---
title: "Think Tank Formation"
url: "https://legal.ge/en/service/non-profit-and-ngo-law-en/think-tank-formation-en"
field: "Non-Profit & NGO Law"
description: "Think-tank registration in Georgia: charter purposes, the economic-activity boundary and the property purpose test under the Civil Code. Legal.ge."
reviewed: "2026-07-09"
updated: "2026-11-07"
publisher: "legal.ge"
---

# Think Tank Formation

> Source: legal.ge, https://legal.ge/en/service/non-profit-and-ngo-law-en/think-tank-formation-en

A think tank in Georgia operates in the form of a non-commercial (non-profit) legal person, and the boundaries of its registration and subsequent operation are defined by three norms of the Civil Code. This page explains what must be written into the founding documentation, how state control works, and when the disposal of property is lawful.

## The Legal Framework of Think-Tank Registration in Georgia

No special legal form for think tanks exists in Georgia — a think tank is a non-commercial legal person registered under the general procedure. The one genuinely distinctive legal risk of think-tank registration stands under the boundary of economic activity: an organization in non-commercial form that supplies services for consideration may, for tax purposes, be assessed precisely as economic activity. The three norms of this page — writing the purposes into the charter (Article 29), state control and the suspension or prohibition of activity (Article 33), and the purpose test for disposing of property (Article 36) — together form the frame within which a research institute must operate lawfully in the long term.

## Writing the Purposes and Registering — Article 29

On applying for registration, the interested person submits a partners' agreement and an application to the registering organ. The application must also contain the mandatory data established for the registration of an entrepreneurial legal person, while the other rules of registration are determined by the law on entrepreneurs and by special laws. The founding documentation must indicate the purpose of the organization's activity; for a membership-based form, the rules of admission, withdrawal and expulsion; and the organ empowered to decide on reorganization or liquidation, together with the rules for creating the governing organ and the term of its authority. For a think tank the formulation of the purpose carries particular weight: research, analysis, education and the promotion of public policy are the boundaries within which the organization's subsequent activity will be perceived through the prism of lawfulness. Together with registration the organization's electronic address is created on the unified portal, and an electronic notice sent to the registered contacts is deemed delivered.

The full text is available on legal.ge after signing in: https://legal.ge/en/service/non-profit-and-ngo-law-en/think-tank-formation-en

### Is there a special think-tank form?

No — an ordinary non-commercial legal person.

### The main risk?

Drift into economic activity — court suspension or prohibition, then cancellation.

### Who decides?

The court, on a claim.

### When can property be disposed of?

Only when the purpose test is met.