Most people who open a Georgian LLC assume the monthly tax filings are the whole job. They are not. A separate law puts a bookkeeping and annual reporting duty on every registered company, trading or dormant, and the consequences of ignoring it usually surface years later. The bookkeeping requirements for a Georgian LLC are lighter than almost anywhere in Europe, but they are not optional.
Two regimes, two regulators
A Georgian LLC answers to two different bodies, and the mistake we see most often is treating them as one.
The Georgian Revenue Service handles tax. Monthly declarations, VAT, payroll withholding, the corporate income tax return. That is the part everyone knows about because the deadlines come round every month.
The Service for Accounting, Reporting and Auditing Supervision, known as SARAS, handles financial reporting. It sets the standards your accounts must follow, collects your annual financial statements and publishes most of them. Its rules come from the Law of Georgia on Accounting, Reporting and Auditing, not the Tax Code.
Filing your monthly tax returns does nothing for your SARAS obligation. They are separate submissions, to separate systems, on separate calendars.
What the law asks you to record
Article 4 of the accounting law sets the baseline. Accounts must be kept in monetary terms, chronologically, without interruption, and every entry must be backed by a document. That last part is the one that matters in practice.
A primary document is not a screenshot of a bank app. Article 4(11) lists what it has to contain: the name and number of the document, the date it was drawn up, the economic content of the transaction, the names and identification data and addresses of the parties, signatures confirming the transaction was completed, and the amount and quantity. Article 4(15) accepts both written and electronic signatures.
Article 4(18) then fixes the retention period. Financial statements and accounting documents must be kept for six years after the end of the relevant accounting period. That is longer than the three-year limitation period the Tax Code of Georgia sets for assessing tax, so the accounting law is the binding rule on how long you hold paperwork.
Six years runs from the end of the accounting period, not from the date on the invoice. A receipt from March 2026 sits inside the 2026 period, so you hold it until the end of 2032. Cloud storage counts, as long as you can actually produce the file on request.
The four enterprise categories
Georgia sorts every enterprise into one of four categories, and your category decides which accounting standard you apply, whether you need an audit and whether you file a management report. An enterprise falls into a category when it meets at least two of the three criteria.
| Category | Meets at least two of | Reporting standard | Statutory audit | Management report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IV | Assets ≤ GEL 1m, revenue ≤ GEL 2m, ≤ 10 staff | Standard set by SARAS | No | No |
| III | Assets ≤ GEL 10m, revenue ≤ GEL 20m, ≤ 50 staff | IFRS for SMEs | No | No |
| II | Assets ≤ GEL 50m, revenue ≤ GEL 100m, ≤ 250 staff | IFRS for SMEs, full IFRS optional | Yes | Yes |
| I | Assets > GEL 50m, revenue > GEL 100m, > 250 staff | Full IFRS | Yes | Yes |
Almost every expat-owned LLC in Tbilisi is Category IV. A consultancy billing GEL 300,000 a year with three people on the payroll is nowhere near the Category III floor. That means the simplified SARAS standard, no audit obligation under Article 6(3), and no management report under Article 7(1).
Public interest entities, mainly banks, insurers and listed companies, sit outside this ladder and carry the heaviest requirements regardless of size.
Why the category still matters if you are tiny
Cross two of the Category III thresholds and your reporting standard jumps from the SARAS simplified standard to IFRS for SMEs. That is a materially different piece of work and a different price from your accountant, so it is worth knowing which threshold you are closest to before you get there.
What actually gets filed, and where
| Filing | Goes to | Applies to | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial statements | SARAS, via reportal.ge | All categories, I through IV | Annual, by 1 October |
| Management report | SARAS, via reportal.ge | Categories I and II, plus PIEs | Annual, by 1 October |
| Audit report | SARAS, via reportal.ge | Categories I and II, plus PIEs | Annual |
| Corporate income tax return | Revenue Service | Every LLC | Monthly |
| Payroll withholding return | Revenue Service | LLCs paying salaries | Monthly |
| VAT return | Revenue Service | VAT-registered LLCs | Monthly |
Article 9(2) is the deadline that catches people: financial statements go to the Service "immediately, but not later than 1 October of the year following the reporting period". So the 2026 accounts are due by 1 October 2027. Submission runs through reportal.ge, the public reporting portal, which carried filings from more than 83,000 enterprises for the 2024 reporting period. This is routine, and a gap in the record is visible.
Revenue Service filing dates move with the tax rules and differ by tax type, so confirm the current monthly dates with your accountant rather than working from a blog post. The pattern to plan around is monthly, not quarterly. Our guide to annual reporting deadlines in Georgia maps the full calendar, and the VAT registration thresholds and rules piece covers the point at which the VAT return joins your monthly stack.
An LLC that traded nothing all year still has to file. The accounting law binds every registered enterprise, and a nil return is still a return. We meet founders every year who registered a company, never invoiced, never filed, and then find they cannot cleanly close it or open a corporate bank account elsewhere until the back years are reconstructed and submitted.
What good books look like in practice
Keep the company account clean
The single biggest driver of bookkeeping cost in Georgia is a director paying personal expenses from the company card. Every one of those becomes a line your accountant has to classify, question and document. Separate accounts, from day one, is the cheapest decision you will make.
Expect documents in Georgian
Standards are issued in Georgian, filings go in through a Georgian-language portal, and Revenue Service correspondence arrives in Georgian. You can hold your own contracts in English, but assume you need someone who reads Georgian in the loop. That is usually the deciding factor in DIY bookkeeping against hiring out.
