Individual entrepreneur registration in Georgia happens at a single government counter and is normally finished the same day. What most guides leave out is that registering the entity and getting the tax treatment that makes it worth doing are two separate steps, filed at two different points in the process, and the order matters more than anything else here. Here is the process end to end: what to bring, how the activity code you pick can quietly disqualify you, and exactly what you walk out with.
What "individual entrepreneur" actually means
An Individual Entrepreneur, or IE, is Georgia's sole proprietorship form. It is registered against you personally rather than as a separate legal person, which is the detail that shapes everything else about it: you are personally liable for the business's obligations with all of your assets, and the business cannot issue shares, take on partners, or exist independently of you.
That is not a drawback for most of the people who use it. An IE is also the only route into Small Business Status, the regime that drops your tax rate to 1% of turnover, and for a single person selling their own services under 500,000 GEL a year, unlimited liability is a real but usually theoretical risk next to a 19 percentage point difference in tax. Where liability, co-founders, or outside investment actually matter, an LLC registration is a different trade-off, and we compare the two properly in individual entrepreneur versus an LLC.
There is no residency or citizenship requirement to register. You do not need to have visited Georgia before, and there is no minimum stay afterwards.
Before you go: what you actually need
The list is short by design.
- Your passport.
- A Georgian legal address for the registration, evidenced by a lease or the property owner's written consent. If you do not have one, a virtual office covers this.
- The activity you intend to carry out, described precisely enough to select a code (below).
That is genuinely the whole list for an Individual Entrepreneur. There is no capital to deposit, no business plan to submit, and no local partner or sponsor requirement of any kind.
The address is worth taking seriously even though it looks like a formality. It is where tax correspondence and, later, bank compliance letters get sent, and a landlord unwilling to sign the consent document is one of the more common reasons a registration stalls before it reaches the registry counter at all. Many residential leases here are not written with business registration in mind, so it is worth confirming the owner will actually sign before you count on using your own address.
Choosing your activity code
Every registered business in Georgia is filed under an economic activity code, and this is the step that quietly decides more than people expect.
The code is not paperwork trivia. It is what the Revenue Service reads when it evaluates whether your income can hold Small Business Status at all. A defined list of activities, set by government decree rather than the tax code itself, is excluded from the regime outright: medical, legal and notarial services, auditing, currency and financial intermediation, and consulting of any kind, including tax consulting. We go through the full prohibited activities list case by case, because several of the exclusions are worded more broadly than people assume.
Two practical points matter more than the list itself.
Pick the code that matches what you actually do, not the closest-sounding label. A developer who writes software is not consulting. The same developer registered under a code that reads as advisory or consultancy work has created a problem with a label, not with the underlying business.
Contract wording matters as much as the code. The Revenue Service and, later, an auditor read what your invoices and contracts actually say. A retainer billed as "technical consulting" invites the same exclusion as a code that says the same thing, regardless of what the work involved. If your activity sits anywhere near the excluded categories, get it checked before you file rather than after.
You can register more than one activity code if your work genuinely spans categories, though it is worth keeping the registration as clean as the business actually is. A vague or overly broad registration is one of the more common company registration mistakes we get asked to unwind.
Registering at the Public Service Hall
Registration happens at a Public Service Hall, the government's queue-ticket office that handles the National Agency of Public Registry's services alongside several other agencies under one roof.
| Service | Fee | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| Standard registration | 26 GEL | 1 business day |
| Expedited registration | 75 GEL | Same day |
An officer takes your passport, records your legal address and your chosen activity code, and processes the filing. You sign, and you leave with a registration certificate and an identification number. That number is what turns into your tax identification number once you move to the next step.
It is worth arriving with the activity code decided rather than working it out at the counter. The officer is processing a filing, not advising you on which code best matches an ambiguous business description, and a code chosen under time pressure is exactly how someone ends up registered under a label that quietly excludes them from Small Business Status later.
Applying for Small Business Status in the same visit
This is the part that decides whether the trip was worth making.
Individual Entrepreneur registration and Small Business Status are two separate applications at two separate agencies: the registry creates the legal entity, the Revenue Service grants the tax status. They are not the same filing, and registering the IE alone leaves you paying Georgia's standard 20% rate on personal income, according to PwC's summary of Georgian personal taxation, not the 1% most people came here for.
In practice the two can be handled back to back, in the same visit: the IE registration completes at the Public Service Hall, and the Small Business Status application goes to the Revenue Service the same day, either through an accompanying representative or directly through your rs.ge account once your identification number is active. There is no reason to leave a gap between the two, and every reason not to.
Small Business Status is not retroactive. It applies from the point it is granted, not from the date you registered the IE. Register in the morning, start invoicing that afternoon, and get the status confirmed a week later, and that week's income is taxed at the standard 20% rate permanently. It is not corrected once the status comes through. Get the confirmation before you invoice anything meaningful, not after.
If your activity sits anywhere near the prohibited list, resolve that question before you file the application, not after the Revenue Service tells you no.
What the gap actually costs
The arithmetic makes the point better than the warning does. Take a freelancer who registers, invoices 25,000 GEL in the two weeks before Small Business Status is confirmed, and then operates normally afterwards.
| Taxed at 20% (the gap) | Taxed at 1% (status confirmed) | |
|---|---|---|
| 25,000 GEL invoiced | 5,000 GEL tax | 250 GEL tax |
| Difference | 4,750 GEL, permanently | - |
That gap is not corrected once the status comes through, and it scales with whatever you happen to invoice in the window. On a quiet first fortnight it is a rounding error. On a busy one, it is real money, and it is the entire reason the sequencing matters more than any other single decision in this process.
