Zero-Rated Exports from Nepal: VAT Evidence and Refund Readiness

Confirm the legal export

Match the exact good or service with Schedule 2 and the place-of-supply facts. For services, examine where the service is supplied, used and paid for; a foreign customer name alone does not prove zero rating.

Build an evidence chain

Keep contract, invoice, customs export documents where applicable, transport or delivery evidence, foreign-currency receipt and bank records. Each item should identify the same customer, value and transaction.

Connect input credit

Eligible inputs attributable to a zero-rated supply may remain creditable, unlike inputs for exempt activity. Maintain direct attribution and apportion common costs where the business also makes exempt supplies.

Prepare for refund review

Reconcile sales, export declarations, bank receipts, input invoices and VAT returns before claiming a refund. Investigate timing and foreign-exchange differences with a documented bridge.

A practical control to retain

Maintain an export register with invoice, customer country, supply description, export declaration or delivery evidence, currency, receipt date and Schedule basis. Flag proceeds received late, through another party or at a different value. Service exporters should document where the benefit is used and who receives it. A refund file should be capable of being reviewed transaction by transaction without reconstructing emails months later.

For exporters, service providers and finance teams, the sign-off should answer the guide's four core questions in writing: Zero rating needs a qualifying supply and evidence. Customer location alone may not settle service treatment. Export proceeds and delivery records should reconcile. Refund claims need stronger files than ordinary bookkeeping. Record who checked those answers, the source date and any unresolved fact. If a later invoice, contract or Schedule amendment changes one answer, reopen the classification or return treatment instead of silently carrying the old assumption forward.