Tax Residency in Georgia: The 183-Day Rule

A residence permit and tax residency in Georgia are two separate statuses, each with its own rules. The permit lets you live in the country legally. Tax residency determines where you pay tax, and you don't need a residence permit to get it.

Most people qualify by spending 183 days in the country. If you can't stay that long, there is currently no other route: the separate status for wealthy individuals was abolished in 2023.

What tax residency in Georgia gets you

The biggest benefit is a certificate you can use under double taxation treaties, so the same income isn't taxed again in your home country. Georgia taxes only Georgian-source income, at a flat 20%, and foreign income is tax-free here for residents and non-residents alike.

The catch is what counts as Georgian-source income, and remote workers get this wrong more often than anyone.

Under Article 104 of the Tax Code, a Georgian tax resident's income from services is Georgian-source no matter where the client is or which country the payment comes from. The same goes for a salary earned while you're physically in Georgia, even if your employer is abroad and the money lands in a foreign bank account.

Georgia taxes both. Passive foreign income stays tax-free: dividends from a foreign company, interest on a foreign bank account, or royalties paid by a foreign licensee.

How the 183-day rule works

Most people become residents by spending 183 days or more in Georgia within any continuous 12-month period ending in the current tax year. The days don't have to be consecutive, and your arrival and departure days each count as a full day. Under Article 34 of the Tax Code, time abroad also counts as time in Georgia if you left specifically for medical treatment, a holiday, a business trip or study. Any other trip simply pauses the count without resetting it.

Your status is set for each calendar year, and the 12-month window can reach back into the previous year. Say you arrived in Georgia on 1 September 2025 and stayed: that gives you only 122 days in 2025. By early March 2026 you reach 183 days over the past 12 months and become a resident for 2026. If those days already made you a resident for the previous year, they don't count a second time for the next one.

Is there a way without 183 days?

Until June 2023, people who could not spend half the year in Georgia could apply for High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) status, based on substantial assets or income and property in Georgia. The rules for that status were repealed on 14 June 2023 and have not been replaced, so today the 183-day rule is the only way to become a Georgian tax resident.

Proving your status with a tax residency certificate

Within Georgia, 183 days in the country is all it takes to be treated as a resident. To rely on that status abroad, for instance to avoid double taxation under a treaty, you need an official tax residency certificate.

Georgia has 58 double taxation treaties in force, and a foreign tax authority or bank will want to see the certificate before granting relief under any of them. Your own tally of 183 days carries no weight outside Georgia.

You can apply through your personal account on rs.ge, in person, or through a representative. For the standard 183-day route, the Revenue Service checks its own border-crossing records, so you won't be asked for tickets or hotel bookings.

The certificate is free and usually takes 5-15 business days, and you can pay extra to get it faster.

Lower tax rates for individual entrepreneurs

The standard 20% rate applies to ordinary Georgian-source income, but some people pay less. Register as an individual entrepreneur in Georgia with small business status and you pay 1% on turnover while it stays within 500,000 lari a year.

Once it passes that mark, you pay 3% on everything earned from the start of that month until the end of the calendar year. With micro business status, for income up to 30,000 lari a year, you pay no income tax at all.

These rates apply only to business income. A salary under an employment contract is still taxed at 20%, and some activities, including consulting, legal services and licensed work, aren't eligible for small business status.

The lower rates don't change what counts as Georgian-source income either. A freelancer with small business status who works from Georgia for foreign clients still pays tax on that income, just at 1% instead of 20%.

Filing your annual tax return

If a foreign employer doesn't withhold Georgian tax, you pay the 20% yourself. File an annual return through your personal account on rs.ge by March 31 of the following year and pay the tax by the same date. Individual entrepreneurs with small business status file returns too, at their lower rate.

Whether you have to file depends on your situation, because the rules differ for employees, the self-employed and company owners. Check your own case with the Revenue Service or an accountant.

How tax treaties apply depends on your home country and personal circumstances. If you already owe tax in another country, talk to an advisor who knows the tax laws of both.