Next: Tax
GST for freelancers
A tax you collect rather than one you pay out of income: registration thresholds, invoices that survive a client's audit, and how input tax credit nets off.
16 min
beginner
Freelance and gig income: the tax rulebook
No employer, no payroll — but your clients still deduct TDS, presumptive taxation can replace the bookkeeping, and advance tax comes with real deadlines.
3 lessons · about 21 minutes · written for reading age 13 · last checked 2026-08-11
Your client already paid some of your tax
Freelance fees arrive with a slice already missing. That slice is TDS deposited against your PAN — an advance on your own bill, not money the client held back.
6 min
Presumptive: the 50% shortcut
Section 44ADA lets qualifying freelancers declare half their receipts as profit and skip the bookkeeping. Simple, but not automatically cheaper.
8 min
Advance tax, and invoicing like an adult
With no payroll spreading your tax across the year, the instalment deadlines are yours to manage — and clean invoices are what make filing a short job.
7 min
Check yourself
4 questions at the end. Every wrong answer explains itself.
Tools for this
What changed recently
Dated commentary on this topic — a Budget change, a new rule, a scam pattern.
2026-08-07 · 6 min read
One account for two jobs
Running client payments and grocery bills through the same bank account hides your actual margin, turns filing into archaeology, and makes one question awkward.
2026-07-31 · 6 min read
What a foreign client payment really costs
The invoice said one thousand dollars and your account shows less. Most of the gap is the exchange-rate spread, which is a fee nobody ever itemises.
2025-09-30 · 5 min read
GST 2.0: the 12% and 28% slabs are gone
The September 2025 rationalisation collapsed four main slabs into two, with a narrow 40% band for demerit and luxury goods. Thresholds did not move.
Sources
- Income Tax Department — official portal — Income Tax Department · checked 2026-08-11
- GST registration thresholds and rates — Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs · checked 2026-08-11