How to Register an Individual Entrepreneur in Georgia in 2026

Georgia remains one of the friendliest jurisdictions for a one-person business: 1% tax, registration in a single working day, English spoken in the banks. But 2026 rewrote more of that picture than people assume. The work permit rules changed, the turnover requirement disappeared, the moment Small Business status takes effect moved, and filing a return became mandatory even for empty months. Guides written in the spring describe a sequence that no longer applies. Here is the current one, with official tariffs and realistic timing.

Quick answer

An IE is registered in one working day at the House of Justice for a state fee of 26 GEL (75 GEL for same-day registration), and no residence permit is required for it. You need a passport with a notarised translation, a Georgian phone number and an address in Georgia. After the April 2026 amendment the work permit is no longer for everyone: if you work only for foreign clients you do not need it for the work itself, though it stays mandatory as a document for the work residence permit. Then comes the tax status, and most people choose Small Business at 1% of turnover below 500,000 GEL a year.

What an IE is in Georgia

An IE (ინდივიდუალური მეწარმე) is an individual registered as an entrepreneur. It is not a separate legal entity: you answer for obligations personally, but you can issue invoices, receive payment into a business account and operate legally. The format suits IT freelancers, designers, marketers and marketplace sellers. Anyone growing further, working with investors or needing protection for personal assets usually needs an LLC instead.

What changed in 2026

Four changes, and together they rearrange the order of operations.

The work permit. From 1 March foreigners holding a Georgian IE were required to obtain one, and by April an amendment carved out remote workers with foreign clients, company owners and directors. The rule now: work only for non-residents and no permit is needed for the work; have Georgian clients or Georgian-source income and it is; plan a work residence permit and an approved permit is a mandatory part of that application regardless. The full timeline is in our work permit breakdown.

The 50,000 GEL turnover requirement is gone. Until April the central qualifying condition for an IE was annual turnover of at least 50,000 GEL, and spring guides still frighten readers with it. The April amendments removed that requirement from the statute. Demonstrating turnover in order to be legal is no longer a thing.

Small Business status now takes effect on the application date. It used to start on the first day of the following month, which pushed income earned during your registration month into the general 20%. Since the spring of 2026 the status applies from the date the request reaches the Revenue Service. On a first month of, say, 8,000 GEL, the old mechanism cost roughly 1,500 GEL in difference.

Returns are mandatory even at zero turnover. An empty month is no longer skipped: a zero return is filed on the same schedule as a normal one.

Documents for registration

• passport (domestic or international);
• a notarised Georgian translation of it (50 to 80 GEL);
• a Georgian phone number;
• an address in Georgia, a rented legal address works (from 80 GEL a month);
• the application at the House of Justice;
• proof of the state fee.

A residence permit is not required to register an IE. That myth is persistent, and it is still just a passport and an address.

Six steps

Step six appeared in 2026 and does not apply to everyone. If it is yours, run it in parallel with opening the account: the document packs overlap.

What it actually costs

The fees are published by the National Agency of Public Registry, and they are worth reading at the source: several recent articles quote 60 and 109 GEL, which does not match the official tariff.

The English extract is what the bank and the residency application will ask for, so budget for it from the start.

Tax regimes

Rates and thresholds are checked against the PwC tax summary as of January 2026.

One separate rule covers the move up from Micro Business: if the status ends because turnover passed 30,000 GEL or because you hired someone, applying for Small Business within 15 calendar days gives you the status with no taxable gap. Miss that window and the interval is taxed at the general rate.

Small Business status: the famous 1%

The most popular regime among remote workers: 1% of all turnover with no deduction for costs, and a return by the 15th of each month. The conditions are turnover below 500,000 GEL a year and an activity that is not on the closed list. Keep the distinction in mind: 1% is a tax regime and the work permit is legalisation of the activity, and one does not substitute for the other.

Who will not get the status

The list of activities excluded from Small Business status sits in Annex 4 to Government Decree No. 415 of 29 December 2010. It covers licensed activities, medical, legal, notarial and audit work, and any form of consulting, tax advisers included.

Check your activity before applying for the status. And the wording in your contracts weighs more than your own description of the work: "marketing consulting" and "provision of marketing services" read very differently to the Revenue Service.

The first 30 days after registration

Registration is the easy part. The mistakes come after it.

