Residency Rules for Individuals
Tax planning for persons moving between Georgia and the United Arab Emirates begins with the correct determination of residency. Under the Tax Code, a resident of Georgia for the entire current tax year is a natural person who actually stays on the territory of Georgia for one hundred and eighty-three days or more in any continuous period of twelve calendar months ending in that tax year. A day of presence is any day on which the person stayed in Georgia regardless of its duration, and the time during which the person left the borders of Georgia specifically for treatment, rest, a business mission, or study likewise counts as presence.
At the same time, certain periods are excluded from the time of actual presence: the time spent in Georgia as a person of diplomatic or consular status or as a member of such a person’s family, as an employee of an international organization or of a foreign state service, or as a family member of such a person; time in transit from one foreign country to another; and time spent in Georgia for treatment or rest. Residency status is determined separately for each tax period, and the days by which a person was counted as a resident in the previous period are not counted in the next — a rule that obliges persons moving between two countries to keep an exact day count.
Alternative Grounds for Residency
Beyond the day count, the Code provides other routes to residency: a person supported by significant property may be granted residency under the procedure and conditions determined by the Minister of Finance; where a person’s residency is not established in any country, that person, upon an application to the tax authority, is treated as a resident of Georgia if he or she is a Georgian citizen; and residency may likewise be granted to a citizen of a foreign country in cases determined by the Minister. Using these grounds matters especially for those who spend the year across different jurisdictions and for whom the ordinary day count does not give a definite answer.