Georgia is still relatively easy to enter as a foreign investor. A company can be incorporated quickly, foreign investors generally enjoy the same legal guarantees as Georgian investors, and the tax system remains comparatively straightforward.

But in 2026, easy entry should not be confused with low compliance.

For a foreign company entering Georgia today, incorporation is usually the simplest part of the project.

The more important questions come immediately afterward: How should ownership and management be structured? Where will taxes arise? Can foreign managers and employees legally work in Georgia? What should be checked before acquiring property? And how should all these decisions fit together?

We asked specialists from JUST Advisors to identify the issues foreign businesses most often need to address before they become problems.

Before registration, investors should decide who will own the company, who will control day-to-day management, which decisions require shareholder approval, how additional financing will be provided, what happens if partners disagree, and how a shareholder may enter or exit the project.

The standard incorporation documents may be sufficient to create a company. They are not necessarily sufficient to regulate a complex relationship between investors.

The business model also needs to be checked for sector-specific restrictions, licenses and permits. A particularly important example is agricultural land. Georgian law imposes special restrictions where agricultural land is acquired by a foreigner or by a Georgian company whose dominant shareholder is foreign. In certain cases, acquisition by such a company is possible only on the basis of an investment plan and a Government decision.

The practical rule is simple: first design the business, then register the legal entity that fits it.

VAT is 18 percent. Mandatory VAT registration generally arises when taxable supplies exceed GEL 100,000 during any continuous 12-calendar-month period.

These numbers, however, do not answer the questions that usually create tax risk for an international business.

What happens when the Georgian company purchases management, IT, advertising or consulting services from its foreign parent or another nonresident? Does reverse-charge VAT arise? Is a payment to a foreign contractor subject to withholding tax? Is the service deemed supplied in Georgia? Does a double tax treaty apply? Is the Georgian company really paying for services, or is part of the transaction economically a distribution of profit?
A Georgian company therefore needs its own tax analysis and accounting process. Simply reproducing the accounting model used by the headquarters abroad is not enough.

This is particularly important for groups that operate through intercompany agreements, foreign contractors, management fees or shared-service arrangements.

The tax risk rarely lies in the 15 or 18 percent rate itself. It lies in incorrectly classifying the transaction to which that rate should, or should not, apply.

The July 2026 amendments added another planning layer. If an employer intends to employ more than five foreign citizens during a calendar year, or foreign employees exceed the prescribed 5 percent workforce threshold, the employer must, in relevant cases, coordinate an annual quota before filing individual work-right applications. The rules also link the process to minimum turnover criteria, generally GEL 50,000 per foreign applicant, with a lower GEL 35,000 threshold for educational and medical institutions.

Companies with foreign employees who had active registration status on March 1, 2026, should also review the transitional regime. Those employees must obtain the required right to work and corresponding residence status by January 1, 2027.

Noncompliance is no longer merely an HR paperwork issue. Employment without the required right to work can result in a GEL 2,000 fine for the employer for each foreign employee and a separate GEL 2,000 fine for the employee. Repeat violations carry increased penalties.

For employers, the lesson is to include immigration compliance in workforce planning before a foreign employee starts work, not after payroll has already begun.

JUST Advisors’ published guidance on real estate transactions also emphasizes reviewing the contract itself, including payment mechanics, termination rights, seller liability and mechanisms protecting the buyer if the project does not develop as expected.

For foreign investors, the category of land deserves particular attention because agricultural land is subject to a separate statutory ownership regime.

The key question before an investment is therefore not simply “Who owns the property?” It is “Can the investor acquire, develop and use this asset in the way the business plan assumes?”

The biggest risks usually sit between legal disciplines

Consider a typical foreign investment project.

An international group establishes a Georgian LLC, appoints foreign managers, hires several foreign specialists, leases an office, purchases a warehouse, receives services from its parent company and starts invoicing Georgian and international clients.

That is not one legal task.

The corporate structure affects taxation. Employment decisions affect migration status and payroll. The number of foreign employees can affect the work-permit process. The property selected for operations may create title, land-use or permitting issues. Payments to a foreign group company may create Georgian VAT or withholding consequences.
This is why the safest approach is to review the project as one system.

Corporate, tax, accounting, employment, migration and property specialists should be working from the same business model and the same set of facts. Otherwise, a solution that works perfectly in one area can create a problem in another.

For companies entering Georgia in 2026, this is perhaps the most important practical conclusion: the real advantage is not registering quickly. It is structuring correctly before the first contract, employee, tax return or investment makes the structure expensive to change.

About the experts

JUST Advisors is a Georgia-based legal and accounting firm working with Georgian and foreign-owned businesses and cross-border projects. Its practice combines corporate, tax, accounting, employment, migration, real estate and dispute-resolution expertise. For the third consecutive year, JUST Advisors has been recognized as a leader in Georgia’s legal and accounting services market by the Swiss Rating Association and the Union of National Business Ratings. The firm has also received the “Permanent Leader” distinction, awarded to companies that maintain leading positions in business rankings for three consecutive years.