GST for Foreign Royalty Income

GST GSTR Filing
1

Hi everyone,

I earn royalty income from foreign websites (POD/Design platforms).

1. Business Context

Nature of Business: Selling designs on foreign platforms (receiving royalties).

Payment Cycle: Earnings from the current month (e.g., February) are paid in the following month (e.g., March).

2. Invoicing & Forex Logic

Raise a self-invoice on the last day of the month in which the earnings accrued.

Exchange Rate: Use the SBI TT Buy Rate on the date of the invoice (last day of the month).

Reasoning: Use the SBI TT Buy rate instead of the RBI Reference rate to ensure GST turnover matches Income Tax (ITR) turnover exactly, avoiding mismatches later.

3. Example Calculation

Earnings: $100 earned in Feb 2026.

Invoice Date: 28 Feb 2026.

Exchange Rate: â‚ą90 (SBI TT Buy rate on 28 Feb).

Taxable Value: â‚ą9,000.

4. GST Filing (GSTR-1 Details)

Table 6A (Exports Invoices):

Taxable Value: â‚ą9,000 (calculated as above).

Tax Liability: 0% (Without Payment of Tax).

Zero-Rated Supply (I have an LUT).

Table 12 (HSN Summary): report under B2C.

Table 13 (Documents Issued): report the self-invoice in “Invoices for outward supply.”

5. The Edge Case (Late Reporting)

Some platforms do not provide the earnings report until the 16th of the next month (e.g., Jan earnings report arrives Feb 16th).

Problem: The GSTR-1 due date (11th) passes before I know the exact earnings.

Solution: File GSTR-1 on time for the known platforms, and then use GSTR-1A to add the invoice data for the late-reporting platforms once I get the details.

My Questions:

SBI TT Buy rate acceptable to keep GST and ITR aligned?

“Edge Case” (using GSTR-1A for late data) legally correct?

Thanks in advance for your help!

2

Hello @Mahendra

  1. You can file GSTR-1A whenever you receive your earnings report from the platforms on which services have been provided. However, it is recommended to report these sales whenever you receive the payment for services rendered or whenever you receive an earnings report (if you could not ascertain the amount of earnings).

  2. Yes, you can use SBI TT Buy rate for both GST return filing and ITR filing.

Hope this helps !!

1 Like
3

Thanks! Just one confusion: I only got my GST mid-month on Jan 21st.

The earnings report and the payment I get in Feb is just one combined lump sum for the entire month of January. Since my GST wasn’t active from Jan 1 to Jan 20, how do I report this single payment?

Is it okay if I just declare the entire month’s earnings in my GST return? Or will that create a problem since I didn’t have GST for the first 20 days?

4

The earnings that you received during the period from 1st January to 20th Jnauary need not be reported becuase you were not registered under GST during that period and hence not liable to report it.

But still if you are not able to get the exact bifurcation of the sales before registration and after registration you can report the earnings on proportionate basis or you can report for the whole January month.

Hope this helps !!

1 Like
5

Thanks for clarifying