Tax Residency in Georgia: 183 Days, HNWI and Certificates

The 183-day rule for tax residency in Georgia

You are a Georgian tax resident for the full tax year if you were actually in Georgia for 183 days or more in any continuous 12-calendar-month period ending in that year, under Article 34(2) of the Tax Code.

The 12 months can straddle two calendar years. July 2025 to June 2026 is one continuous period, and 183 days inside it count for the tax year in which the period ends. Residency is set one tax period at a time, and the days that made you resident in one period are not counted again for the next (Article 34(8)).

Which days count towards 183

Articles 34(3) and 34(4) add some days abroad to your count and leave out some days in Georgia.

Time	Counts towards 183 days?
A day in Georgia, however short the stay	Yes
Time abroad specifically for treatment, leisure, a business trip or education	Yes
Time in Georgia as a diplomat or as staff of an international organisation	No
Time in Georgia in transit	No
Time in Georgia for treatment or leisure	No

Any day you spend in Georgia counts as a full day, however short the stay (Article 34(5)), so the day you arrive and the day you leave both count.

Tax residency for high net worth individuals (HNWI)

A high net worth individual can be granted Georgian residency without meeting the 183-day test, under rules set by the Minister of Finance (Article 34(6)). Those rules are Order No 60 of 1 March 2023, in force since 15 April 2023, and matsne lists no amendments to it.

The Rules annexed to Order 60 define a high net worth individual as someone with confirmed assets over GEL 3 million, or annual income over GEL 200,000 over the last 3 years before applying (Rules, Article 1(2)(b)). Whether the income test means more than GEL 200,000 in each of those 3 years, or a total over the 3 years, is unsettled. The Georgian wording supports either reading, the Order gives no example, and it does not say which assets count towards the GEL 3 million or how they are valued.

Meeting the definition is not enough on its own: Rules, Article 3 sets two routes, and you must meet one of them.

Condition	Route A	Route B
High net worth, as defined above	Required	Required
Property in Georgia worth at least USD 500,000, in its GEL equivalent	Required	Required
A residence permit, residence card or Georgian citizen ID card	Required	Not a condition
At least GEL 25,000 of Georgian-source income in the last tax year before applying	Not a condition	Required

Order 60 does not say which property counts towards the USD 500,000 or how it is valued either.

How the HNWI application works

You apply to the Revenue Service in person or through an authorised representative, on paper or electronically, and the Minister of Finance grants residency on the Revenue Service’s submission (Rules, Articles 2 and 4). If your file is complete, the Revenue Service sends its submission to the Minister within 7 working days, and if something is missing you get up to 30 days to supply it (Rules, Article 6(2)).

Residency on this route is granted per tax year, and the documents have to be filed again for each year (Rules, Article 6(5)). A residency certificate can be requested only for the year of the application (Rules, Article 4(3)).

What tax residents in Georgia pay

A resident individual’s income that is not Georgian-source income is exempt from income tax under Article 82(1)(u) of the Tax Code. Georgian-source income stays taxable, and the main rates are the same for residents and non-residents.

Georgian-source income	Resident individual	Non-resident without a Georgian permanent establishment
Salary	20%, withheld by the employer	20% at source
Dividends from a Georgian company	5% at source, final	5% at source
Interest, except from a licensed financial institution	5% at source, final	5% at source

Salary is taxed at the 20% income tax rate set by Article 81(1), and the employer withholds it as tax agent (Article 154). Dividends and interest paid to an individual are taxed at 5% at source, and for a resident that tax is final (Articles 130 and 131). Interest from a licensed financial institution, such as a bank deposit, is not taxed at source and stays out of gross income (Article 131(5)).

A non-resident without a permanent establishment in Georgia is taxed at source with no deductions, and other Georgian-source payments are taxed at 10% (Article 134(1)). An individual entrepreneur with small business status pays 1% on taxable income, and that base is income from a Georgian source, excluding salary and the income types listed under Article 88(3) (Article 90).

Residents, and non-residents without a permanent establishment in Georgia, whose Georgian-source income was not taxed at source file an annual return before 1 April of the following year (Article 153(1), Georgian text). For tax year 2024 the Revenue Service gave 31 March 2025 as the last day to file and pay. Whether your income was taxed at source decides whether it goes on an annual return, so set that split out when you compare accounting firms in Tbilisi.

How to get a Georgian tax residency certificate

The Revenue Service issues a residency certificate for use under double tax treaties. A Georgian resident applies electronically, giving their name and full address in Georgian and in English and their Georgian taxpayer number, and the certificate is issued electronically (Order No 633, Annex, Article 5). If you are not a Georgian citizen, your taxpayer number is the 9-digit identification number issued to you (Article 66(6) of the Tax Code). An issued certificate can be looked up by its ID and barcode on the Revenue Service’s Resident’s certificate page.

The general rule in Order No 633, Annex, Article 1(5) and (6) gives the tax authority 30 calendar days from the request to decide or issue a certificate, plus up to 30 days for you to fix a deficient request. Article 5, the residency certificate article, sets no time limit of its own.