Small business status now starts on the day you apply, not next month

Micro business status is tied to 30,000 lari of annual revenue, and it also ends if you take on staff. Apply for small business status within fifteen calendar days of crossing that line and the micro status is cancelled from the date you crossed it, small business status begins the same day, and the income earned before then stays non-taxable under the micro regime. Apply later than fifteen days and the status starts only on the application date, with income from the beginning of the calendar year taxed at the general 20% rate. Fifteen days is an expensive deadline to miss.

Under the amended rules, once small business status is cancelled you can only reapply from the next tax year. Reinstatement within the same calendar year is no longer allowed. That turns an administrative slip into a liability that lasts until January, and it is the change most worth knowing for anyone already holding the status. Voluntary cancellation, if requested before year-end, takes effect on the first day of the month after you apply.

The monthly declaration is mandatory even when no tax is due, and failing to file does not count as filing a zero. This is the quiet trap for a freelancer or a landlord with a slow month: nothing to pay is not the same as nothing to do. Record retention, on the other hand, was eased, from six years to three, counted from the end of the calendar year the tax liability relates to.

This is a summary of a professional advisory note describing a ministerial order, not advice on your own position. Excluded activities, which decide whether you qualify for the 1% at all, are set out in the Tax Code rather than in this order, and the regime also sits alongside a separate work permit requirement for foreign nationals introduced in 2026. If money turns on the answer, read the current Revenue Service guidance and take it to an accountant in Georgia.