Getting paid from abroad in India: how it works

The money does not arrive as the number you agreed. A payment from a US or UK business reaches you as a foreign inward remittance: it travels on one of a few rails, gets converted to rupees at the provider's rate rather than the rate you looked up online, and is reported against a purpose code before your bank credits the account. The difference between the agreed figure and the credited figure is made of the sender's fee, the conversion spread, and any charge taken in transit — and only the first of those is normally visible to the person paying you.

This post is about the cross-border step alone. It is not about tax, which is a separate conversation with a separate professional, though the paperwork described here is the first thing that professional will ask you for.

Follow one payment from their bank to yours

The sender initiates. They send from a business account in their country, in their currency, quoting your name, account number and IFSC, or your account on a payment platform.
The rail carries it. A bank wire hops through one or more correspondent banks. A payment platform instead pays out locally in India from money it already holds here.
An Indian bank receives it. Inward remittances are handled by banks authorised to deal in foreign exchange. Your bank is the one that converts, not the sender's.
It gets classified. The remittance is reported against a purpose code, and your bank may contact you to declare or confirm it.
INR is credited, and the bank can issue you a document confirming the money came from abroad and why.

The gap opens at steps 2 and 3, and it is rarely itemised anywhere you can see.

The rails, and where the cost hides on each

Rail	How it reaches you	Where the cost sits
Bank wire (SWIFT)	Sender's bank, one or more correspondent banks, then your Indian bank	Your bank's conversion rate, plus anything an intermediary bank deducts in transit — which nobody quotes you in advance
Wise	Paid out to your Indian account from Wise's local funds	Wise states it converts at the mid-market rate and shows the fee before sending, so the cost is visible — but only on the sender's screen
Payoneer and similar platforms	Into a platform balance in your name, then you withdraw to your bank	Mostly in the conversion applied at withdrawal; check their current fee page rather than assuming

The practical difference is not which is cheapest in the abstract. It is which one lets you see the cost before it happens, and which one leaves a document behind.

Why the rate you looked up is not the rate you get

The number on a search result is the mid-market rate — the midpoint between what buyers and sellers are trading at. It is a reference, not an offer. Every provider quotes you a rate on one side of it, and that margin is usually the largest single cost in a small payment, larger than the visible fee.

So to find what a transfer really cost, ignore the stated fee. Take the amount debited in the sender's currency, look up the mid-market rate on the day it landed, and compare that against the INR credited. The difference is the true total, and doing it once per rail settles the choice.

The purpose code, and the mistake that creates work later

Inward remittances into India are reported against a purpose code from the Reserve Bank of India's list, used for the country's balance-of-payments reporting. Your bank will either ask you to declare one or ask you to confirm the one the sender selected.

Pick the code that describes what you actually did. Two habits cause trouble later: letting a bank officer choose something generic because it moves the call along, and picking a personal category such as a gift or family maintenance because it looks simpler. Both misdescribe money you will later want to show as income from services, and the bank's own record will disagree with your accounts. Ask your accountant which code fits before the first payment, not after the fourth.

The document your accountant asks for first

When a bank handles an inward remittance it can issue a certificate or advice — a Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate, or the statement-style advice most banks now issue instead — confirming the amount received, who sent it, and the purpose code it was booked under.

That document is the link between a credit in your bank statement and a legitimate overseas payer. Without it, an amount arriving from abroad is just an unexplained credit. Ask your bank how it issues these, and request it while the payment is recent. Chasing a certificate for a remittance from two years ago is a different kind of afternoon.

Agree these before the first payment

Which legal entity is paying you, and from which country
Which rail the money will travel on
Who absorbs the transfer charges — the sender, you, or split (on a bank wire this is the OUR, SHA or BEN instruction, and it should be written down, not assumed)
Whether the agreed figure is gross or net of transfer costs
The purpose code the sender will use, checked against what you actually do
Whether your bank issues remittance advice automatically or only on request
Who you contact, and how, when a payment has not landed

None of this is exotic. It is the list any freelancer with an overseas client works through once and then reuses.

Where ExtraProfile sits in this

Whether any of this applies depends on which entity pays you and from where, so ask that directly before signing anything, and read the payout mechanics in how professionals get paid. If the payer is an Indian entity, it is a domestic transfer and remittance paperwork never enters the picture.

Worth separating clearly: how the money reaches you is not a reason to say yes. LinkedIn's User Agreement asks members not to share their account or let anyone else use it, and an account can be restricted. ExtraProfile states that openly. Settle that question first, using the terms and the application details. Payment plumbing only matters once the arrangement itself is right for you.

Common questions

Can a savings account receive a payment from abroad?

Generally yes — a resident savings account can receive an inward remittance, and your bank will say if it needs anything more. The more useful question is whether keeping this income in a separate account makes your records easier to explain later, which for most people it does.

Do I need to ask for a remittance certificate every time?

Ask your bank, because practice varies: some issue a certificate or advice per remittance on request, others provide a consolidated statement for a period. Set the habit early rather than reconstructing a year of payments at filing time.

The sender says they paid, but nothing has arrived. What now?

Ask the sender for the transaction reference their bank or platform generated, plus the date and exact amount sent. With that reference your bank can trace where the payment is sitting. A wire held at an intermediary bank pending information is common and resolves once the details are supplied; without the reference, nobody can look for anything.

Is this income taxable in India?

Assume it is income and speak to a chartered accountant about how to declare it. Nothing about money arriving from overseas makes it invisible or exempt, and the remittance paperwork above exists precisely so that conversation is short. This post cannot give tax advice and neither can the person who pays you.

Getting paid by an overseas company from India: what actually happens to the money