Working Remotely From Georgia for a Foreign Employer: the Right to Work and the Tax
An employee of a foreign company who lives in Tbilisi and works from a laptop faces two questions the freelancer articles do not answer. Since 1 March 2026 activity in Georgia needs the right to work unless an exemption applies, and the list has an entry for work for a non-resident. Once resident, salary for work done in Georgia is Georgian-source whoever pays it: 20%, declared by the employee before 1 April. The exemptions as they stand, the tax rule, a worked GEL example and what is left to the home country.
An employee of a foreign company who moves to the country of Georgia and keeps the job answers two questions, not one. The first is immigration: since 1 March 2026 a foreigner who carries on activity in Georgia needs the right to work under the Law on Labour Migration, held with a residence permit or a D1 visa, unless one of the Law's exemptions applies; at the time of writing the list includes work or services for a non-resident connected with that non-resident's activity outside Georgia. The second is tax: once you are Georgian tax resident, salary for work physically done in Georgia is Georgian-source income whoever pays it, taxed at 20% at the time of writing and declared by you, not your employer, in an annual return before 1 April of the following year.
1 March 2026
Right to work required
For activity carried on in Georgia by a foreigner, unless an exemption in the Law on Labour Migration applies
183 days
Make you tax resident
Or more, actually present in any continuous 12 months ending in the tax year
20%
On salary for work done in Georgia
The general rate for an individual at the time of writing, whoever the employer is
1 April
Annual return due before
Of the following year, for a resident with income not taxed at source in Georgia; confirm against the Tax Code
Two separate questions decide the remote employee's position
This article is about one person: the employee on a foreign payroll who lives in Georgia. The freelancer who invoices foreign clients is a different case with a different answer, the individual entrepreneur and the 1% regime, which our article on digital nomads in Georgia covers. The immigration question turns on where the activity is carried on and for whom. The tax question turns on where the work is physically done and whether you have become resident.
Since 1 March 2026 working in Georgia needs the right to work unless you are exempt
The Law on Labour Migration and the Government's rule of 20 February 2026 require a foreigner who carries on labour activity in Georgia, as an employee or in their own name, to hold the right to work. A remote employee is caught by the words, because work done from a flat in Tbilisi is activity carried on in Georgia, unless the exemption list takes them out. Only a permanent residence permit puts a person outside the Law altogether. The list at the time of writing, as our work permit article records it:
- Work or services for a non-resident connected with that non-resident's activity outside Georgia. This is the entry a remote employee of a foreign company relies on: the employer is a non-resident and the work serves its business abroad.
- Fully remote work for a local employer that does not require entering Georgia, which is the mirror case and not this one.
- Holders of an investment residence permit, short-term professional activity registered in advance, and managers of first to third category enterprises.
- The Government's rule withholds the non-resident exemption from an individual entrepreneur who needs a residence permit to stay lawfully; whether that reasoning reaches an employee's file is confirmed before anyone relies on it.
A foreign national without a permanent residence permit carries on labour activity in Georgia, as an employee or as a self-employed person, on the basis of the right to work granted under the Government's rule, save for the categories the Law exempts. Among them, at the time of writing, are a person who works or provides services for a non-resident in connection with that non-resident's activity outside Georgia, and a person who works fully remotely for a local employer without needing to enter Georgia.
Two things make the exemption narrower than it looks. The non-resident's activity must be outside Georgia: an employer with clients, a team or a project in Georgia, who uses you for it, is a harder case. And the exemption is about the right to work, not about staying: it gives no residence permit. A national of a visa-free country can live here a year at a time on it, but a permit needs a ground of its own, and employment by a foreign company is not among the grounds the Law lists. Our founders guide covers the routes that remain.
Once resident, salary for work done in Georgia is Georgian-source whoever pays it
Tax residency comes first and it is arithmetic: 183 days or more of actual presence in any continuous twelve months ending in the tax year, counted on border records; our article on the 183-day rule covers the count and its exceptions. A resident pays Georgian income tax on Georgian-source income and is exempt on the rest. The Tax Code puts pay for hired work carried out in Georgia on the Georgian-source list and says in terms that the place where the money is received is not taken into account. A salary paid in a foreign currency, from a foreign company, into a foreign account, for work done at a desk in Tbilisi, is Georgian-source salary, at the general rate of 20% at the time of writing.
