs duty agreed under a trade agreement. Importers produce it at the time of filing the Bill of Entry to claim that rate. Exporters obtain it on DGFT's trade.gov.in portal so their overseas buyer can do the same. Since March 2025 the law calls it a proof of origin, a term that covers both certificates from issuing authorities and, where an agreement allow
If your business is outside India and you sell digital services to Indian consumers, India expects you to register for GST and file a monthly return. There is no turnover threshold to cross first. The obligation starts at the first sale. This is the registration walkthrough and the filing cycle, taken from the GST portal's own documentation, including the two requirements that stop most applications before they start. The short answer OIDAR stands for Online Information and Database Access o
If your business pays a foreign company for software, consultancy, royalties or technical services, you deduct tax before you remit. Form 27Q is the quarterly return where you report that deduction. From the 2026 tax year it is called Form 144. The form is the same job under a new number, but the number is not the only thing that moved. The section it is filed under, the rule that governs it, the certificate you owe your vendor afterwards and the statement where your vendor sees the credit have
Every foreign currency payment that crosses an Indian bank carries a five character purpose code. Your bank puts it on the transaction whether you choose it or not, and it is the single field that decides how RBI classifies your money in India's balance of payments. Here is the complete current list. All 297 codes, both directions, in RBI's own wording. TL;DR * There are 297 codes: 138 inward (P), 136 outward (S), and 23 cover page codes that only banks use for fortnightly aggregates. * P
A merchant of record is the legal entity that sells to your customer. It takes the payment, appears on the card statement, carries the chargeback, and owes the sales tax. Most software companies use one so they can sell into forty countries without registering in forty countries. India splits that role in a way most markets do not, and the split is the thing to understand before you sign anything. Two facts decide everything below. A merchant of record based outside India cannot itself collect
Section 195 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 required you to deduct tax at source before paying a non-resident anything chargeable to tax in India. That obligation still exists. The section number does not. For any payment where the earlier of credit or payment falls on or after 1 April 2026, the governing provision is Section 393(2), Table Sl. No. 17 of the Income-tax Act, 2025. Same duty, same rates, different reference, and the reference is the part that bites, because the filing utility validate
