What a Tax Declaration Is and Who Must File It
A tax declaration is the official report a taxpayer submits to the tax authority, showing taxable income, deductions and the tax due. Under Article 153, paragraph 1 of the Georgian Tax Code, the annual declaration on income tax or profit tax must be filed by 1 April of the year after the reporting period. This obligation rests on resident individuals whose income is not taxed at the payment source in Georgia, on enterprises, and on non-resident individuals and enterprises without a permanent establishment in Georgia whose Georgian-source income is not taxed at source.
An individual who is not obliged to file a declaration may nevertheless submit one voluntarily, requesting recalculation and refund of the tax. In practice this is often the only mechanism for recovering an overpayment, so the existence of a filing duty always requires individual analysis.
Cessation of Activity, Liquidation and Bankruptcy
An individual entrepreneur ceasing economic activity in Georgia must submit to the tax authority, within 30 business days, a declaration on aggregate income and deductions. From that point until the activity is resumed, the taxpayer is not required to file tax declarations. A person in dissolution must notify the tax authority in writing within 5 business days from the registration of the start of liquidation and to submit the declaration within the same period.
Bankruptcy follows a special regime of its own. Within 15 days from the entry into legal force of the court ruling on admitting the insolvency application and opening the bankruptcy regime, the taxpayer must submit the declarations not yet filed for the periods preceding the opening of the regime. After the regime has been opened, declarations on income tax or profit tax, and on salary amounts paid with the tax withheld, are no longer submitted.
Monthly Declarations and Rules Connected With Receiving Property
Monthly reporting is anchored to the 15th day of the month following the reporting month. An individual entrepreneur, an enterprise and an organization must, by that date, submit the declaration on salary amounts paid and on the tax withheld. The same monthly deadline applies to profit tax and personal income tax declarations for persons taxed on the special taxable objects provided for by the Code, and to the income tax declaration that a private individual must file after receiving excess income from the supply of property or an asset outside entrepreneurial activity.
Property transactions trigger a duty of information. Before registering the ownership right of the future owner, the registering authority must inform the individual about the obligations of tax reporting and tax payment, and about the liability established by the Code for their breach. This applies to the sale of an asset owned by an individual and to the receipt of property as a gift. Where heirs of the third and fourth line receive, within a tax year, property worth 150,000 GEL or more by gift or by inheritance, the income tax becomes payable over 2 calendar years, with filing and payment deadlines determined by the Minister of Finance of Georgia.
Extension of the Filing Deadline and Amendment of the Declaration
Article 68 of the Tax Code allows the filing deadline for an annual income, profit or property tax declaration to be extended by 3 months. Two conditions must be met: the current payments for the declarable period must have been paid or not owed at all, and a written application must reach the tax authority before the original deadline expires. A practically important detail follows directly from the provision: extending the filing deadline does not change the deadline for paying the tax itself.
If a person discovers an error in a submitted declaration that changes the tax liability, the person is obliged to make the corresponding amendment or addition. An amended declaration is treated as filed on time if it is submitted before the original filing deadline has passed. Where a tax audit or assessment has already been carried out for the period concerned, the tax authority may record the declaration, including an amended one, by issuing a substantiated order; while an audit is pending, filing for that period is restricted until the situations defined by law have run their course.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the annual income or profit tax declaration filed in Georgia?
According to Article 153 of the Tax Code, the declaration must be submitted to the tax authority by 1 April of the year following the reporting year by persons whose relevant income is not taxed at the source of payment.
Can the filing deadline be extended?
Yes. The deadline for an annual income, profit or property tax declaration is extended by 3 months if the current payments for the declarable period have been paid and a written application is submitted before the deadline expires. The tax payment deadline remains unchanged.
What must be done when an error is discovered in a filed declaration?
An error that changes the tax liability obliges the person to amend or supplement the declaration. If the corrected declaration is submitted before the original deadline, it is deemed to have been filed as the original one.
Is a person in a bankruptcy regime released from filing declarations?
Only partly. Declarations not filed for the periods before the opening of the bankruptcy regime must be submitted within 15 days from the entry into force of the ruling on opening the regime, while for the periods after its opening the corresponding declarations are no longer submitted.
How We Help on Legal.ge
The Legal.ge team assists individuals and businesses with preparing and filing tax declarations correctly, observing deadlines, drafting applications for an extension of the filing period, amending previously submitted declarations and pursuing a refund of overpaid tax. Contact us: we will assess your filing obligations and help you avoid the risks of missed deadlines.