What is your experience with Georgia?

[cyprus123]

We opened several companies and accounts in Georgia and made extremely good experiences and I was wondering how popular Georgia is already in this forum?

Did you guys open corporate accounts there, LLCs, JSCs, maybe companies in one of the FIZs, personal accounts etc.? What have been your experiences?

 

[Martin Everson]

Very good. I lived there in Vake. However I left after discovering the dark side of things.

 

[cyprus123]

What do you mean with the dark side? Feel free to PM me ;-)

 

[Samuel Newman]

Very good. I lived there in Vake. However I left after discovering the dark side of things.

Can you share what did you mean?

 

[Martin Everson]

I will spare you the details but I just meant I didn't realize how powerful Iran was in controlling things out there. It is their laundering centre. Georgia is to Iran what Latvia is to Russians . It is there playground financially. I should have checked my history beforehand and I would have discovered that Georgia was part of Persian empire and they have very deep ties. If you go to Poti FIZ in person half the businesses are Iranian it seems. I guess I got too cautious and bailed early - didn't want any guilt by association....you know how the world works .

 

[cyprus123]

I don't have problem with Iranian people and yes, there are many in Georgia. But also for them it's more difficult now with the Georgian banks.

Apart from that: anyone here who opened accounts or companies in Georgia? or maybe using a FIZ like Poti or Kutaisi?

 

[Martin Everson]

I don't have problem with Iranian people and yes, there are many in Georgia.

It is not about Iranian people but the problems you will get for dealing with FTZ's which are nothing but sanction circumvention and laundering hubs . Same logic as in avoiding banks that are Russian Laundromats - it never ends well.

 

[avalanche]

I will spare you the details but I just meant I didn't realize how powerful Iran was in controlling things out there. It is their laundering centre. Georgia is to Iran what Latvia is to Russians . It is there playground financially. I should have checked my history beforehand and I would have discovered that Georgia was part of Persian empire and they have very deep ties. If you go to Poti FIZ in person half the businesses are Iranian it seems. I guess I got too cautious and bailed early - didn't want any guilt by association....you know how the world works .

Are you publicly known person that you would have any consequences from this?

 

[avalanche]

We opened several companies and accounts in Georgia and made extremely good experiences and I was wondering how popular Georgia is already in this forum?

Did you guys open corporate accounts there, LLCs, JSCs, maybe companies in one of the FIZs, personal accounts etc.? What have been your experiences?

We are about to start an LLC in Free Zone. Is it really possible to open a bank account for a TFZ company? TBC for example?

 

[Martin Everson]

Are you publicly known person that you would have any consequences from this?

You don't see my avatar?

 

[Alex Durham]

I had same issue around 10 months ago and decides to register normal LLC.

FIZ zones in Georgia do not work as smooth as they advertise. Georgian Law on FIZ is very ambiguous and does not state whether certain service is allowed to be provided by a FIZ company, there is a risk that Georgian Tax Authorities may require you to pay corporate income tax of 15%. Plus, you shall also take into consideration social income tax of 20% and social insurance tax of 4%

TBC Bank and Bank of Georgia does not provide its services to the companies registered in any FIZ of Georgia. I was told that Estonian or Armenian banks could be a solution, but you never know.

There is a risk you may end up with incorporating at FIZ without getting any bank account or tax benefits you need and you still have to pay incorporation fee plus license fee. So it’s s**t.

And whatever is said in previous post about Iranian control it’s true.

 

[avalanche]

I had same issue around 10 months ago and decides to register normal LLC.

FIZ zones in Georgia do not work as smooth as they advertise. Georgian Law on FIZ is very ambiguous and does not state whether certain service is allowed to be provided by a FIZ company, there is a risk that Georgian Tax Authorities may require you to pay corporate income tax of 15%. Plus, you shall also take into consideration social income tax of 20% and social insurance tax of 4%

TBC Bank and Bank of Georgia does not provide its services to the companies registered in any FIZ of Georgia. I was told that Estonian or Armenian banks could be a solution, but you never know.

