Translated material
How to open an individual entrepreneur and an account in Georgia?
Georgia takes seventh place in the rating of ease of doing business among 190 countries. One of its main advantages is low taxes. Paper Kartuli talks about the procedure for registering the status of an individual entrepreneur in the country.
Documents. To get the status of an individual entrepreneur in Georgia, we need:
- passport with a stamp on the legal crossing of the border;
- local mobile phone number;
- email address;
- The legal address of the individual entrepreneur (this is a formal address necessary for registration. You can get it, for example, at the entrance to the house of justice: there are people who provide such addresses for money. Prices for their services can vary from 100 to 250 Lari).
Submission of documents in the house of justice . It is necessary to fill out the questionnaire for obtaining the status of an IP and pay for the fee. The site states that the design costs 26 Lari with the registration of status the next day and 75 Lari on the same day. However, at the request of Paper Kartuli on Facebook, the house of justice replied that the price is 200 and 400 Lari, respectively. The entrepreneur with whom Paper Kartuli spoke said that she paid 109 Lari. The process of submitting documents is fast: in the absence of queues, it takes about 20 minutes.
The status is reported by SMS. Since July 1, 2022, when registering a business, the tax record is created automatically-you do not need to go to the tax service for this. The login and password from the personal account is sent to the number that was indicated when applying.
Authorization in the tax. After receiving the login and password, you need to log in on the tax website and fill out the taxpayer card, including indicate the codes of the activity (they can be viewed here ). And also apply for a small business status. Read about the nuances of filling at the link .
It is important entrepreneurs from the IT sphere to consider that the status of small businesses is not subject to the activities related to consulting (62.02 Computer Consultance Activities).
For small business enterprises, income tax is 1 %. Provided that the annual turnover is not higher than 500 thousand Lari per year. If the income exceeds this amount, the status of small business must be changed.
The taxation regime for small businesses will begin to operate on the 1st day of the next month. That is, if you have issued the status of an IP 25, then for the money that will arrive before the 1st, you will need to pay 20 % of the tax.
Opening a business account. You can make a business account at any Georgian bank that works with non-residents. This is usually Bank of Georgia, TBC Bank, Liberty Bank and Credo Bank.
For transactions, you can use a personal account, this is not prohibited. But the rules of some banks, for example, Bank of Georgia, for entrepreneurial activity, according to the IP/Business Georgia chat memo , require the opening of individual business accounts.
You need to come to the bank with a passport, fill out the KYC questionnaire (Know Your Customer) and pay the fee. In Bank of Georgia, for example, it is 50 Lari. In the TBC bank, as Paper Kartuli told the entrepreneur who recently opened there, 110 Lari. At the same time, it is necessary to pay for it after the appearance of the bill, that is, there is no risk of losing money if the bank refuses to open an account.
Questions in profiles may change. A few months ago, Bank of Georgia appeared a requirement to provide a document that confirms the presence in Georgia. This may be a lease agreement, buying an apartment, office or house.
The deadlines for opening accounts depend on banks. Recently, Bank of Georgia began to refuse to open business accounts more often, this usually happens without explanation. And in the TBC, according to the Chat/Business Georgia chat, some customers are waiting for confirmation for several weeks.
After receiving confirmation by e -mail or SMS, you need to come to the bank with a passport in order to complete the bank opening procedure.