The 10 Best Tax Advisors in Tbilisi

A one-off consultation with an English-speaking adviser generally runs 200 to 400 GEL per hour at the independent firms; Tbilisi Expat publishes 250 GEL. A defined piece of work, such as choosing between an Individual Entrepreneur on 1% status and an LLC, sits closer to 800 to 2,000 GEL once someone has read your contracts. Ongoing advisory retainers start around 400 GEL a month and climb with complexity. Network firms such as Andersen, Nexia TA and Ecovis price above that band. Treat these as ranges we observed on published price lists and quoted enquiries, not fixed tariffs, and confirm whether VAT at 18% is included.

Not always. Registering as an Individual Entrepreneur and applying for small business status is a Public Service Hall errand followed by a Revenue Service application, and plenty of people do it alone. Paid advice earns its keep when eligibility is not obvious. Several professional activities are excluded from the regime, including legal, notarial, audit and tax consulting work, medical practice and architecture, and getting that wrong means back tax at 20% instead of 1%. One clean stream of foreign freelance income rarely needs help; staff, a second country or a mixed activity list does.

An accountant keeps the books and files the monthly returns with the Revenue Service. A tax advisor tells you which structure to hold, whether Georgia can tax a given stream of income at all, and how a foreign tax authority is likely to see it. Most Tbilisi firms sell both, which is convenient but means the person filing your returns also chose the structure. For a straightforward IE that is fine. For anything with two countries in it, consider paying a second firm for the opinion.

There are two routes. The common one is physical presence, at least 183 days in Georgia within any rolling 12-month period ending in the tax year. The other is high net worth individual status, granted on wealth or income tests rather than days spent, and it needs a supported application. ExpatHub, TPsolution and TaxAdvisory.ge all run the HNWI route regularly. Becoming Georgian tax resident does not automatically stop your home country taxing you, which is where the treaty analysis begins.

Only up to a point. A Georgian firm can obtain a tax residency certificate, read the relevant double tax treaty and tell you which article should apply. What most cannot do is file or argue in your home jurisdiction. IBCCS TAX, Andersen and Nexia TA are the ones to check first because each sits inside an international network with member firms abroad. For everyone else, budget for an adviser at each end and make them speak to one another directly.

Anyone promising 0% on everything, or asserting the 1% rate applies before asking what you do for a living, is selling you a future problem. Be wary of firms that will not put scope in writing, that quote only after they hold your documents, or that answer a treaty question without asking where you are resident. Refusing to explain the reasoning in English is another signal, because you are the one signing the return. Ask what happens if the Revenue Service disagrees, and who represents you when it does.