Gst reg. required even with foreign clients?

Yes, you have to get registered under GST. Even through your turnover may not exceed Rs 20 lac in this financial year(April 2017 to March 2018), you must get registered as you are making Interstate supply.
Interstate includes Export also.
And supply means sale of goods or rendering of services.
Yes, you have to file 3 returns monthly(one for your Income, second will be for expenses and third for your net tax liability) and 1 return annualy summing up to 37 returns per year. GST rate will be 18% IGST and you are eligible to claim refund of the same. But if you furnish Bond/LUT then no need to pay 18% IGST.

Please ask your CA to provide the Section/Rule/Notification which is talking about freelancers specifically.

So that is not only for the export industry but services as well?

And is there anywhere that explicitly mentions that?

I will show

1. As per Sec 5(1) of IGST Act, there shall be levied a tax called the integrated goods and services tax on all inter-State supplies of goods or services or both.

That means IGST is levied on Interstate supply of services too. Let us see the definition of supply below.

2. As per Sec 7(1)(a) of CGST Act, the term supply includes “all forms of supply of goods or services or both such as sale, transfer, barter, exchange, licence, rental, lease or disposal made or agreed to be made for a consideration by a person in the course or furtherance of business”

So, the any Service by way of consideration is included in definition of supply. Now let us see whether you are covered under the definition of Interstate supply below.

3.As per Sec 7(5) of IGST Act, Supply of goods or services or both when the supplier is located in India and the place of supply is outside India shall be treated to be a supply of goods or services or both in the course of inter-State trade or commerce.

That implies export of Service by you, will be treated as interstate supply. Now let us see the taxation mechanism. But first let me show you definition of place of supply to understand next concepts.

4. As per Sec 13(2) of IGST Act, The place of supply of services shall be the location of the recipient of services.

Now we will check whether your Service is eligible as Export of Service or not. This will determine your taxation mechanism.

5. As per Sec 2(6) of IGST Act, "export of services" means the supply of any service when,-
[i] the supplier of service is located in India;
[ii] the recipient of service is located outside India;
[iii] the place of supply of service is outside India;
[iv] the payment for such service has been received by the supplier of service in convertible foreign exchange; and
[v] the supplier of service and the recipient of service are not merely establishments of a distinct person in accordance with Explanation 1 in section 8;

Now you are satisfying all the conditions of the definition of export of services as i) you(supplier of Service) are in India, ii) your client(recipient of Service) is outside India, iii) place of supply of Service(Location of Recipient of service) is outside India, iv) you are receiving your consideration in convertible foreign exchange, and (v) you are your client are not a part of a distinct establishment.
So your activity is termed as Export of Service. Now we will see the options available to you regarding the procedure of taxation.

6. As per Sec 16(1) of IGST Act, "zero rated supply" includes export of goods or services or both. Further Sec 16(3) of IGST Act states that, A registered person making zero rated supply shall be eligible to claim refund under either of the following options, namely:-
[a] he may supply goods or services or both under bond or Letter of Undertaking, without payment of integrated tax and claim refund of unutilised input tax credit(if any) or
[b] he may supply goods or services or both,  payment of integrated tax and claim refund of such tax paid on goods or services or both supplied.

Finally, according to this
- either you can furnish a Bond/LUT without paying any IGST(This is advisable)
- or you can pay 18% IGST and can claim refund of the same subsequently.

In every point, I have given two parts. First part is extract of the bare section. Second part is the explanation of that section. Hope you are able to understand my long answer.

Thanks for your detailed response. If I may ask, can you give this a read and tell me your thoughts?

https://community.nasscom.in/community/discuss/current-issues/gst/blog/2017/08/07/no-gst-registration-required-for-exporters-of-service

Sure.

It is really appreciable that he has done extensive research on this topic. Even I was not aware of this. I must thank you to provide me his article on the topic of registration of exporters.

What he has written in the article is exactly correct but your case is a bit different.

As per Sec 23 of CGST Act, any person engaged exclusively in the business of supplying goods or services or both that are not liable to tax or wholly exempt from tax are not liable to get registered.
Please focus on the words 'engaged exclusively'. If you were engaged only in providing your services to foreign customers then you were not required to get registered as you are ENGAGED EXCLUSIVELY in providing exempt service. But in your case you are providing service to domestic customers too which are considered as taxable Supply(unlike export which were Zero-rated and exempt). That means you are not engaged exclusively in providing exempt services.

So the benefit of Sec 23 is not available to you and you have to get registered and furnish a Bond/LUT without paying a single rupee of tax as I had shown in my previous answer.

Originally posted by : Ahmed Ali
	But in your case you are providing service to domestic customers too which are considered as taxable Supply(unlike export which were Zero-rated and exempt). That means you are not engaged exclusively in providing exempt services.So the benefit of Sec 23 is not available to you and you have to get registered and furnish a Bond/LUT without paying a single rupee of tax as I had shown in my previous answer.

 

I used to freelance write for domestic clients but I haven't done so in the last year, especially before the GST taxes were implemented. I'm only doing foreign clients now. So am I all fine then as in I don't have to register for GST?

Thanks again for all your feedback and quick responses.

Originally posted by : dinoortolani
	Originally posted by : Ahmed Ali But in your case you are providing service to domestic customers too which are considered as taxable Supply(unlike export which were Zero-rated and exempt). That means you are not engaged exclusively in providing exempt services.So the benefit of Sec 23 is not available to you and you have to get registered and furnish a Bond/LUT without paying a single rupee of tax as I had shown in my previous answer.   I used to freelance write for domestic clients but I haven't done so in the last year, especially before the GST taxes were implemented. I'm only doing foreign clients now. So am I all fine then as in I don't have to register for GST? Thanks again for all your feedback and quick responses.

So freelancing for foreign clients only, less than 20 lakhs per annum = no GST registration required?

If anyone can shed light on this as per the latest notification.

Thanks.