Georgia Tax Residency Certificate: How to Apply and Use It
A foreign tax office, a bank or a payer has asked you to prove that Georgia treats you as a tax resident. The document they want is a certificate from the Revenue Service, issued electronically to residents who apply. Who qualifies, which tax year a certificate can confirm, what the application must contain and what to do when the other country sends its own form instead are the parts that decide whether the document is any use to you.
- The Revenue Service issues the tax residency certificate electronically, on the application of a Georgian resident.
- The application states your name and your full address in Georgian and in English, together with your Georgian taxpayer identification number.
- Residency itself comes from the Tax Code: a continuous 12 calendar month period ending in the tax year that holds 183 days of presence or more, the high net worth individual route, or Georgian citizenship with no country of residence established.
- Each tax year stands on its own, and days already spent to make you a resident are not spent twice.
- Where your home country uses a residency form of its own, the Revenue Service signs and seals its confirmation on that form, as long as the form carries a field for it and arrives with a notarised translation into Georgian.
- Georgia has 58 double tax treaties in force, and neither the United States nor Russia is on the Ministry of Finance list.
What a Georgian tax residency certificate is
The certificate is the Revenue Service's confirmation that Georgia treats you as a tax resident, issued electronically in a form approved by Minister of Finance Order No 633. That order covers 3 things: using a relief under a double tax treaty, refunding overpaid tax, and confirming that a person is a Georgian resident. The certificate is the third of them.
It confirms a status rather than creating one. Residency on the day count comes from the facts alone: Article 34 of the Tax Code counts days of physical presence, and that paragraph provides for no application, registration, election or decision.
Your immigration papers do not decide it either. A visa, a residence permit or a registered Georgian address neither creates nor prevents tax residency, and a residence permit appears in the residency rules only as one of the eligibility documents on the high net worth route.
Who can get a tax residency certificate
The application is made by a Georgian resident, so the real question is whether Georgia counts you as one. Residency arrives on the day count, on the high net worth route, or through the routes the Tax Code keeps for Georgian citizens and for state servants posted abroad.
The 183-day test
Take any continuous 12 calendar month period that ends inside the tax year. Where you were actually present in Georgia for 183 days or more within it, Georgia treats you as a resident for that whole year. Almost everyone who needs a certificate is resident on that day count alone, and part days count in full: the day you land and the day you fly out each add one to your total.
Article 34 of the Tax Code then adjusts the count in both directions. Days you spend abroad specifically for treatment, for leisure, on a business trip or in study still count as days in Georgia. Days spent in Georgia as a diplomat or consular officer, as staff of an international organisation under a Georgian treaty, in transit, or for treatment or leisure do not count at all.
The high net worth individual route
Residency can also be granted without the day count. Minister of Finance Order No 60 sets the thresholds: confirmed assets above GEL 3,000,000, or annual income above GEL 200,000 over the 3 tax years before the application. Either way you also hold property in Georgia worth USD 500,000 or more.
There is one further condition: a residence permit, a residence card or a Georgian citizen ID, or else Georgian-source income of GEL 25,000 or more received in the tax year before the application. Residency on the high net worth route is granted by the Minister of Finance on the Revenue Service's submission, one tax year at a time, with the documents filed again for each year.
For the certificate, the timing is the part to watch: residency granted this way supports a certificate for the year of the application and no other. A person granted residency who holds no taxpayer number yet receives the certificate together with a 9-digit taxpayer number.
Georgian citizens and state service abroad
Where no country at all can be established as a Georgian citizen's country of residence, that citizen counts as a Georgian resident once they apply to the tax authority. An individual serving abroad in Georgian state service during the year is resident for that year by law. Beyond those, residency may be granted to other foreign individuals in cases the Minister of Finance defines.
| Route | Who it covers | How residency arises | What it means for the certificate |
|---|---|---|---|
| The 183-day test | Anyone present in Georgia | 183 days or more in a continuous 12 calendar month period ending in the tax year | One tax year at a time, decided on the days |
| High net worth individual | People over the Order No 60 thresholds holding Georgian property | Granted by the Minister of Finance on the Revenue Service's submission | Only the year of the application |
| Georgian citizen with no residency elsewhere | Georgian citizens | On application to the tax authority | Resident on application |
| Georgian state service abroad | People posted abroad in Georgian state service | By law, for that year | Resident for that year |
Which tax year the certificate can cover
Residency is set for one tax period at a time, and an individual's taxable income is computed over the calendar year, 1 January to 31 December. Days that have already made you a resident for one period do not get counted a second time for the period after it. So a certificate is always an answer about a single year, and the answer can be yes for one year and no for the year on either side of it.
