Annual Tax Return Georgia: Who Files It and by 31 March
Income that nobody withheld tax from carries one date in Georgia: 31 March. That is when the annual income tax return for the previous calendar year is due, and when the tax on it has to be paid. This post sets out who the obligation reaches, which income belongs on the return, what is reported on a different return instead, and what filing late costs.
- The annual income tax return covers one calendar year, and both the return and the tax on it fall due on 31 March of the year after it.
- Resident individuals whose income was not taxed at source file it, and so do non-residents without a Georgian permanent establishment whose Georgian-source income was not taxed at source.
- Income already taxed at source stays off the calculation: dividends and interest taxed at source at 5% are final for a resident individual.
- A taxable gain on selling property outside business is not held over for the annual return. It goes on its own return by the 15th of the month after the sale.
- The filing deadline can be extended by 3 months on a written application, but the date the tax is due does not move with it.
- A late return costs 5% of the tax due on it, 10% once it is more than 2 months late, and late payment interest of 0.05% a day runs on the unpaid tax.
Who has to file an annual tax return in Georgia
Two groups are named in Article 153 of the Tax Code: resident individuals whose income was not taxed at source in Georgia, and non-residents without a permanent establishment here whose Georgian-source income was not taxed at source. Residency is the 183-day test, counted over any continuous 12-month period ending in the tax year, so the obligation follows the income rather than the passport.
The Revenue Service names these among the people who file annually:
- Individual entrepreneurs whose income is taxed under the general rules.
- Micro and small business status holders, for the income that falls outside their regime and is taxed under the general rules.
- Individuals who received gifts or inheritance above the exempt limits.
- Landlords whose rent was not taxed at source by the tenant.
- Residents and non-residents with Georgian-source income that nobody withheld tax on.
One case catches people who never think of themselves as filers. Salary for work physically performed in Georgia is Georgian-source income whoever pays it, and no Georgian tax agent withholds on it when the employer is a non-resident with no presence here. The employee declares that salary on the annual return, because there is no monthly individual return for it.
Who does not file
These do not put you on the annual return:
- Salary from a Georgian employer. The employer withholds the tax and files the monthly return by the 15th of the following month.
- Dividends and interest from a Georgian payer. Both are taxed at source at 5%, and that tax is final for a resident individual, so the amounts are not added to gross income.
- Bank deposit interest. Interest from a licensed financial institution is neither taxed at source nor included in the individual's gross income.
- Foreign-source income of a resident individual. It is exempt from Georgian income tax.
Micro business income is the exception to that pattern. It is taxed at 0%, which leaves nothing to pay, and the holder files an annual return for it even so.
Someone who is not obliged to file may file anyway. The Code lets an individual submit a return to claim a recalculation and a refund, which is the route when too much was withheld during the year.
The deadline is 31 March, not 1 April
The Georgian text of the Code sets the return up to 1 April of the year following the reporting year, and the English translation of the same publication prints "by 1 April". The Revenue Service states the last day as 31 March and says the tax is paid by that same day, in its brochure on annual return deadlines. Income earned during 2026 therefore goes on a return due by 31 March 2027.
If 31 March lands on a weekend or a public holiday, you have until the end of the first working day that follows it, and anything sent electronically or by bank transfer counts until 24:00 on that day.
A return filed on 1 April is a late return, whatever the printed wording suggests, and the fine for it is 5% of the tax due on that return.
The date carries the payment too. The tax is due on 31 March, and interest of 0.05% of the unpaid tax runs for each day it is late, counting the day you pay.
Extending the filing deadline by 3 months
The deadline for filing the annual income tax return is extended by 3 months if you apply in writing to the tax authority before it expires, and you have either paid the current payments for the period being declared or have no current payments to make. Counted from 31 March, that puts the last filing day at 30 June.
The extension moves the filing date and nothing else. The tax stays due on 31 March, and late payment interest of 0.05% a day runs on whatever is unpaid after it, right through the extended period. That interest is what the extra time costs.
