Cross 100,000 lari of taxable supply and you have two working days to register for VAT
Georgian law requires VAT registration once a person's taxable supplies of goods or services exceed 100,000 lari in any continuous twelve-month period, and the application is due within two working days of crossing it. Registration is also required regardless of turnover in certain cases. Once registered, returns and payment are monthly, due by the fifteenth of the following month and filed electronically with the Revenue Service.
The clock is in working days, and it is short
The duty to register is triggered by crossing 100,000 lari in taxable supplies, and the application must follow within two working days. That is the part people miss. The threshold is widely known and often watched loosely, as something to deal with at the end of the quarter, but the obligation attaches to the transaction that takes you over, not to the next convenient accounting date. If you run a business whose turnover is anywhere near the line, the useful habit is a running twelve-month total you can look at on any given day rather than a figure your accountant produces in arrears.
Twelve continuous months, not a calendar year
The test runs over any continuous twelve-month period. A business that turns over 60,000 lari in the second half of one year and 50,000 in the first half of the next has crossed the line even though neither calendar year on its own reaches 100,000. Seasonal businesses are the ones most often caught out by this — a coastal guesthouse or an experience operator earns in a compressed window, and two strong seasons straddling a new year can pass the threshold in a month that feels like the quiet part of the cycle.
A real-estate wrinkle in the arithmetic
VAT-exempt supplies are generally left out when you work out whether you have crossed the threshold — but certain exempt transactions connected with real estate are among the exceptions that do count. That is precisely the sort of detail that catches an owner who assumed property income sat outside the calculation entirely. If part of your turnover comes from property, do not assume it is invisible to the threshold; have an adviser confirm which of your transactions count toward it before you rely on being under the line.
After registration, the rhythm is monthly
A registered person files and pays monthly, by the fifteenth of the month following the reporting period, electronically through the Revenue Service. Registration can also be voluntary, in which case VAT-payer status begins on the date of the application — sometimes worth doing deliberately if your costs carry input VAT you would rather reclaim. Separately, certain activities require registration regardless of turnover, including suppliers of excisable goods and entities formed through a reorganisation where one of the parties was already registered. Insolvency has its own rule: outstanding declarations must be filed within fifteen days of the bankruptcy ruling taking legal effect.
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.
