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. Almost nowhere else offers that combination lawfully. For a family whose income is entirely foreign-source, the certificate becomes the treaty and CRS anchor that makes the rest of the structure legible. That is also exactly why it draws scrutiny.
Qualifying routes
You will need confirmed worldwide assets over GEL 3m, plus a Georgian residence permit or citizenship, plus Georgian-situs assets of at least USD 500k.
You will need 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.
You will need annual income of at least GEL 200,000 in each of the last three years. The source of that income does not matter.
The facts
- Minimum
- 3M GEL
- Total landed cost
- There is no meaningful government fee here. The cost is professional. Expect roughly USD 3–8k to assemble and file, plus whatever it takes to create the Georgian nexus, whether that is a residence permit or GEL 25k of Georgian-source income, plus an annual renewal fee.
- Route type
- Tax regime, not a visa
- Timeline
- 1–3 months (The Revenue Service decides each case, and renewals happen annually.)
- Physical presence
- None is required. That is the entire point of this status. It bypasses the 183-day count altogether.
- Family
- Each individual applies on their own facts. A spouse and children are not covered automatically
- Permanent residency
- Not applicable. This is a tax status, not an immigration status.
- Citizenship
- Not applicable
- Language test
- None
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- Meet one of the three statutory tests.Provide documentary confirmation of worldwide assets, either audited or bank-confirmed.Show a Georgian nexus: a residence permit or citizenship, or GEL 25k in Georgian-source income in the prior year.Hold USD 500k of Georgian-situs assets for the wealth-test routes.Reapply every year.
- A CERTIFICATE IS NOT A DEFENCE. A Georgian residency certificate does not stop your former country from taxing you. Tax treaties settle disputes over residency using tie-breaker tests: where your permanent home is, where your centre of vital interests lies, and where you habitually live. A certificate based on zero real presence in Georgia establishes none of these. If you spend most of the year in a country that taxes based on residence, expect that country to win the tie-break. It will likely treat the Georgian certificate as evidence of planning rather than of fact.
- BANKS ARE THE REAL CHOKE POINT. If you self-certify under CRS as solely Georgian tax resident while your address, phone number and spending pattern point elsewhere, the bank's indicia review will flag the mismatch. The account will very likely still be reported to the other jurisdiction. This exact pattern is what the OECD asked banks to watch for.
- ANNUAL RENEWAL IS A REAL RISK. Your status lapses if you cannot re-establish it every year. The GEL 25k Georgian-source income requirement must be earned in the year before you apply, so a single gap year breaks the chain. And if you manufacture Georgian-source income just to keep the status, that income becomes 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 market priced in lari. Parking USD 500k there just to hold a tax status is a real economic cost, and it is one advisers routinely leave out of the pitch.
- Georgia now exchanges information under CRS. It joined in 2022, 2023 was the first reporting year, and the first exchanges ran in September 2024. Any advice claiming Georgia sits outside CRS is two years out of date.
- Political risk here 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 that issues it.