Outsourcing web development to India from New Zealand

IST is 6h30m behind New Zealand, or 7h30m behind during New Zealand daylight time, from the last Sunday in September to the first Sunday in April. Agree on call times that suit both sides.

Under information privacy principle 12 of New Zealand’s Privacy Act 2020, disclosure to a foreign person or entity is permitted in specified circumstances. These include when the recipient is subject to the Privacy Act, has comparable safeguards under privacy laws or an agreement, or the individual authorises disclosure after being expressly told it may not get the same protection.

Check how the Indian team will use the information. The Privacy Commissioner’s guidance says an offshore provider storing or processing information as your agent is not treated as a disclosure under principle 12, as long as the provider does not use the information for its own purposes.

India’s DPDP Act, 2023, has an exemption for a person in India processing personal data of individuals outside India under a contract with a person outside India. Most Data Fiduciary obligations, data principal rights in Chapter III and the section 16 transfer rule do not apply in that situation, but sections 8(1) and 8(5), covering responsibility for compliance and reasonable security safeguards, still do. These provisions come into force on 13 May 2027.

Inland Revenue says you must account for GST of 15% under the reverse charge if the intended or actual taxable use of services imported from an overseas supplier is less than 95% of total use. This applies whether or not you are registered for GST.

India treats an export of services as a zero-rated supply under section 16(1) of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) Act, 2017. For a service to qualify as an export under section 2(6), the supplier must be in India, the recipient and place of supply must be outside India, payment must meet the specified currency conditions, and the two must not merely be establishments of a distinct person.

An Indian invoice for export of services must carry the applicable export endorsement. It must also give the recipient’s name and address, the address of delivery and the country of destination.

Agree on the payment schedule with your supplier. Under India’s Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2026, an Indian exporter must realise and repatriate the full value of exported services within nine months from the invoice date, or twelve months if the export is invoiced or settled in Indian rupees. Its Authorised Dealer bank may allow more time on request.

For an overseas recipient of personal information, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner has model contract clauses that organisations can use to require safeguards comparable to those in the Privacy Act.

If you are considering arbitration, check the terms with the supplier. India signed and ratified the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, declaring that it applies the Convention only to awards made in another contracting State and to differences considered commercial under its national law.

If you collect personal information from someone other than the individual, information privacy principle 3A requires you to take reasonable steps to make the individual aware of specified matters, unless an exception applies.

• Agree on call times with the team in India.
• Check how the team will use any personal information you send.
• Consider privacy safeguards for an overseas recipient in your contract.
• Check the intended taxable use of the imported services.
• Ask the supplier about its export invoice.
• Agree on a payment schedule.
• Discuss dispute terms with the supplier.