Income tax in Georgia (the country) 2026: 20%, foreign income, and article 34’s 183 days

Georgia writes its personal tax into one Code, in a handful of articles. Article 81 sets a rate of 20% on a natural person's taxable income, unless the Code provides otherwise. Article 79 makes the taxpayer a resident natural person, or a non-resident earning income from a Georgian source. Article 82, paragraph 1(u), then exempts income, gains included, received by a resident natural person that does not belong to Georgian source income. The result is a resident system that stops at the border: being resident does not bring foreign income in. Residence is in article 34: a person who actually stays 183 days or more in any continuous 12 calendar months ending in the tax year is resident for that entire year, as is someone abroad in Georgia's public service. This page refers to the country, not the US state, and rests on the consolidated English text on Matsne, the official legislative portal, in its version of 28 October 2026. English is a translation, so where a point matters to you, check the Georgian text.

A single rate, and the few that differ

Taxable income is the difference between total income earned in the calendar year and the deductions allowed by the Code, under article 80(1). Article 82 was changed as recently as 1 April 2026 by Law No. 1475. We read paragraphs (u) and (y) in the latest text but did not compare what that law amended. A non-resident with a permanent establishment in Georgia is taxed on the related Georgian-source income, less deductions. Other Georgian-source income of a non-resident is taxed at source without deductions under article 134, which we did not read, and we give no figure for it here.

What "actual stay" means in article 34, and its oddities

Any part of a day is a day: paragraph 5 says that the day of stay is one during which the person stayed in Georgia, however short. The next two paragraphs are less obvious, and they cut in opposite directions.

Paragraph 3 adds time outside Georgia to the count: time spent abroad specifically for treatment, leisure, a business trip or education is part of your actual stay. Read literally, a holiday abroad can count towards your Georgian days. Paragraph 4 then takes some time inside Georgia out: stays of diplomats and consular staff and their families, staff of international organisations under an agreement, people in foreign public service and their families, those passing through between two foreign countries, and those present "for treatment or leisure".

Paragraph 8 adds a rule that is easy to miss. Status is set for each tax period, and days by which someone was deemed resident in the previous period are not counted in later periods. So a run of days cannot make you resident twice. The default above is 122 days in spring 2026 and 90 over the winter, 212 in the 12 months to February 2027, which ends in tax year 2027, and those are days the following period's count would not use again.

Other doors to residence than days

Three paragraphs give residence without the 183 days. Under paragraph 6, a high net worth individual, as defined in the Law on Securities Market, may be accorded residency, under a procedure set by the Minister of Finance. Under 6¹, a Georgian citizen whose residency cannot be established in any country may be deemed resident on application to a tax authority. Under 6², a foreign natural person may be granted residency in cases and under a procedure set by the same Minister. We have not read the ministerial texts themselves. The sheet given to the OECD, in a file dated 2017, cites Joint Order No. 991-No. 250 of 31 December 2010 and mentions property over GEL 3 million or annual income over GEL 200,000 in the last three years: it is old, and we have not checked that those amounts still apply. We give no fees or procedure.

Why the dates matter for a stay across New Year

Four months in spring and three in winter look harmless on a calendar: 153 days in 2026 and 59 in 2027, each under the line. The test does not look at the calendar year but at a 12-month window ending in the tax year, and being resident covers the whole of that year. Enter the trips and the counter finds the heaviest window and the date you passed 183. Since the tax year and the window differ, keep the dates and not a running total.

Going to Georgia from somewhere else

An exemption on foreign income in Georgia says nothing about the tax your other country may claim on the same income. Leaving a home or family behind matters under the UK test and in French criteria, and US citizens and green card holders have their own test altogether. If two countries each see you as resident, the tie-breaker in their treaty is the route, where one exists: the Georgian Ministry of Finance reports 58 treaties in force, based on the OECD model, and publishes the list. For remote workers the digital nomad page goes through the case of having no clear residence anywhere. If you move often, the Taxlag app keeps a dated log for every country, and the counter here stays free.