Opening a company in Georgia

Georgia is one of the quickest places to start a business: a limited liability company is registered in one working day for 200 GEL, an individual entrepreneur for 26 GEL, and the law sets no citizenship or residency requirement for founders. This guide covers the two forms, the documents, the legal address and the bank account, with the law or official page behind each step at the bottom.

LLC or individual entrepreneur?

An individual entrepreneur (ინდმეწარმე, IE) is you, registered to do business. It isn't a separate legal person: you're liable with everything you own. It's the cheapest and simplest form, and only an IE can get small business status, the 1% tax regime most freelancers use.

A limited liability company (შპს, LLC) is a separate legal person, so your own assets are protected. One founder is enough. It pays profit tax and files monthly returns, and it can't have small business status.

Which costs less in tax depends on your income and how you take money out: see our guide to taxes for freelancers and IT companies.

Registering an LLC

Companies are registered by the National Agency of Public Registry (NAPR), at its offices, at any Public Service Hall, through an authorised person, or online at my.gov.ge.

What you file

• The application.
• The founding document, signed by every founder. It names the company, its legal address, the founders and their shares (adding up to 100%) and the director, and contains the charter. If you don't write your own charter, the standard one approved by the Ministry of Justice applies and you don't need to file it.
• The director's consent to serve, unless it's in the founding document.
• The address owner's consent or a usage agreement, when needed (see below).
• Your ID document and proof that you paid the fee.

The founders' signatures must be notarised, or certified at NAPR (7 GEL extra), or made with a qualified electronic signature. If someone files for you, they need a power of attorney with a notarised or qualified electronic signature; ask NAPR in advance how a power of attorney signed abroad must be legalised and translated.

The company name must be in Georgian, include "LLC" (შპს), and differ from names already registered. The founding document also names who manages the company's account on NAPR's e-portal, where the registry posts its notices.

Fees and timing

The company exists from the moment NAPR registers it and publishes the decision. Registering also registers it with the Revenue Service: there's no separate tax registration.

Registering as an individual entrepreneur

You file one application with your name, the details of your ID document (foreigners use their passport), a business name, your legal address, and an e-mail and phone number for the e-portal, plus the address owner's consent when needed. The business name can be your own name or an invented one, with "Individual Entrepreneur" (ინდ. მეწარმე) in it. It costs 26 GEL in one working day or 75 GEL on the same day.

Small business status is a separate step: you apply to the Revenue Service on rs.ge, which issues a small business certificate. The government can exclude some activities from the status, so check that yours qualifies before you build your plans on the 1% rate.

The legal address

By law your legal address must be your actual address in Georgia. With your registration you file the owner's certified consent or a properly executed usage agreement, unless the address is already registered as owned or used by you (an IE can also use the address in their ID document, which a foreign passport doesn't have). The address is where the registry's letters go, and a company must show its name, legal address and identification number in its business letters and on its website.

Several coworking spaces sell exactly this: a legal address with the owner's consent for the registry, sometimes bundled with a desk. When we know a space offers one, its page on tbilisi.work says so and shows the price (more in virtual office in Tbilisi). Changing the address later costs the same as registering (200 or 400 GEL for an LLC, 26 or 75 GEL for an IE).

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After registration

• Monthly returns are due by the 15th of the following month: profit tax returns for an LLC, the small business return for an IE with the status, and a return on salaries whenever you pay any.
• VAT: you must register within two business days of passing 100,000 GEL of taxable supplies in any 12 consecutive months. VAT payers file monthly, by the 15th.
• Bank accounts abroad: a Georgian company or IE must tell the Revenue Service within five business days when it opens one (deposit accounts excluded).

The business bank account

The two big banks now register businesses at their branches and open the account in the same visit, for the registry's usual fees. TBC Bank does it for LLCs with a simple structure (individual founders) and for individual entrepreneurs; new customers are onboarded as bank customers first. Bank of Georgia's branch registration is only for Georgian citizens, so foreign founders register at NAPR or a Public Service Hall and then open the account.

What a non-resident needs to open a business account, and whether the director must come in person, isn't on either bank's public pages: banks decide case by case under their own checks. Ask your bank before you travel.

The short version

1. Choose IE (simple, 1% possible) or LLC (limited liability).
2. Get a legal address: your own place, a lease, or a coworking space's legal address service with the owner's consent.
3. Register at a Public Service Hall or NAPR office: 26 GEL for an IE, 200 GEL for an LLC, in one working day.
4. IE: apply for small business status on rs.ge.
5. Open a business bank account, then file your first monthly return by the 15th of the following month.