The Essence of the Current Payments System
The Tax Code of Georgia obliges enterprises and entrepreneur individuals to pay part of the annual tax during the year, in the form of current payments, into the budget in a timely manner. The system spreads the tax — according to the annual tax of the previous reporting period — into four equal parts and allows a planned schedule instead of a single large payment at the end of the year. This page explains which deadlines and amounts are provided, who is exempt from these payments and what happens when income decreases.
The Deadlines and Amounts of the Four Payments
An enterprise and an entrepreneur individual whose reporting period is the calendar year pay current payments according to the annual tax of the previous reporting period on the following schedule: no later than 15 May — 25 percent; no later than 15 July — 25 percent; no later than 15 September — 25 percent; no later than 15 December — 25 percent. The amounts paid into the budget are credited to the taxpayer against the tax charged for the tax year, so these payments are not an additional tax but an advance distribution of the annual amount. If the tax rate changes compared with the previous tax period, the taxpayer may pay current payments recalculated from the previous year's taxable income at the rate in force for the current year.
Who Does Not Pay Current Payments
The law provides exceptions: current payments are not paid by a taxpayer who had no taxable income or taxable profit during the past tax year, and by a person whose micro business or fixed taxpayer status was cancelled this year and who had taxable income for the past year. A separate rule concerns small and micro business: a physical person with micro business status and a physical person with small business status do not pay current payments; salary of up to a total of 6 000 GEL paid within a calendar year by a small business status holder to employees is not taxed at the source of payment, if the person registered as an individual entrepreneur and received the status in the same calendar year, or if the total income of the previous calendar year does not exceed 50 000 GEL.