Fix your foreign currency policy early
Most foreign-owned LLCs here invoice in USD or EUR and bank in a mix of currencies. Accounts are reported in lari, so every foreign-currency transaction needs a translation rate and every balance needs a revaluation at period end. Agree the method with your accountant in month one, not in September of the following year.
Log owner funding properly
Money you wire in to cover early costs is either charter capital, a shareholder loan or a capital contribution, and the three are treated differently. Undocumented transfers from a director's personal account are the most common reconstruction job we see.
We research the accountants working in Tbilisi and rank the ones worth paying. Independently researched, re-checked quarterly, free to read.
See the ranked list
Where foreign owners get caught out
Preferential tax status does not reduce your bookkeeping. Virtual Zone and International Company regimes change what you pay, not what you record. If anything the records get stricter, because you have to be able to evidence that the qualifying activity actually happened in Georgia. Our notes on accounting for IT companies and freelancers go through what that evidence looks like.
Payroll is its own discipline. The moment you put a person on the books, monthly withholding, pension contributions and employment records attach to the company. Small LLCs often push this to a specialist rather than their general bookkeeper, which is what the payroll providers in Tbilisi list is for.
Audit is worth understanding before you need it. Article 6(1) makes audit mandatory for public interest entities and Categories I and II. If you are heading toward those thresholds, or an investor asks for audited accounts voluntarily, only firms on the SARAS register can sign the report. The audit firms licensed in Georgia list explains what that register means.
Choosing who does the work
For a Category IV LLC with a handful of invoices a month, a competent bookkeeper on a monthly retainer covers everything above. Test one thing before you sign: do they file to both the Revenue Service and SARAS, or only the former? Plenty of cheap monthly packages quietly exclude the annual reporting submission.
We keep a working shortlist of the accountants in Tbilisi we rate, weighted toward firms that are good with small foreign-owned companies. If you are still deciding whether to bring anyone in at all, our take on whether you need an accountant is deliberately blunt.
Key takeaways
- Two regimes apply to a Georgian LLC: tax filings to the Revenue Service, and annual financial statements to SARAS. Doing one does not cover the other.
- Every entry needs a primary document with the contents listed in Article 4(11) of the accounting law.
- Keep financial statements and accounting documents for six years after the end of the accounting period.
- Your enterprise category, I through IV, sets your reporting standard and decides whether audit and a management report apply.
- Most expat-owned LLCs are Category IV: simplified standard, no audit, no management report, and no publication of the accounts.
- Financial statements are due by 1 October of the following year, filed through reportal.ge.
- A dormant company still files.
FAQ
Does a Georgian LLC with no activity still have to file?
Yes. The accounting law applies to every registered enterprise, so a dormant LLC still submits financial statements for the year, even if every figure is zero. The same holds for Revenue Service declarations, which are filed as nil returns. Skipping years because "nothing happened" is the most expensive small mistake we see foreign owners make.
What is the deadline for filing financial statements in Georgia?
Article 9(2) of the accounting law sets it at no later than 1 October of the year following the reporting period. For a company on a calendar year, the 2026 accounts are therefore due by 1 October 2027. Entities with a non-calendar financial year get nine months from their year end. Filing happens through the reportal.ge portal.
Does a small Georgian LLC need an audit?
No. Article 6 makes audit mandatory only for public interest entities and for Category I and Category II enterprises. Categories III and IV, which covers the overwhelming majority of small foreign-owned companies, are exempt. You may still choose a voluntary audit if an investor, lender or acquirer asks for one.
Which accounting standard applies to a small Georgian LLC?
Category IV enterprises apply the simplified standard issued by SARAS. Categories II and III apply IFRS for SMEs, with the option to move up to full IFRS. Category I and public interest entities apply full IFRS. Your category is set by meeting at least two of the three thresholds for assets, revenue and average headcount.
How long do I have to keep accounting records in Georgia?
Six years after the end of the relevant accounting period, under Article 4(18) of the accounting law. That is longer than the three-year limitation period the Tax Code sets for assessing tax, so six years is the number to plan storage around. Electronic copies are acceptable provided you can produce them on request.
Do accounting records have to be in Georgian?
The accounting law does not require you to translate your own contracts and invoices into Georgian. In practice the filing portal, the standards themselves and Revenue Service correspondence are all in Georgian, so you need someone who reads it. Most foreign owners solve this by hiring locally rather than by translating documents.
Are my company's financial statements public in Georgia?
Partly. Under Article 9(3) the Service publishes the statements it receives, but Category IV enterprises are excluded from that publication. So a small LLC's figures generally stay off the public portal while a Category III company's are visible. Public interest entities must additionally publish on their own website under Article 9(5).
Does a Virtual Zone or IT company have lighter bookkeeping?
No. Preferential tax status changes what you pay, not what you record, and the same accounting law applies. If anything the record-keeping bar rises, because you have to evidence that the qualifying activity was genuinely performed in Georgia. Treat the bookkeeping as the thing that protects the status rather than an afterthought.
What is a primary document under Georgian accounting law?
It is the source record behind an accounting entry, and Article 4(11) specifies its contents: document name and number, date, the economic content of the transaction, the parties with their identification data and addresses, signatures confirming completion, and amount and quantity. Both handwritten and electronic signatures are accepted. A bank transaction alone, without an underlying document, does not satisfy this.
How much should bookkeeping for a Georgian LLC cost?
Monthly retainers for a small, low-volume Category IV company are among the cheapest in the region, and the price is driven mostly by transaction volume, payroll headcount and whether you are VAT-registered. Our breakdown of accounting service pricing in Georgia sets out realistic ranges. Confirm whether the annual SARAS submission is included before you sign anything.