Small Business Status Georgia: The Monthly Declaration

Small Business Status comes with a return every month, not once a year. The monthly declaration reports the income your activity earned under the regime, and the 1% on it falls due on the same date the return does. This post covers the deadline, what each line of the form asks for, the income that never belongs on it, and what a late or unfiled month costs.

When the monthly declaration is due

You file the return, and pay the tax it shows, by the 15th of the month that follows the one it reports, under Article 93 of the Tax Code of Georgia. The reporting period is the calendar month, so one return covers the whole month, however many invoices went out in it.

Holders of the status make no advance or current tax payments during the year, so nothing else falls due in between. A holder who pays salaries does file twice on that date, because the withholding return on those salaries shares the same 15th.

A 15th that lands on a weekend or a public holiday moves. The deadline then closes at the end of the following working day, and anything filed electronically or paid by bank transfer has until 24:00 on it.

What goes on the return

The return covers Georgian-source income other than salary and the income types the Government has listed, and that is the figure the 1% of Small Business Status is charged on.

Nothing is deducted from it. Neither the Tax Code nor the order that runs the regime provides any deduction against that base, so the 1% is charged on what the activity received rather than on what it kept.

The field list is set by Order No 999 of the Minister of Finance, not by the Tax Code. Line 15 is a running total of the income taxable under the regime from 1 January to the end of the reporting month, income exempt from income tax included; line 16 is the rate for that month; line 17 is the month's own taxable income; and line 26 is the tax, which is line 17 less any Article 82 relief, multiplied by line 16.

Which amounts fall into line 17 depends on how you account. On the cash method only what was actually received in the month counts. On the accrual method what you supplied is counted at its value in the month of supply, paid for or not, and an advance received is reversed out so the same money is not taxed twice.

In the month line 15 passes GEL 500,000, line 16 becomes 3% and stays at 3% for the rest of that calendar year, so the whole of that month's income is taxed at the higher rate. The threshold is GEL 700,000 for wine tourism and agro tourism operators.

How the return is filed

Electronic filing is the normal route. Order No 996 allows communication with the Revenue Service, declaring included, to run electronically through rs.ge and the authorised user page, and a return filed that way needs no signature: it carries the same legal force as a signed and sealed paper one.

Paper remains open. Part II of the return is completed by the tax authority where the return is submitted in paper form, and the taxpayer confirms the accuracy of the return with a signature and a date.

Income that stays off this return

The Government's list of income that sits outside the regime runs to 12 types: property leasing and immovable property rent, income from lending, gambling winnings, gifts, the gain on realising real estate, a vehicle or securities, inherited property, dividends, interest, royalties, debt forgiveness, the gain on realising a partner's share, and construction services whose recipient is an enterprise, an organisation or an entrepreneur.

Salary is outside the regime as well. None of that income reaches line 15, none of it counts toward the GEL 500,000 limit, and it is taxed under the general rules instead, on the annual income tax return the Revenue Service treats as due by 31 March.

Work invoiced to clients abroad is a different case. Where the provider is a Georgian resident and the client is in another country, the fee is Georgian-source income unless it is delivered through a permanent establishment abroad, so it belongs on the monthly return like any other.

Where a holder has both, rent on one side and foreign invoices on the other, a written opinion signed by David Sisvadze settles which figure belongs on which return. The monthly return keeps its 15th and the annual one its 31 March.

Months with no income

File the return anyway. Since Order No 38 of 5 February 2026 amended the rules on special taxation regimes, a month for which no monthly return is filed is not treated as a zero return, so the obligation stays open rather than closing itself.

In money, that matters less than it sounds. The fine is charged on the tax due under the return, and where that tax is zero there is no fine, so an empty month filed late carries none. What stays is the open obligation, and any month in which income did arrive brings the fine back with it.

The monthly return belongs to Small Business Status alone. Micro business status carries no monthly filing, only an annual income tax return, which the Revenue Service treats as due by 31 March.

Skipping a month does not, by itself, cost you the status. The Tax Code lists 5 grounds on which Small Business Status is cancelled: exceeding the limit in each of 2 calendar years, asking for cancellation, carrying out a prohibited activity, being fined at least 3 times in a calendar year over cash register rules, and ceasing to be an entrepreneur natural person.

What late filing and late payment cost

Two charges run separately: a fine for filing late and interest for paying late.

The fine is 5% of the tax due under the return where the return is up to 2 months late, and 10% where it is more than 2 months late. Where the tax due under that return is zero, there is no fine at all.

Interest on unpaid tax runs at 0.05% of the unpaid amount for each overdue day, and the day you pay counts as overdue. It runs on unpaid tax only, never on an unpaid fine and never on interest already accrued, and it stops accruing 3 years after the obligation to charge it arose.

Understating the tax on a return is a separate offence from filing that return late, and the two fines apply on top of each other rather than one absorbing the other. The understatement fine is 10% while the understated amount stays within 5% of the tax the return shows, 25% in the band above 5% and up to 20%, and 50% of the understatement beyond that.

A mistake found before an audit is cheaper than a mistake found by one. An amended return filed before the decision to conduct the audit is served, or before a tax offence report is drawn up, removes the understatement fine at every band. It does not remove the tax itself or the interest on it.

The records behind each return

The return is the end of a record, not the record itself. A holder keeps a special record journal, holds the tax source documents behind each return for at least 3 years past the close of the calendar year they belong to, and cannot carry a loss forward.

Cash taken from customers goes through a cash register, and each breach of those rules is a GEL 200 fine. A holder who is not registered for VAT issues no tax invoices, because only VAT-registered persons issue them.

The Revenue Service reaches back 3 years, and the clock starts at the close of the calendar year under audit, so a January 2026 return and its paperwork stay live until 31 December 2029.

Frequently asked questions

When is the monthly small business declaration due?

By the 15th of the month following the month it reports. March income is declared and the 1% paid by 15 April, December income by 15 January. Where the 15th is a weekend day or a public holiday, you have until the end of the following working day.

Do I have to file if I had no income that month?

Yes. A month for which nothing is filed is not treated as a zero return, so the obligation stays open. There is no late filing fine where the tax due is zero, but the month does not close itself.

What does filing the declaration late cost?

5% of the tax the return shows as due, where it is late by no more than 2 months, and 10% once it passes that. Unpaid tax also accrues interest at 0.05% a day, with the day of payment counted as overdue. Where that tax is zero, no late filing fine applies.

Do I pay the 1% at the same time as I file?

Yes. The tax is paid by the same 15th the return is due on, so filing and paying are one deadline rather than two. A bank transfer made on that day counts until 24:00.

Does rental income go on the monthly declaration?

No. Renting out immovable property is one of the income types the Government has placed outside the regime, so it never reaches line 15 and never counts toward the GEL 500,000 limit. It goes on the annual return instead, which the Revenue Service treats as due by 31 March.

What happens in the month my income passes GEL 500,000?

The rate on that month's return becomes 3%, and it stays 3% for the rest of that calendar year. The cumulative figure on line 15, running from 1 January, is what the limit is measured against.

Do Small Business Status holders make advance tax payments?

No. Holders of the status pay no current taxes during the year. The monthly return and the payment that goes with it are the whole of the cycle for income taxed under the regime.

How do I convert income received in a foreign currency to GEL?

At the official rate of the lari against that currency set by the National Bank of Georgia for the day the transaction is carried out. Where no official rate exists for that day, the rate set under the procedure the Board of the National Bank establishes applies. The rule is general, so the same day-of-transaction rate governs the 1% base as any other taxable transaction.