CASE STUDIES / SANDEEP-CHENNAI

[CS-07]

I just wanted to do my work -
not decode section 44ada.

A conversation with

Sandeep G.

Instagram Marketing Agency Owner

About

Sandeep runs an Instagram marketing agency in Chennai serving foreign clients. He paid GST like a domestic service provider and wasn’t leveraging ITC on SaaS or capital purchases.

Field

Marketing / Digital Services

Works with

Foreign e-commerce brands & creators

Income via

Wise, PayPal, bank transfers

Location

Chennai

Annual income bracket

20–25L INR

Tax complexity

  • Exports not classified; LUT absent
  • ITC on SaaS/hardware not claimed
  • Invoices lacked export specifics

Challenge

"Didn’t realize my agency could claim ITC on tools & equipment."

Campaign tools, schedulers, and laptops were treated as simple costs, not credits or depreciable assets.

Paid GST where zero-rated export applied

Left credits and refunds unclaimed

Margins were thinner than they needed to be purely due to compliance setup.

The TaxTap Moment

"Taxtap set up GST correctly for service exports, enabling ITC on SaaS and capital purchases for my Insta marketing agency working with foreign clients."

They realigned GST around ‘export of services’.

Filed LUT to treat invoices as zero-rated exports

Reclassified invoices with correct place-of-supply

Mapped SaaS and laptops for ITC and depreciation

Prepared a quarterly refund workflow (where applicable)

Numbers?

ITC utilization improved cash margins

Zero GST liability on eligible export invoices (post-LUT)

"Expenses finally started paying me back instead of just draining cash."

The Reality Before Taxtap

Global clients, local filing mindset.

1. No Export Classification

    Invoices treated as domestic.

2. No ITC Strategy

    SaaS/hardware not optimized.

How Taxtap Helped

Compliance built to match the actual business model.

✅ Export Setup

  • LUT, invoice reclassification

✅ ITC & Refunds

  • Claims and documentation pack

"With the right GST setup, my tools became an advantage, not a burden."

Lessons for Freelancers in Similar Situations

Service exports qualify for zero-rated GST with LUT

ITC applies to SaaS and eligible capital assets

You do the earning.
We do the filing.

All filings. All deadlines. All that scary government stuff?
Handled — by real CAs, not robots.