Taxes for freelancers in Georgia

Georgia taxes freelancers and small companies lightly, and simply: many freelancers pay 1% of their turnover, and companies pay nothing on profit they keep in the business. This guide explains the options as the Tax Code stands in its version of 25 June 2026, with the article or official text behind each rule at the bottom. It's general information, not tax advice: for your own case, ask the Revenue Service or a tax adviser.

The short version

Small business status: the 1%

Only an individual entrepreneur (IE) can have small business status; a company can't. You register as an IE first, then apply to the Revenue Service, which issues a small business certificate. Registering is covered in opening a company in Georgia.

• The rate is 1% of your Georgian-source business income, with no deduction for expenses. Losses aren't carried forward.
• Above 500,000 GEL in a calendar year, the rate becomes 3%, from the start of the month you cross the limit to the end of the year. Crossing it once doesn't cost you the status: that happens only if you exceed 500,000 GEL in each of two calendar years, and then from the start of the following year.
• Every month you file a return and pay the tax by the 15th of the next month, and you keep a book of records.

Clients abroad

Services you actually perform in Georgia are Georgian-source income, wherever the client is and wherever the money arrives (Tax Code, Article 104). So freelance work done from Tbilisi for foreign clients falls under the 1%. Income that genuinely has no Georgian source is exempt for residents.

What doesn't qualify

The status can't be granted for activities that need a licence or permit, currency exchange, medical, architectural, legal, notary, audit and consulting work (including tax consulting), gambling, staffing, or producing excise goods. Some income stays outside the 1% even if you have the status: rent, interest, dividends and royalties, gains from selling property or shares, and, since December 2024, construction services to businesses.

"Consulting" isn't defined, while "IT consultancy" is an allowed activity for International Company status. If your work is advisory rather than building something, check with the Revenue Service or an adviser first: carrying out an excluded activity costs you the status from the start of that year.

VAT

The status doesn't exempt you from VAT. You must register within two business days after your VAT-taxable supplies pass 100,000 GEL in any 12 consecutive months; the rate is 18%. Services to businesses abroad are treated as supplied where the customer is established, so they're outside Georgian VAT; ask the Revenue Service how your mix of clients counts toward the threshold.

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Micro business: up to 30,000 GEL

A person with no staff and income up to 30,000 GEL a year can get micro business status and pay no income tax, filing one return a year before 1 April. It isn't available for consulting, trade, licensed activities and a few others, and it ends if you register for VAT.

Regular income tax

Without a special status, personal income tax is 20%. A regular IE deducts documented business expenses, files an annual return before 1 April and pays four advances of 25% of last year's tax, on 15 May, 15 July, 15 September and 15 December.

Employed by a foreign company? Salary for work done in Georgia is Georgian-source income, taxed at 20%, and it can't go into the 1% regime, which is for business income only. A foreign employer without a Georgian presence doesn't withhold Georgian tax, so you declare it yourself.

An LLC

Georgian companies pay 15% profit tax only on profit they distribute, plus on expenses unrelated to the business and on gifts (the "Estonian model", since 2017). Profit kept and reinvested isn't taxed. The 15% is calculated on the grossed-up amount, which makes it 17.65% of what is actually paid out.

Dividends paid to individuals are taxed at a further 5%, withheld by the company; for a resident that's final. So of 100 GEL of profit you take out of the company, 15 GEL goes in profit tax and 4.25 GEL in dividend tax, leaving 80.75 GEL: 19.25% in total. Salaries are taxed at 20%, withheld by the company, which files a monthly return by the 15th.

International Company status for IT companies

A Georgian company (not an IE) that earns its income from listed IT activities can apply for International Company status:

• 5% profit tax on distributed profit, 5% income tax on employees' salaries, dividends tax-free, and no property tax except on land.
• Allowed activities include software publishing, programming, IT consultancy and other IT services, website creation, hosting and remote support, digital products and online storage. Side income linked to these activities may be up to 2% a year.
• It needs at least two years of experience in the activity (the company's own, or a parent or represented foreign company's), and real substance: the core work done in Georgia, with enough qualified staff and matching costs.
• You apply to the Revenue Service; the Government grants the status by decree, with no end date.

The older Virtual Zone status is still in the Tax Code: profit from IT products a company develops and supplies to customers outside Georgia is exempt from profit tax. It's granted by the Financial-Analytical Service (fas.ge). A company can hold only one of Virtual Zone, International Company or innovative startup status at a time.

New since 2025: innovative startup status

Since September 2025, a company building an innovative product can apply to GITA for innovative startup status if, in the two years before, it raised at least 100,000 GEL from an investment fund, angel investors or an accelerator, or got a GITA grant of at least 150,000 GEL.

• Years 1 to 3: salaries are free of income tax up to 10,000 GEL per employee a month.
• Years 4 to 6: 5% on salaries and 5% profit tax; years 7 to 10: 10% and 10%.
• The status lasts a year and is renewed, for ten years at most. Renewing past year 3 needs 5 million GEL of total investment, and past year 6 needs 15 million.
• The application fee is 200 GEL. Related statuses for innovative small companies and R&D service companies came in at the same time.

Which programmes fund startups: Tbilisi's startup scene.

Tax residency

You're a Georgian tax resident for a year if you were in Georgia for 183 days or more in any continuous 12-month period ending in that year; any part of a day counts as a day. Residents pay no Georgian tax on income that genuinely has no Georgian source, but work you do while you're here is Georgian-source, as above.

Wealthy individuals can also become resident by application: those with confirmed assets over 3 million GEL or annual income over 200,000 GEL over the last three years, who own property in Georgia worth at least USD 500,000 and either hold a residence permit or earned at least 25,000 GEL here in the last year. It's granted year by year.

Pensions

There are no social security contributions. The funded pension scheme covers Georgian citizens and holders of a permanent residence permit: employees pay 2%, the employer adds 2% and the state up to 2%. The self-employed, IEs included, can join voluntarily and then pay 4%.

Double tax treaties

Georgia has 58 tax treaties in force, including with the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Turkey, the UAE, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. There are none with the United States, Russia, Canada or Australia. If you're from one of those, check how your home country taxes residents abroad before you plan around Georgian rates.

What changed recently

• September 2025: the innovative startup, innovative small company and R&D company statuses.
• December 2024: construction services to businesses left the 1% regime.
• Otherwise the core rules (the 1% and 3% rates, the 500,000 GEL limit, residency) didn't change between the November 2025 and June 2026 versions of the Tax Code.