We'll handle the entire registration for you, end-to-end. Activity code checked against the prohibited list, IE filed, status application submitted the same day, and your rs.ge account set up so you can file the first declaration on time.
See what it costs
What you walk out with
Same-day, you leave the Public Service Hall with the registration certificate and an identification number. That is the entity. It is not yet the tax treatment.
Within the days that follow, once the Revenue Service processes the registration:
- Your identification number becomes active for tax purposes.
- Small Business Status is confirmed, if the application was clean, and that is the date the 1% rate starts counting from.
- Your rs.ge portal access is set up, which is where every monthly declaration gets filed from here on.
What you do not walk out with automatically is a bank account. That is a genuinely separate process with its own compliance checks, and it is worth starting once the registration paperwork is in hand rather than treating the certificate as the finish line.
The certificate itself is worth understanding rather than just filing away. It records your name, your identification number, your registered activity, and your legal address, and it is what you show a bank, a client running its own due diligence, or a landlord asking for proof the business is real. A trade name is optional - most Individual Entrepreneurs simply trade under their own registered name unless they specifically register a separate one, and there is no requirement to invent a brand for the certificate to be valid.
Doing it without visiting Georgia
None of the above requires you to be in the country. The whole sequence, registry filing and Small Business Status application both, can run under a power of attorney signed and apostilled in your own country, with a representative filing on your behalf here.
The Georgian side takes about as long either way. The variable is entirely how quickly your own country issues an apostille, which ranges from a few days to several weeks depending on where you are. The full mechanics, including which documents need translating and where the delays actually happen, are in remote company registration.
What it costs beyond the state fee
The 100 or 200 GEL registry fee is the government's charge only. Most people also need a registered legal address if they do not own or lease Georgian property in their own name, translation and notarisation if registering remotely, and typically a professional fee if they would rather not navigate three agencies in a language they do not read. The full cost breakdown covers what setting up actually runs to once those pieces are added.
After you're registered
The obligations start immediately, whether or not you have invoiced anything yet. A monthly tax declaration is due by the 15th every month, including months with zero income, and it is filed through rs.ge regardless of whether Small Business Status has been confirmed yet.
Most of our clients hand this to us with monthly accounting once they are registered, largely because the portal is in Georgian and a missed zero declaration is one of the easiest ways to pick up a penalty for no actual reason.
Key takeaways
- Individual Entrepreneur registration is one business day and 26 GEL, or same-day for 75 GEL.
- An IE is a sole proprietorship, not a separate legal person. Liability is unlimited and personal.
- Registering the IE does not give you the 1% rate. Small Business Status is a separate application to the Revenue Service, filed after or alongside it.
- Your activity code decides whether Small Business Status is available at all. Consulting-adjacent wording is the most common way people disqualify themselves by accident.
- Small Business Status is not retroactive. Income earned before confirmation is taxed at 20% permanently.
- Foreigners can register with no residency, citizenship, or prior visit requirement.
- The entire process can be completed remotely under power of attorney.
Frequently asked questions
How long does individual entrepreneur registration take in Georgia?
The registry itself is one business day, or same-day if you pay the 200 GEL expedited fee. The Small Business Status application typically follows within a few days of the Revenue Service receiving it, so budget three to five business days in total if the tax status is the point of registering.
How much does it cost to register as an individual entrepreneur?
The state fee is 26 GEL for standard processing, or 75 GEL for same-day. That covers the registry filing only. A registered legal address, translation for a remote filing, and any professional help are separate costs on top of it.
Can a foreigner register as an individual entrepreneur in Georgia?
Yes. There is no citizenship or residency requirement, no minimum number of prior days in the country, and no local sponsor or partner needed. A passport and a Georgian legal address are the only real requirements.
Do I automatically get the 1% tax rate when I register?
No. Registering an Individual Entrepreneur puts you on Georgia's standard personal income tax rate of 20%. The 1% rate comes from Small Business Status, which is a separate application to the Revenue Service filed after, or in the same visit as, the IE registration.
What is an activity code and why does it matter?
It is the economic activity classification your business is registered under, and it is what the Revenue Service checks against the list of activities excluded from Small Business Status. Choosing a code that reads as consulting, legal, medical, or financial work can disqualify you even if the underlying business would otherwise qualify.
Can I apply for Small Business Status on the same day I register?
Yes, in practice the IE registration and the Small Business Status application are usually handled back to back, often in the same visit. There is no requirement to wait, and waiting only creates a gap where income is taxed at the standard rate instead of 1%.
What documents do I need to register?
A passport and a Georgian legal address are the core requirements, plus a description of the activity you intend to register under. There is no capital requirement and no business plan to submit.
Do I need a Georgian address to register?
Yes. Every registered business needs an evidenced Georgian legal address, either your own lease or the property owner's written consent. If you do not have one, a virtual address service provides one that the registry and the Revenue Service will accept.
Can I register without visiting Georgia?
Yes, through a power of attorney signed and apostilled in your own country. The Georgian steps take about the same time either way; your own country's apostille process is what sets the overall timeline.
What's the difference between an Individual Entrepreneur and Small Business Status?
The IE is the legal form, registered at the public registry. Small Business Status is the tax regime, granted separately by the Revenue Service, that reduces the rate on that IE's income to 1% of turnover up to 500,000 GEL a year. You need both, and only the second one produces the 1%.
What happens if I pick the wrong activity code?
At best it is corrected before you file for Small Business Status. At worst you are only found to be on an excluded code once the Revenue Service reviews the application, which delays the status and can mean invoicing income at 20% while the correction goes through. Checking the code against the prohibited list before you register the IE is the cheaper way to find out.