How to register a company in Georgia
Registration itself takes a day. The decisions made in the week before it, on legal form, ownership and tax regime, decide what the company pays and reports for the rest of its life.
1. The legal form is a tax decision
An LLC covers almost every case. A joint-stock company, a branch or a representative office each exist for a narrow reason, and choosing one without that reason imports reporting obligations nobody wanted. The question to answer first is not "which form" but "where does the profit land, and who owns the entity above this one".
For a foreign parent this is the point at which double-tax treaty position and withholding rates should be read, not after the first dividend.
2. Registration at the Public Registry
The filing is fast and inexpensive: charter, founders’ decision, registered address and director details. Foreign founders act in person or by notarised and apostilled power of attorney, and the translation quality of that document is a more common cause of delay than anything in the substance.
Register the tax address and the legal address deliberately. A registered address you do not control produces correspondence you never receive, and deadlines you miss.
3. The bank account
This is the step that actually takes time. Georgian banks run full compliance on the ultimate beneficial owner, source of funds and intended activity. The file should be assembled before the first meeting: ownership chart, evidence of the operating business abroad, contracts, and a plain description of expected turnover.
An account refused once is harder to open at the second bank. It is worth preparing properly rather than quickly.
4. Tax regime and status
Georgia taxes distributed profit rather than accrued profit, which changes how a company should be financed. Beyond the standard regime, small business status, virtual zone status and free industrial zone status each carry conditions that are checked in practice, not merely claimed on registration.
5. Month one
Obligations begin immediately: monthly declarations, payroll registration once there is a first employee, and the accounting record that a later audit will read. Most problems we are asked to fix in year three were created by an unattended first quarter.
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