Georgia/Ukraine 2015
Georgia is committed to develop its economy and bring its legislation closer to that of the European Union (EU). As a result, it has enacted changes in its legislation to facilitate trade and liberalize its tax regulations.
A decision to commence the establishment of a free trade area with Georgia was taken by the EFTA Council of Foreign Ministers on November 17, 2014. On February 4, 2015 Georgia and EFTA agreed to hold the first round of agreement negotiations in Tbilisi at the beginning of September 2015 to discuss establishment of a free trade area between Georgia and the EFTA.
Furthermore, the government of Georgia aims to have an open, transparent and reliable relationship with businesses. For this reason, the government is making progress towards modernizing its tax regulations. In particular, certain amendments have been recently introduced into the Tax Code, aimed at reducing taxes. They include the following:
•landlords who rent an apartment in Georgia will be taxed with 5% instead of 20%;
•royalties paid to non-residents will be taxed with 5 % instead of 10%;
•Overpaid tax amounts will be refunded to the taxpayer by the Revenue Service within one month following the relevant request.
•the procedures for temporary admission and reverse charges have been simplified for VAT payers;
•the fine for the overdue tax payment has been increased to 0.06% instead of 0.05 % for each day of delay;
•entities which carry out transaction subject to VAT without being registered as VAT payers will be fined with 5% of the amount of taxable transaction instead of 15%;
•A person who has brought a vehicle to Georgia before May 1, 2015 will be exempt from fines for failure to pay the payable tax amount (customs duty) within the time limit envisaged by the tax legislation, if he/she officially registered the vehicle or re-exported it before September 1, 2015.
Anna Pushkaryova
anna.pushkaryova@eurofast.eu
Country Director
Eurofast Global Georgia