Georgian tax residency certificate

What a Georgia tax residency certificate is

The certificate is the Revenue Service's written confirmation that Georgia treats you as a tax resident for a given year. The Revenue Service is the state tax office, and rs.ge is its website. The certificate records a status you already have under the Tax Code. Getting the certificate does not create the status.

You become resident in one of two ways:

• by spending 183 or more days in Georgia in any continuous 12-calendar-month period ending in the tax year (Tax Code Art. 34(2)); see the 183-day rule;
• by being granted residency as a high net worth individual (Art. 34(6)); see the high net worth individual route.

Georgia has 58 double tax avoidance agreements, according to the Ministry of Finance. If you want to rely on one of them, or another country's authority asks where you are resident, the certificate is the Revenue Service's document for that. Whether a particular foreign authority or bank accepts it is up to that authority or bank.

How to apply

We could not read an official Revenue Service procedure page. The steps below come from advisory firms (Andersen and Gegidze).

1. Get a Georgian taxpayer identification number (TIN), if you do not have one.
2. Open an account on rs.ge, the Revenue Service portal.
3. Apply through the account for a certificate for the tax year you need. Certificates are issued per tax year (calendar year).
4. The Revenue Service checks your days in Georgia, mainly against border-crossing records.

Which 12 months the Revenue Service looks at

The statute uses "any continuous 12-calendar-month period ending in that tax year". The law firm REVERA reports how the Revenue Service applies this in practice. For an application based on 183 days, it counts the 12 months back from the date of the application. REVERA's example: an application on 12 August 2024 covers 12 August 2023 to 12 August 2024.

This affects timing. If you apply before you have 183 days in the 12 months before the application date, the application will not meet the test on that count. Plan the date you apply around your travel record.

For the high net worth route, REVERA reports that the Revenue Service reads "last tax year" as a calendar year. A certificate based on wealth for 2023 could therefore only be issued in 2024.

What to have ready

The Revenue Service relies mainly on border records, so your days in Georgia should already be on file. It still helps to keep your own record:

• your passport with entry and exit stamps;
• tickets or boarding passes for each trip;
• for trips abroad that you want counted as days in Georgia under Art. 34(3) (treatment, leisure, business trips or education), papers that show the purpose of the trip.

For the high net worth route, REVERA reports that the Revenue Service wants the nominal value of property plus a market valuation close to the filing date. For bank funds, a recent statement is enough.

Leisure days and the application

Art. 34(4)(d) says time in Georgia "for treatment or leisure" does not count toward the 183 days. We do not know how the Revenue Service applies this when it reviews a certificate application from someone with no residence permit and no work in Georgia. If your days come only from tourist-style stays, this is a risk to check before you apply.

What the certificate does not do

The certificate is a tax document. It gives no right to enter or stay in Georgia. That comes from a visa-free stay, a visa or a residence permit under the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons. See visa-free stay in Georgia and our residency guide.

The certificate also does not end your tax residency in another country. Many countries have their own tests, and you may be resident in two places at once. See what Georgian tax residency does not solve.

A new certificate is needed for each year. Art. 34(8) says days used to make you resident in one tax period are not counted again for the next, so each year stands on its own.