Georgia · Tax regime
Tax Residency for High Net Worth Individuals (Tax Code of Georgia, Article 34)
Open and actively granted. Status is issued annually and must be re-applied for each year with refreshed evidence — it is not a permanent designation.
Georgia will certify you as tax resident of a territorial jurisdiction without requiring you to live there — a combination almost nowhere else offers lawfully. For a family whose income is entirely foreign-source, the certificate is the treaty and CRS anchor that makes the rest of the structure legible. That is also precisely why it attracts scrutiny.
Qualifying routes
confirmed worldwide assets over GEL 3m, plus a Georgian residence permit or citizenship, plus Georgian-situs assets of at least USD 500k
confirmed worldwide assets over GEL 3m, plus at least GEL 25,000 of Georgian-source income in the preceding year, plus Georgian-situs assets of at least USD 500k
annual income of at least GEL 200,000 in each of the last three years; source is not determinative
The facts
- Qualifying figure
- 3M GEL
- Total landed cost
- No meaningful government fee. Cost is professional: roughly USD 3–8k to assemble and file, plus the cost of creating the Georgian nexus (residence permit or GEL 25k of Georgian-source income), plus annual renewal.
- Timeline
- 1–3 months — Revenue Service adjudication; renewals annual.
- Physical presence
- None. This is the entire point of the status — it bypasses the 183-day count.
- Family
- each individual applies on their own facts; spouse and children are not derivative
- Permanent residency
- n/a — this is a tax status, not an immigration status
- Citizenship
- n/a
- Language test
- none
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- meet one of the three statutory testsdocumentary confirmation of worldwide assets (audited or bank-confirmed)Georgian nexus: residence permit/citizenship, or GEL 25k Georgian-source income in the prior yearUSD 500k of Georgian-situs assets for the wealth-test routesannual re-application
- A CERTIFICATE IS NOT A DEFENCE. Georgia issuing a residency certificate does not stop your former country taxing you. Treaty tie-breakers turn on permanent home, centre of vital interests and habitual abode — none of which a zero-presence certificate establishes. If you spend most of your year in a country that taxes on residence, expect that country to win the tie-break and to treat the Georgian certificate as evidence of planning rather than of fact.
- BANKS ARE THE REAL CHOKE POINT. A CRS self-certification claiming sole Georgian tax residency while your address, phone number and spending pattern are elsewhere triggers the reporting institution's indicia review. The account will very likely be reported to the other jurisdiction anyway, and the mismatch is exactly the pattern the OECD asked banks to look for.
- ANNUAL RENEWAL IS A REAL RISK. Status lapses if you cannot re-evidence it each year. The GEL 25k Georgian-source income limb must be earned in the year before you apply, so a gap year breaks the chain — and manufacturing Georgian-source income to hold the status creates Georgian-source income, taxable at 20%.
- THE USD 500k GEORGIAN-ASSET LIMB IS THE EXPENSIVE PART. Both wealth-test routes require it. Georgian real estate is a thin, illiquid, lari-denominated market; USD 500k parked there to hold a tax status is a real economic cost advisers routinely omit from the pitch.
- GEORGIA NOW EXCHANGES UNDER CRS. Georgia joined in 2022, 2023 was the first reporting year and first exchanges ran in September 2024. Advice that Georgia is outside CRS is stale by two years.
- POLITICAL RISK IS NOT ZERO. EU accession is effectively frozen amid the domestic political crisis, and Russia occupies roughly 20% of the country's territory. A tax residency is only as durable as the state issuing it.