Withholding tax at source on salaries is the employer's — the tax agent's — everyday obligation, regulated in detail by the Georgian Tax Code. A tax agent is equated to a taxpayer: under the Code, a taxpayer is a person obliged to pay a tax established by the Code, while a tax agent is a person who, in the case and by the procedure established by the Code, must perform the taxpayer's tax obligation. This equation means that it is the payer — the employer — who answers for un-withheld tax, which makes precise management of the withholding process part of every organisation's financial discipline. The procedure becomes routine only when it is documented. Documentation is what an inspection later reads.
Who Must Withhold at Source
Under Article 154 of the Tax Code, withholding at source is the duty of a tax agent — a legal person, enterprise, organisation or entrepreneur natural person. In particular, the agent is a person paying salary to an employee, a pension (except one paid through the state social security system), a scholarship (except a state scholarship), and, for a resident enterprise, dividends, interest, and royalties to a natural person. An agent is also an enterprise or entrepreneur reimbursing a natural person for the value of services rendered (one not registered as an individual entrepreneur, subject to exceptions), and a person transferring property free of charge to a natural person — except property worth up to 1000 GEL per tax year. Equivalent norms cover organisers of gambling paying winnings to natural persons. An exception is salary paid by a non-resident to an employee where the expense is not attributable to the non-resident's permanent establishment — in that case the employee may perform the obligation personally. The personal route is an exception and must be justified. Justification is filed together with the payment.
The Procedure of Withholding and Transfer
The withheld tax must be transferred to the budget at the same time as the payment to the person, and for a benefit in non-monetary form — by the last day of the corresponding month. On payment of a salary, the recipient natural person must, on request, be given a certificate indicating the amount and type of income and the withheld tax. Information for the tax authority — the recipient's registration number, amounts of income and the total withheld tax — must be submitted no later than the 15th of the month following the month of withholding, and the declaration on expenditures is submitted within the same deadline. If the tax was not withheld, the payer must pay the un-withheld amount to the budget in accordance with the compensation actually paid, together with related sanctions, although the recipient may pay the amount in the payer's name. The moment of payment is fixed documentary.