For Georgian businesses operating on the European Union market, the central tax questions concern value added tax: where a service is treated as supplied, when the obligation to register for VAT arises, and how a taxable person of an EU member state recovers VAT paid in Georgia. The Georgian Tax Code regulates these matters with precise norms, and it is these norms — not the EU's own One Stop Shop regimes, which serve here only as a contrast — that form the legal backbone for aligning Georgian operations with European requirements. The decisive answer always comes from the Georgian statute.
Place of Supply of Services
The Tax Code norm on the place of supply of services determines where a service is treated as supplied: if a service is supplied on the territory of Georgia, it is not treated as supplied in another country, and vice versa. The basic rule is this: where the recipient is a taxable person, the place of supply is the place where the recipient is established; where the recipient is not a taxable person, it is the place where the supplier is established. Separate rules distinguish services connected with immovable property, transport, restaurant and catering services, events and others. For instance, telecommunications, broadcasting, electronic, advertising, consulting, engineering, legal, accounting and data-processing services supplied to a non-taxable person are treated as supplied where that person is established, has a permanent address or usually resides. These definitions decide whether an operation falls under Georgian VAT at all.