Profit tax is 15%, but only when the money leaves the company
Georgia taxes company profit on the Estonian model: nothing is due while profit stays in the business, and 15% becomes payable at the moment it is distributed. A further 5% is withheld on the dividend itself, which on a 100,000 lari distribution works out at 15,000 lari of profit tax and 4,250 lari of withholding, leaving 80,750 lari for the shareholder. Returns are filed monthly, by the 15th, including in months with no activity.
Reinvested profit is taxed at zero
Under this system a company that earns and keeps its profit pays no profit tax on it. The liability arises transaction by transaction, whenever value leaves the company. For a property business this is the central planning point: rental income used to buy the next flat, finish a renovation or pay down a loan stays untaxed at company level, while the same money taken out as a dividend carries the full charge. The decision about when to distribute is therefore a tax decision as much as a cash-flow one.
Distributions you did not call a distribution
The rule reaches further than dividends. Expenses not connected to the company's economic activity, gratuitous transfers of assets, and representation or similar expenses above the statutory limits are treated as deemed distributions and taxed the same way. In practice that is where owner-managed property companies get caught: a company car used privately, a flat held by the company but occupied by the shareholder, or personal costs run through the business are all candidates. Keeping company and personal spending visibly separate is the cheapest compliance measure available.
The dividend layer and where treaties bite
On top of the 15%, a 5% withholding applies to the dividend paid out, which on the published worked example gives a combined burden of roughly 19.25% before any relief. The rate rises to 15% for recipients in blacklisted jurisdictions. Georgia's double taxation treaties can reduce the withholding, in some cases to zero, but that depends entirely on the country the shareholder is resident in and on producing a tax residency certificate. Check your own treaty before assuming the lower figure.
This regime is not the only one
The 15% distribution tax applies to ordinary Georgian companies. Other regimes sit alongside it with their own rules and their own eligibility tests, including Small Business status for individual entrepreneurs taxed on turnover, Virtual Zone status, and International Company status. Which one fits depends on what the business actually does, not on which rate looks lowest, and moving between them is not always possible later. This is a summary of a published guide last updated in August 2026, not advice on your situation; a Georgian accountant should confirm it against your own structure.
Written by us from the source linked above, not investment, legal or tax advice. Figures and rules change — confirm anything that matters before acting on it.