1. The rs.ge account. Without it you can file neither the status application nor a return. Set it up as soon as you have the tax ID.
2. The Small Business application. Filing it the same day now makes sense: the status applies from the filing date, so the first month of income already runs at 1%.
3. The business account. Kept separate from your personal one. Taking business income onto a personal card is the classic mistake, and it surfaces at the first review.
4. The first return. Due by the 15th of the month following your first month of work. Even with no turnover. The mechanics are covered in our declaration guide.
5. Paying the tax. Filing and payment are two separate operations, and submitting a return does not move the money by itself.

What happens if turnover grows

The 500,000 GEL ceiling is usually described in a way that is both alarming and wrong: "go one lari over and the whole turnover is recalculated at 20%." The real mechanism is gentler and runs in steps set out in articles 88 to 95 of the Tax Code:

• you cross the threshold: from the month of the excess to the end of the year the rate becomes 3%, and the status survives;
• you cross it two years running: the status is annulled from 1 January of the third year;
• after annulment: you can apply again only from the following tax year.

The mechanism is described by Andersen in Georgia and in the IBCCS guide. In practice a one-off overshoot is survivable, while steady growth is a reason to price up an LLC or the Virtual Zone.

VAT: when it catches you

The rate is 18% and registration becomes mandatory once taxable turnover passes 100,000 GEL over any continuous twelve months. Not per calendar year: the count runs on a rolling window, and the threshold can be crossed mid-year without you noticing. If turnover is approaching six figures, read the detailed breakdown of the threshold in advance.

Paying 1% of turnover while administering VAT is an awkward combination, and it is usually the second most common reason people reconsider the form.

Pension contributions

Almost everyone asks, and guides rarely answer. Under the law on funded pensions the scheme covers Georgian citizens and permanently resident individuals. Non-resident foreigners fall outside it and have no mandatory pension contributions.

Hiring changes the picture: contributions are due for citizens and permanent residents, and not for non-residents.

One client is fine, but check the contract

The question "does the 1% IE work if I only have one client?" comes up constantly among nomads, and the answer depends on the nature of the relationship rather than the count.

Genuine contracting, where you decide which tasks to take, with no leave, no schedule and no position in a structure, sits comfortably with the 1% status. Disguised employment does not: a fixed monthly sum, paid time off, a slot in the org chart, the client's tools and the client's working hours. The Revenue Service can reclassify that income as salary and tax it at 20%.

Having a single client is not prohibited. But if you do, show the contract to a specialist before you apply for the status rather than after an assessment.

Common mistakes

• the wrong activity code;
• no Small Business application filed, which sends the whole turnover into 20%;
• an activity from the closed list, checked only after the refusal;
• income taken onto a personal card instead of the business account;
• a missed filing deadline on the 15th;
• the new classic of 2026: a skipped zero return for a month with no revenue, with fines accumulating quietly;
• no decision on your own work permit scenario, which costs people planning residency a month on an incomplete pack.

What we are not claiming

Two places where we will not quote a figure.

The first is the cost and processing time of the work permit: tariffs and practice shifted during the year, and printing one number in a guide people read for months would be misleading. Check the current amounts at the moment of filing.

The second is hiring under Small Business status: advisers disagree and we found no single rule to cite. What is certain is that Micro Business status allows no employees at all.

Frequently asked

Do I need a residence permit to open an IE in Georgia? No. A passport, a translation, a phone number and an address are enough. It works the other way round: a working IE with turnover and an approved work permit is a route to the work residence permit.

Do I have to show 50,000 GEL of turnover? Not any more. That requirement applied until April 2026 and was removed from the statute. Guides that still mention it are out of date.

Can I open an IE remotely, without coming to Georgia? Yes, through a lawyer under a notarised power of attorney.

When should I apply for Small Business status? Right after registration. The status now applies from the filing date, so there is no longer any reason to leave it for the next month.

Do I file a return if the month was empty? Yes. A zero return is mandatory, and skipping it is the most common source of accumulated fines.

How long does the whole path to fully legal work take? A day for the IE, a few days for the account and rs.ge, plus the review period if your scenario includes a work permit. A week to a month.

I will be living in Georgia. What about tax residency? 183 days in the country over any 12 months makes you a tax resident: how both routes to the status work.

Which is better, an IE or an LLC? For a solo freelancer almost always the IE, and the gap is wider than people expect: the comparison with numbers at three turnover levels.

A free 15-minute consultation: we will check your activity against the excluded list, work out your work permit scenario and map the route for your case. Telegram @GeoExpertsSaqartvelo or +995 551 278 585.