What income goes on the annual return
The return is built on the calendar year. This is how the common income types sit against it:
| Income | On the annual return? | The rule |
|---|---|---|
| Rent from residential space, tenant an individual | Yes | Nobody withholds, so you declare it; 5% where you take no deductions and are in the landlord register |
| Rent where the tenant is a legal person | No, where tax was withheld | The tenant withholds 5% if your data are in the register when the liability arises, otherwise 20% |
| Dividends and interest from a Georgian payer | No | Taxed at source at 5%, and that tax is final for a resident individual |
| Bank deposit interest | No | Not taxed at source and not part of gross income |
| Salary from a Georgian employer | No | Withheld on payment and declared on the employer's monthly return |
| Salary from a foreign employer for work done in Georgia | Yes | Georgian-source income with no Georgian tax agent to withhold on it |
| Services performed from Georgia for foreign clients | Yes | Georgian-source income, whoever pays and wherever the money lands |
| Foreign-source income of a resident | Declared, then relieved | Exempt, so it enters gross income and comes out again lower down the form |
| Disposal of crypto assets by an individual | Declared, then relieved | Exempt as income that is not from a Georgian source |
| Small business income outside the 1% regime, such as rent, interest, gains or dividends | Yes | Taxed under the general rules, not under the regime |
| Income earned earlier in the same year, before small business status started | Yes | Taxed under the regime that applied before the status |
| Gifts and inheritance above the exempt limits | Yes | GEL 1,000 for a gift from an individual, GEL 150,000 from third and fourth line heirs |
One year can carry several of these at once. If yours mixes rent, interest and a sale, you can send us the income and the dates and David Sisvadze sets out what belongs on the annual return, in a written opinion he signs.
Rent from residential space let for residential purposes is taxed at 5% rather than the general 20% where the landlord takes no deductions from that income, and Ministry of Finance Order No 996 makes the rate depend on being entered in the register of persons letting residential space, before 1 April of the year after the reporting year where the rent was not taxed at source.
A resident's foreign-source income is exempt, but work you do from Georgia for a foreign client is Georgian-source income, and where the client is or where the money is received does not change that.
An individual's disposal of crypto assets is exempt on the same reasoning, as income that is not from a Georgian source. Exempt income is not simply left off the paperwork: the return starts from gross income with the exempt amounts inside it, then removes them further down as reliefs.
When you file something else instead
Not every liability waits for 31 March. A taxable gain on selling a flat, a house or a car outside business activity is reported by the 15th of the month after the sale, with the tax paid by that same date. Before the new owner can be registered, the registration authority has to warn the seller that the sale must be reported and the tax paid.
An entrepreneur who stops business activity in Georgia files a return within 30 business days rather than waiting for the annual cycle.
Advance tax is its own calendar. An individual entrepreneur whose reporting period is the calendar year pays 4 instalments of 25% of the previous year's tax, by 15 May, 15 July, 15 September and 15 December. Small business status holders make no advance payments at all, and neither does a taxpayer who had no taxable income in the past tax year.
The annual return is one date in a calendar that otherwise runs on the 15th of each month and a short list of fixed dates, starting with the employer's withholding return. An individual's property tax return is the other date outside that monthly cycle, and it falls on 1 November.
How the return is filed
The annual income tax return goes on the form of Annex II-04 to the Order 996 instruction. The Code gives 3 routes for filing a return: in person at the tax authority, by insured postal item, or electronically. Declaring may be done online through rs.ge and the authorised user page, which makes the portal the normal route rather than the only lawful one.
A Georgian citizen declares under the personal number shown on their ID card. An individual without Georgian citizenship is assigned a 9-digit identification number and has to apply to the Revenue Service for tax registration when a tax or customs obligation arises; registration is carried out no later than 5 working days after the application.
Income received in a foreign currency is converted into lari at the National Bank of Georgia rate for the day of the transaction, and the total liability on the return is calculated in whole lari.