Income from a Georgian source includes income from employment carried out in Georgia, whoever the employer is. In determining the source of income, the place where the amount is received is not taken into account. A resident natural person is exempt on income that does not belong to Georgian-source income; a non-resident is a taxpayer only on Georgian-source income, and salary from a non-resident employer for work performed in Georgia for not more than 30 calendar days in a tax year is exempt unless the cost belongs to that employer's permanent establishment in Georgia.
| Situation | Right to work | Georgian tax on the salary | What you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visiting, work on not more than 30 calendar days in the year, not resident | Exemption checked for the stay | Exempt under the non-resident relief, at the time of writing | Keep the dates; confirm that nothing is filed |
| Living here, under 183 days, foreign employer | Non-resident exemption, confirmed on the facts | Once work here passes 30 calendar days in the year the relief is lost and salary for work done in Georgia is taxable as a non-resident's | Count days; file before 1 April if nothing was withheld |
| Resident, all work done in Georgia, employer abroad | Non-resident exemption, confirmed on the facts | Georgian-source, 20%, declared by you | Register as a taxpayer, file before 1 April, pay |
| Resident, some days worked abroad | As above | Pay for days abroad is arguably foreign-source; the Code has no day-count rule | Keep a work calendar; confirm the reading first |
The employee files and pays; the employer withholds nothing
A foreign employer with no presence here is not a Georgian tax agent and withholds nothing. That silence is not an exemption: a resident whose income was not taxed at source in Georgia declares it in the annual return and pays the tax personally. A foreign individual's Georgian taxpayer number is not automatic; the Revenue Service issues it when it registers you as a taxpayer once an obligation arises. The funded pension scheme does not apply to this salary: the Law on Funded Pension covers Georgian citizens and foreigners with a permanent residence permit, and a non-resident payer is not an employer under it, as that Law reads at the time of writing.
- 1
Fix the residence date: work out from border records in which continuous twelve months you reach 183 days, and which tax year that makes you resident for.
- 2
Register with the Revenue Service as a taxpayer and obtain rs.ge access before the first return is due.
- 3
Keep a calendar of where each working day was spent, with the contract and payslips behind it. Work done in Georgia is Georgian-source; days abroad are a reading to confirm, not a rule.
- 4
File the annual return before 1 April of the following year, declaring the salary in GEL as the return requires, pay the 20% by the date the Code sets, and keep any certificate of tax withheld abroad for a treaty claim.
- 5
Confirm the right-to-work exemption for your employer's facts before the first working day, and check the list again at each change of employer or role.
A developer on a foreign payroll, resident in Tbilisi
Marta moves to Tbilisi in February and stays the year, keeping her job with a software company abroad that has no clients, staff or office in Georgia. Her salary is the equivalent of GEL 9,000 a month, GEL 108,000 for the year, paid into her account abroad.
- 1Right to work: her employer is a non-resident and her work serves its business outside Georgia, so the non-resident exemption appears to cover her at the time of writing; she has it confirmed against the current list first.
- 2Residency: by the second week of August she has 183 days in the rolling twelve months, so she is a Georgian tax resident for the whole of that tax year.
- 3Source: every working day was spent in Tbilisi, so the GEL 108,000 is Georgian-source salary.
- 4Withholding: her employer deducts nothing for Georgia. She registers with the Revenue Service, obtains rs.ge access, and files the annual return before 1 April of the next year, declaring GEL 108,000 and paying GEL 21,600 at 20%. No pension contributions arise, because she holds no permanent residence permit.
- 5Home country: her former country may still treat her as resident on its own tests and may already have taxed the salary. Whether a treaty relieves that needs her Georgian residency certificate and advice there.
Georgia takes GEL 21,600 of the GEL 108,000, declared and paid by Marta herself, and asks for no residence permit from the employment as long as the exemption holds. What her former country takes is decided there.
Illustrative arithmetic at the general rate at the time of writing, ignoring deductions and conversion dates. The exemption list, the rate, the filing date and the source classification are confirmed for the year and the facts concerned; neither the Revenue Service's nor the Agency's reading can be promised.
Your home country and your employer still have their own questions
The Georgian answer binds the Revenue Service and nobody else. The country you left applies its own tests of home, family, economic centre and days, and a country that still treats you as resident will usually tax your worldwide income, the Georgian-source salary included. Where both countries claim you for the same year, the treaty between them, if there is one, decides through its tie-breakers: permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode, nationality; the claim needs a Georgian tax residency certificate. Your employer has a question of its own: an employee who does the company's core work from Georgia for a long period can give a foreign company a taxable presence here under the Tax Code's permanent establishment rules, and our article on a Georgian company and the home tax office explains the doctrine.
Next step
A written view of your position before the first return
We check the right-to-work exemption against the current list for your employer's facts, register you with the Revenue Service, set up the rs.ge profile and set out in writing how the Georgian source rules apply to your salary and other income. We do not advise on your home country's tax, and we say which questions to take there.
Book a consultationWhat this article does not answer
It does not tell you what your home country will do with the same salary. It does not re-explain the 183-day count, its exceptions or the residency certificate, which our article on Georgian tax residency covers, or the foreign-income exemptions line by line, which the foreign income article does. It does not decide the hard cases: an employer with any activity in Georgia, a bonus or share options earned partly before the move, a director's fee, or a split year. Those cases need the facts on the table, and we answer the Georgian side of them in writing.
General information, not legal or tax advice. The right to work is governed by the Law of Georgia on Labour Migration and the Government's resolution of 20 February 2026 as amended, and the taxation of individuals by the Tax Code of Georgia; the exemption list, the rate and the filing date stated here are those in force at the time of writing and change, the official Georgian text governs, and the position should be confirmed with the Revenue Service or an adviser for the year and the facts concerned.