Business Bookkeeping in Georgia: Deadlines, Returns and Where to Go

Once your business in Georgia is registered, the next questions are what to file, how often, and where to turn when your rs.ge account doesn't have the answer. Each tax status comes with its own returns and deadlines, and most of them apply even in a month when you earned nothing.

Who Actually Needs to Keep Books

The rules grow with the business. A micro business (income under 30,000 lari a year, no employees) doesn't have to keep accounts, but it must store the primary tax documents it issues or receives. An LLC keeps them to a standard set by its size: the smallest companies (category IV) follow simplified SARAS rules, while larger ones use IFRS for SMEs or full IFRS.

An individual entrepreneur (IE) falls under the accounting law only after outgrowing the smallest size category. A typical IE, including one with small business status, just records income and expenses for the tax return and never files financial statements.

No law requires you to hire an in-house accountant. Still, most owners who last beyond the first few months end up paying a local accountant or an outsourcing firm, because learning the filing rules alone takes real time.

VAT: A Return Every Month, Sales or Not

As soon as you register as a VAT payer, you owe a return every month by the 15th of the following month, even if you sold nothing. You file it in your rs.ge account, with no paper forms involved.

When the 15th lands on a weekend or public holiday, the deadline shifts to the next working day. Any late return, VAT or otherwise, carries a fine of 5% of the tax it shows for a delay of up to 2 months and 10% beyond that. A return showing zero tax carries no late filing fine.

Late tax payments accrue interest at 0.05% a day. Understating tax on a return brings a fine of 10% to 50% of the shortfall, depending on its size.

Small Business Status for IEs: Monthly Returns Too

Small business status (1% of turnover up to 500,000 lari a year) means filing a monthly turnover return, also due by the 15th of the following month. Starting from the month your turnover passes 500,000 lari, the rate rises to 3% for the rest of that year.

This return is separate from VAT. An IE who isn't registered for VAT still files it every month, even when no client paid a single invoice.

You don't get small business status automatically when you register as an IE in Georgia. You have to apply for it separately on rs.ge.

LLCs: Profit Tax Follows Payouts, Not the Calendar

Georgia taxes company profit under the Estonian model, so an LLC pays profit tax only when money leaves the business, mostly as dividends. The rate is 15%, and the same tax applies to non-business spending, goods or services handed over for free, and entertainment costs above the legal limit.

The Tax Code requires a profit tax return every month by the 15th of the following month, though a month with no payouts means no tax to pay. When an LLC pays dividends to an individual, it also withholds 5% tax at source and pays it by the same date.

A VAT-registered company also files its monthly VAT return alongside these. All of these obligations begin the day you register an LLC in Georgia, whatever its share capital.

Payroll: Income Tax and Pension Contributions Every Month

Any business with employees becomes a tax agent. It withholds the flat 20% income tax from every salary in Georgia and transfers it to the budget on the day the salary is paid; the monthly return is due by the 15th of the following month.

Employers also take part in the mandatory pension scheme. The employee pays 2% of gross salary, withheld from their pay, and the employer adds another 2% from its own pocket, a cost many people forget when planning a budget. From October 15, 2026, employers who fail to pay pension contributions face a 300 lari fine.

The state chips in on a sliding scale: 2% for salaries up to 24,000 lari a year, 1% between 24,000 and 60,000 lari, and nothing above that. Foreign employees without permanent residence in Georgia are left out of the pension scheme, so their pay is subject only to the 20% income tax; tax residency itself plays no role here.

Once a Year: The Annual Return

IEs on the standard regime, who pay 20% on profit, and micro businesses, which owe no tax (a 0% rate) but still have to file, submit a single annual income tax return by March 31 of the following year through their rs.ge account. Newcomers often mix it up with the monthly VAT and small business returns, but these belong to separate regimes.

An IE on the 20% regime also pays advances during the year: 25% of the previous year's tax by each of May 15, July 15, September 15 and December 15. If there was no taxable income the year before, there are no advances to pay.

Financial Statements: A Separate Duty from Tax

Apart from tax returns, every LLC submits annual financial statements to SARAS, the Service for Accounting, Reporting and Auditing Supervision, through the reportal.ge portal. They are due by October 1 of the year after the reporting year, in a format (simplified, IFRS for SMEs or full IFRS) that depends on the company's size.

This filing doesn't go through rs.ge, so it is easy to miss if you only keep an eye on tax deadlines.

Where to Get Help in Person

You can handle nearly everything in your rs.ge account. For anything out of the ordinary, the Revenue Service has a service center in Tbilisi and also answers by phone and email:

• Tbilisi Service Center: 1 D. Sarajishvili St, Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 18:00
• Hotline: 2 299 299, or +995 32 2 299 299 from a foreign SIM
• Email: info@rs.ge
• Headquarters: 16 V. Gorgasali St