Finding a mistake later is not fatal. Where a filed return contains an error that changes the tax, you are obliged to amend it, and the Code sets no calendar deadline of its own for that.
The real limit is the audit: once the decision or notice on auditing a period has been served, no return for it can be filed until the resulting tax demand is served. An amended return filed before that point, and before any tax offence report is drawn up, removes the understatement fine at every band, though not the tax itself and not the interest on it.
Paying the tax and what a late return costs
The Code sets no separate payment date for the tax on the annual return, so it is paid within the filing deadline, on 31 March with the return itself.
A return filed late carries 5% of the tax due on it while it is up to 2 months late and 10% after that, with no fine at all where the tax due on the return is zero.
Separately, late payment interest of 0.05% of the unpaid tax runs for each overdue day, and the day the tax is paid counts as overdue. The interest attaches to unpaid tax only, never to an unpaid fine.
Understating the tax carries its own fine: 10% of the understatement where it is up to 5% of the tax declared, 25% where it is above 5% and up to 20%, and 50% above that.
Say you let a flat to another individual through 2026 for GEL 24,000, you claim no deductions against it, and your data went into the landlord register before 1 April 2027. The rate is 5%.
- Tax due on the return: GEL 1,200.
- You file and pay on 14 April 2027, 14 days after the 31 March deadline.
- Late filing fine, the return being under 2 months late: 5% of GEL 1,200, so GEL 60.
- Late payment interest: 0.05% of GEL 1,200 is GEL 0.60 a day, for 14 overdue days, so GEL 8.40.
- Total paid: GEL 1,268.40, of which GEL 68.40 bought nothing.
Frequently asked questions
When is the annual tax return due in Georgia?
By 31 March of the year following the reporting year, and the tax on it is paid by the same day. If 31 March falls on a weekend or a public holiday, the last day for both moves to the first working day after it.
Is the deadline 31 March or 1 April?
31 March. The Georgian and English texts of the Tax Code phrase the deadline differently, and the Revenue Service treats 31 March as the last day for both filing and paying. A return that arrives on 1 April is late and carries the 5% fine on the tax due under it.
Do I file if my only income is a salary from a Georgian employer?
No. Your employer withholds the tax when it pays you and declares it on a monthly return by the 15th of the following month, so nothing is left to declare. You may still file voluntarily if you believe too much was withheld, because the Code allows a return to claim a recalculation and a refund.
Do I have to file if I spent less than 183 days in Georgia?
Possibly. Non-residents are taxed on Georgian-source income only, and a non-resident without a permanent establishment in Georgia files an annual return where that Georgian-source income was not taxed at source. Rent from a Georgian flat paid by an individual tenant is the usual example.
Does foreign income go on the Georgian annual return?
It goes on the form, and no tax arises on it. A resident individual's foreign-source income is exempt, so the amount enters gross income and comes out again as a relief further down. Work carried out from Georgia is not foreign income, whoever the client is.
Does income taxed under the 1% regime go on the annual return?
No. Small business income is declared monthly, by the 15th of the month after the reporting month, and taxed at 1% there. What does go on the annual return is the income that sits outside the regime, such as rent, interest, dividends and gains, together with income earned earlier in the same year before the status started.
Can I file a return even if I am not required to?
Yes. The Code lets an individual who is not obliged to file submit a return to claim a recalculation and a refund of tax already paid. A claim for refund of overpaid tax runs for 3 years from the end of the year in which the right to it arose.
What does filing the annual return late cost?
5% of the tax due on the return while it is up to 2 months late, and 10% once it passes 2 months. Late payment interest of 0.05% a day runs separately on the unpaid tax from the day after the deadline, counting the day of payment. A return showing zero tax due carries no filing fine at all.
When do I report the sale of a flat?
On a separate return, by the 15th of the month following the sale, with the tax paid by the same date. The gain is exempt where you owned the residential property for more than 2 years, and a first-line heir adds the previous owner's period to their own.