There is a risk you may end up with incorporating at FIZ without getting any bank account or tax benefits you need and you still have to pay incorporation fee plus license fee. So it’s s**t.

And whatever is said in previous post about Iranian control it’s true.

Social income tax 20%? For what? What if all your clients are abroad and all your freelancer employees are in Asia Pacific Region?

You are supposed to be able to cash out dividends at 0% tax if you are non resident

 

[avalanche]

I had same issue around 10 months ago and decides to register normal LLC.

FIZ zones in Georgia do not work as smooth as they advertise. Georgian Law on FIZ is very ambiguous and does not state whether certain service is allowed to be provided by a FIZ company, there is a risk that Georgian Tax Authorities may require you to pay corporate income tax of 15%. Plus, you shall also take into consideration social income tax of 20% and social insurance tax of 4%

TBC Bank and Bank of Georgia does not provide its services to the companies registered in any FIZ of Georgia. I was told that Estonian or Armenian banks could be a solution, but you never know.

There is a risk you may end up with incorporating at FIZ without getting any bank account or tax benefits you need and you still have to pay incorporation fee plus license fee. So it’s s**t.

And whatever is said in previous post about Iranian control it’s true.

Regarding

>there is a risk that Georgian Tax Authorities may require you to pay corporate income tax of 15%

Can you please provide more details on this? Do you have any example cases when somebody got crucified by taxman that way?

 

[Spinat]

With all I have read and learned by setting up a few Gerogia corps. I would be very surprised if that ever happen and if so, how they want to collect it on foreigners. Beside that, 15% is not a bad tax rate compared to other EU countries.

 

[avalanche]

With all I have read and learned by setting up a few Gerogia corps. I would be very surprised if that ever happen and if so, how they want to collect it on foreigners. Beside that, 15% is not a bad tax rate compared to other EU countries.

15% tax is a robbery. I know successful case when dude was paying 7% from his sole prop in Russia after receiving over $1M net

 

[Spinat]

15% tax is a robbery. I know successful case when dude was paying 7% from his sole prop in Russia after receiving over $1M net

LoL Russia, really, you compare the EU with Russia - I think Putin will punish you.

Beside that there are endless options to reduce the profits from which you will have to pay tax from, so at the end you can pay 15% from 1000 euro which is better than pay 7% from 1 million euro.

 

[avalanche]

LoL Russia, really, you compare the EU with Russia - I think Putin will punish you.
View attachment 891

Beside that there are endless options to reduce the profits from which you will have to pay tax from, so at the end you can pay 15% from 1000 euro which is better than pay 7% from 1 million euro.

Georgia is not really EU (more of Asia lol).

In most cases pulling expenses card is not suitable for me because my business has almost no deductible expenses. High margin. I want to earn my money fairly, pay single digit tax at most and use it as I wish without having to ask for permission from taxman.

Hence I'm looking towards Free Zone.

 

[Spinat]

Georgia is not really EU (more of Asia lol).

Yes, who said they are EU

Well, you can simply invoice your Georgia company from a offshore corp. i.e. seychelles, belize etc. or similar and take out the money using an EMI.

 

[avalanche]

Yes, who said they are EU

Well, you can simply invoice your Georgia company from a offshore corp. i.e. seychelles, belize etc. or similar and take out the money using an EMI.

That's a wonderful story of how you get in jail or serious trouble lol.

 

[Jonny Cage]

Forgive me but Iranian Control in Georgia is total BS.

Extremly false (or outdated) information spread over this forum. I worked for one of the free zone for three years and I know all very precise details. I will tell you how many Iranians are in that free zone. 1 only, and he has second citizenship. They were in free zone, especially in Poti, but left massively after Trump changed sanction lift decision. But they were not able to bank in Georgia anyway.

I can confirm ambiguity about free zone law though.