Arriving part way through a year
People who move to Georgia part way through a year are usually not resident for the year they arrive in, and that is the year a foreign tax office tends to ask about.
Say you land on 15 August 2025 and stay. That gives you 139 days in Georgia by 31 December, so no 12 calendar month period ending in 2025 reaches 183 days and 2025 is not a year you were resident for. Your 183rd day falls on 13 February 2026, inside a 12 calendar month period ending in 2026, so 2026 is the year you are resident for.
Leaving in the following spring
Say instead you live in Georgia from 1 June 2025 and leave on 30 April 2026. The 214 days you spend here in 2025 make you resident for 2025, and 183 of them are spent doing it. That leaves 31 days of 2025 to carry into 2026, where you are present for 120 more, and 151 days is short of 183. So 2026 is not a year a certificate can confirm, even though you were in Georgia for 334 of the 365 days in the 12 months before you left.
The year the other country wants is not always a year Georgia can confirm, and arrival dates, departure dates and trips abroad are what settle it. You can send us your dates and what the foreign office has asked for, and David Sisvadze will set out in a signed written opinion whether you were a Georgian tax resident for that year.
On the high net worth route the question does not arise in the same form, because the application itself fixes the year.
How to apply for a Georgian tax residency certificate
1. Get a Georgian taxpayer identification number
The application has to state your Georgian taxpayer identification number, so the number comes first. For a Georgian citizen it is the personal number shown in the ID card, and for an individual without Georgian citizenship it is the 9-digit number assigned under the Tax Code.
Registering for that number is its own step with the Revenue Service, taken before any of this. On the high net worth route it arrives with the certificate instead, for a person who did not already have one.
2. Settle the year you are asking about
Work the year out before you file, because nothing in the application changes it: the day count, the grant of high net worth residency or the citizen route decides which year you can be certified for.
3. Prepare your name and address in Georgian and in English
The order asks for both languages, not one, and the taxpayer identification number as it was issued.
| What the application states | Language | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Your name | Georgian and English | Order No 633, Annex Article 5(1) |
| Your full address | Georgian and English | Order No 633, Annex Article 5(1) |
| Your Georgian taxpayer identification number | As issued | Order No 633, Annex Article 5(1) |
4. Apply electronically
A Georgian resident applies to the tax authority in electronic form. The article on residency certificates says nothing further about the channel and sets out no list of supporting documents, so anything asked for beyond the 3 items above is not fixed by the order.
5. Receive the certificate
The tax authority issues the certificate electronically, in the form the same order approves. Order No 633 sets one deadline, and it is written into its general article rather than into the residency certificate article: within 30 calendar days of a request the tax authority issues the certificate or notifies its decision in writing, and an incomplete request gets a period of no more than 30 calendar days to be completed. Where the authority cannot meet the deadline, it has to tell you the date it expects to.
A Georgian resident can also ask the tax authority to send the certificate to the foreign competent authority directly, rather than forwarding it yourself.
When a foreign tax office sends its own residency form
Order No 633 provides a second route, for the case where the other state uses a residency form of its own. Its residency certificate article carries both: the certificate the Revenue Service issues in its own form, and the confirmation it puts on a form issued abroad. Where a Georgian resident presents the residency form used by the state in which the income was received, with a notarised translation into Georgian, and asks for confirmation, the tax authority must confirm the residency on that form by signature and official seal, provided the form has a field for it.
- Get the form from the foreign tax office or from the payer who asked for it.
- Look for the field the Georgian tax authority signs and seals. The duty attaches to that field, so check for it before you pay a translator.
- Have the form translated into Georgian and the translation notarised.
- Present the form and the notarised translation with your request for confirmation.
