Invoicing a Client in Another Country: What to Put on the PDF

This article first appeared on Invoala.

When you invoice a client in another country, the PDF needs three things a domestic invoice doesn't: a clearly stated currency (with the exact code), a tax line that says why no local tax was charged, and enough identity information for both businesses to be traced. Everything else — your logo, payment terms, item descriptions — is the same invoice you'd send to a client down the street.

The catch is that "why no tax was charged" has a different answer depending on what you sell, where you and the client are established, and whether the client is a business or a consumer. Below are the fields to include, what each one is for, and a worked example with numbers.

The must-have fields on a cross-border invoice PDF

Most countries' invoice rules converge on roughly the same core set. In most countries, a valid invoice should let a tax authority reconstruct the transaction from the document alone:

• Your legal business name and address — not a trading name only. If you're a sole trader, your own name.
• Your tax registration number — VAT number, GST/HST number, ABN, or local equivalent, if you're registered.
• The client's legal name, address, and tax ID — you need their VAT/GST number to justify a zero-rated or reverse-charged sale in most jurisdictions.
• A unique, sequential invoice number — no gaps if you can help it; some countries require unbroken numbering.
• Invoice date and, where relevant, the date of supply — these can differ and both may be required.
• Line items with quantity, unit price, and description — "consulting services, March 2025" beats "services."
• The currency, written as a code — USD, EUR, GBP, JPY — never just a symbol. $ is ambiguous across at least six currencies.
• Total due, and any tax at its own rate — show the rate and the amount separately.
• Payment details and due date — IBAN, SWIFT/BIC, or a payment link; state which currency the account receives.
• A tax treatment statement — one sentence explaining the tax position (more on this next).

A field people forget: the place of supply. For services, many systems determine taxability by where the customer is located rather than where you sit.

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

The tax line is the part that gets cross-border invoices wrong

This is where situations diverge, and where you should verify with the official source rather than trusting a blog post (including this one).

The common outcomes are:

1. Local tax charged at the buyer's rate. Often the case for B2C sales of goods or digital services into a jurisdiction that taxes them.
2. Zero-rated export. Your local tax rate is 0% because the supply leaves your jurisdiction — common for exported goods.
3. Reverse charge. You charge no tax; the business buyer accounts for it themselves. Typically requires their tax ID on your invoice.
4. No tax because you're below a registration threshold in the relevant jurisdiction. Worth stating explicitly, since a blank tax line looks like an error.

Whichever applies, write the reason on the PDF. Standard phrasings include "Reverse charge — VAT to be accounted for by the recipient," "Zero-rated intra-community supply," or "Outside the scope of UK VAT." Use the wording that matches your and your client's rules, and check the requirement with your own tax authority or an adviser — this varies by country, by product, and by whether the client is a business or a consumer.

For a fuller breakdown of how the same PDF can carry sales tax, VAT, or GST depending on where you are, see our pillar guide on tax invoice requirements for sales tax, VAT and GST.

Currency, exchange rates, and payment details

Pick one currency for the invoice and use it consistently. If you invoice in USD to a client in a EUR country, the invoice total should be the USD figure they owe you — the conversion is the bank's problem, not a number you should bake into the line items.

Three practical habits:

• State the currency code next to every amount, or at minimum once near the total in a way that can't be missed ("Total due: USD 2,400.00").
• If you quote a converted amount, label it clearly as an estimate and say which rate and date you used. Rates move; an unlabelled second figure causes disputes.
• Spell out who pays transfer fees. "Payment to be received in full; bank charges borne by the payer" is a common clause. Without it, an international transfer can arrive short and leave a balance on your books.

Also note the payment window in plain terms: "Net 30 from invoice date" travels better than "30 days," which people interpret differently.

Example: invoicing a €3,000 design job to a German business client

Say you're a freelance designer established in the US, and you invoice a German company for a website design project. Your contract price is EUR 3,000, and both parties are registered for tax — you with a US state, the client with a German VAT number.

Here's a workable invoice body:

• Line 1 — Website design, project fee: qty 1 × EUR 3,000.00 = EUR 3,000.00
• Line 2 — Additional revision rounds: qty 2 × EUR 250.00 = EUR 500.00
• Subtotal: EUR 3,500.00
• Tax: EUR 0.00 — "Reverse charge. VAT to be accounted for by the recipient."
• Total due: EUR 3,500.00
• Payment: Net 14, to the EUR account ending 4471, SWIFT/BIC listed on the invoice

If instead the client were a private individual rather than a business, the tax line likely changes — some countries require the seller to register and charge local VAT on B2C sales above a threshold. That threshold, and whether your service falls inside it, is exactly the kind of rule you should confirm with the destination country's tax authority or an adviser, because it depends on your sales volume into that country and the nature of the service.

One more time, with a different pair: invoice USD 2,400 to a Canadian business, and the client supplies a GST/HST number. If your supply is a service performed outside Canada and the rules treat it as outside scope, the tax line might read "GST/HST not applicable — supply to a registered business outside Canada." If your situation is different, the wording changes. Don't copy a phrase off another invoice without checking it applies to you.

How Invoala helps

If you just want the PDF done, here's the actual sequence:

1. Open the free invoice generator — no sign-up, no email, no watermark on the output.
2. Fill the form: your business details, the client's name, address and tax ID, invoice number, dates, line items, and the currency as a code.
3. Add the tax treatment sentence in the notes field — paste the wording that matches your situation ("Reverse charge," "Zero-rated export," or similar).
4. Download the A4-accurate PDF and send it. A4 matters for cross-border work because it's the standard paper size in most of the world, and it prints and files correctly on the client's side.

If you'd rather start from a layout that already has the right fields, the free invoice templates include downloadable formats you can adapt. And since cross-border invoices are the ones most likely to sit unpaid while you wait on a bank transfer, automated payment reminders can nudge the client without you drafting a follow-up email yourself. If you're new to the whole process, our step-by-step guide to creating an invoice covers the mechanics.

Before you hit send

A quick checklist for cross-border invoices:

• Both parties' legal names, addresses, and tax IDs are present.
• Currency is written as a code, consistently.
• Tax line states the reason, not just a zero.
• Invoice number is unique and sequential.
• Payment window, account details, and who bears transfer fees are stated.
• The tax position matches your and your client's actual rules — verified with an official source, not a template.

Get those right and the rest of the invoice is ordinary admin. The PDF is just the container; the substance is the tax line and the identity details.

---

Originally published at Invoicing a Client in Another Country: What to Put on the PDF. More guides at Invoala.