Using the certificate for double tax treaty relief
Georgia has 58 double tax treaties in force, and a relief under any of them is claimed under Order No 633. Your certificate, or your home country's form signed and sealed, is the Georgian half of a claim you make in the other country.
Before you order either, check the country you are claiming in against the Ministry of Finance list of treaties. The certificate proves your Georgian residency, and a treaty is what turns that proof into relief.
Neither the United States nor Russia appears on the Ministry of Finance list of treaties in force. On the United States the two tax administrations publish different positions: the IRS lists Georgia in its own treaty table and treats it as covered by the 1973 treaty with the USSR, while the Georgian list carries no United States entry at all. Settle which position the party asking for your certificate is working from before you build a claim on either.
That split matters most to Americans living in Georgia, who are taxed by the United States on worldwide income wherever they live. Whatever the other country does with it, the Georgian certificate says one thing: Georgia treated you as a tax resident for that year.
Mistakes to avoid when applying
- Applying before you hold a Georgian taxpayer identification number, which the application has to state.
- Giving your name or your address in one language, when the order asks for Georgian and English.
- Asking for a year in which no continuous 12 calendar month period ending in that year gives you 183 days.
- Counting days you spent in Georgia purely for treatment or leisure, or leaving out the business trips and holidays abroad that count as time in Georgia.
- Expecting a high net worth individual certificate for a year other than the year of the application.
- Sending a foreign residency form with no notarised Georgian translation, or one with no field for the Georgian confirmation.
- Planning a treaty claim in a country that has no treaty with Georgia at all.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get a tax residency certificate in Georgia?
You apply to the tax authority in electronic form, and only a Georgian resident can. Your name and your full address each go in twice, once in Georgian and once in English, alongside the taxpayer identification number Georgia issued you. The Revenue Service then issues the certificate electronically, in the form approved by Minister of Finance Order No 633.
Who issues tax residency certificates in Georgia?
The Revenue Service, as the tax authority. The rule it works to is Minister of Finance Order No 633, which covers treaty relief, refunds of overpaid tax and confirmation of Georgian residency.
Can I get a Georgian tax residency certificate without spending 183 days in Georgia?
Yes, on the other routes into residency. The Minister of Finance can grant it to a high net worth individual: confirmed assets above GEL 3,000,000, or annual income above GEL 200,000 over the 3 tax years before the application, with Georgian property of USD 500,000 or more, and then a residence permit, residence card or Georgian citizen ID, or GEL 25,000 of Georgian-source income. A Georgian citizen for whom no country of residence can be established is resident on application.
Do I need a Georgian tax identification number before I apply?
Yes, because the application has to state it. A Georgian citizen uses the personal number from the ID card and a person without Georgian citizenship uses the 9-digit number assigned under the Tax Code. The one exception is on the high net worth route, where a person granted residency without a number receives it together with the certificate.
How long does the Revenue Service take to issue the certificate?
Within 30 calendar days of the request, on the only deadline the order carries. That deadline sits in the general article rather than in the article on residency certificates: the tax authority issues the certificate or notifies its decision in writing within 30 calendar days, and an incomplete request gets up to 30 calendar days to be completed. Where the authority cannot meet the deadline, it tells the applicant the date it expects to.
How much does a Georgian tax residency certificate cost?
No fee is set for it. Order No 633 sets none, and the consolidated Revenue Service fee schedule carries no line for issuing a residency certificate.
Do I need a new tax residency certificate every year?
Yes, for every year you have to prove. Residency is decided per tax period and days already spent to make you a resident are not spent twice, so a certificate answers for one year and the next year is a fresh question. The high net worth route says so outright: residency is granted for one tax year, the documents go in again for the next one, and a certificate may be requested for the year of the application only.
Will the Revenue Service sign and stamp my home country's residency form?
Yes, where the form has a field for the Georgian tax authority's confirmation and you present it with a notarised Georgian translation. In that case the tax authority must confirm your Georgian residency on the form by signature and official seal. Check the form for that field before you commission the translation.
Is a tax residency certificate the same as a residence permit?
No. A residence permit is an immigration document, while tax residency is decided by Article 34 of the Tax Code on days of physical presence. A permit neither creates nor prevents tax residency, and it appears in the residency rules only as one of the eligibility documents on the high net worth route.