Legal issues in Georgia

World's leading performer - Georgia is consistently ranked as a prominent performer by international institutions:

• 7 by World Bank's Ease of Doing Business (among 190 countries);
• 16 by Heritage Foundation’s Economic Freedom Index 2019 (among 180 countries).

Strategic geographic location - Located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Georgia is serving as a bridge and shortest route for transportation of goods.

A free trade agreement was signed with the China, EFTA countries, CIS countries, Ukraine and Turkey.

Fast Growing Economy - Georgia's GDP has grown steadily over the past 4 years with an average annual rate of about 4%.

According to Transparency International's Global Corruption Index, Georgia is perceived as a country without corruption.

Tax policy is conducive to economic growth. According to a 2018-2019 World Bank report, Georgia has some of the lowest taxes in the world, ranking 3rd with a total tax rate of 9.9%. In 2017, the Georgian government introduced a new tax policy. In the new model of the taxation system, retained earnings are not taxed, that is, income tax is deducted only in the case of distribution of profits.

Young, skilled and cost competitive workforce. Georgia is home to a young, dynamic, multilingual and well-educated workforce ready to face new challenges.

Fast payback and high profitability are the main reasons for the increased interest of international investors in real estate in Georgia.

According to Homes Overseas, a portal of foreign real estate from the I-II quarter of 2020, the majority of requests are in Batumi (Adjria) and Tbilisi. There is also growing interest in high-mountain areas. If you are interested in investing in real estate in Georgia, you will be interested to know how the process of selling and registering property rights goes.

The process of buying real estate takes place by concluding an agreement between the seller and the buyer in 3 copies in 2 languages ​​- necessarily in Georgian and chosen by the non-resident buyer (English, Russian, Ukrainian, etc.). One copy remains with the buyer, the second with the seller and the third will be required for registration of property rights. To sign it, even the personal presence of the buyer is not required - his representative can conclude a contract. This will require a notarized power of attorney and the representative's passport. A copy of the passports of the participants in the transaction is attached to the agreement as an attachment, and the name of the investor, passport data, place of registration and his citizenship are entered into the agreement.

The purchase and sale agreement itself is registered and drawn up in the House of Justice. After its conclusion, payment for the purchased property is transferred from the buyer to the seller. We offer secure transfer schemes for our Investors, including the ability to execute a transaction using the Escrow system. The transfer must be converted into the national Georgian currency. Payment methods, terms and amount of payment are specified in the purchase and sale agreement.

Even before the conclusion of the contract, the investor can check all information about the real estate together with a lawyer from the public register. The statement can be received in electronic form. The cost of receiving the statement on the day of application is 50 GEL, within 1 business day - 15 GEL. This service is free for our investors.

The resulting document will indicate:

• Information about the owner of the property.
• The property was or is under arrest.
• Is there a mortgage on the property.

An extract from the register has a unique international barcode that guarantees the authenticity of the information. Such a document does not need to be notarized. This has become possible since 2017 after the introduction of blockchain technology into the cadastral system, which minimized the possibilities with fraud and forgery of real estate documents.

Registration (as well as the conclusion of the "sale and purchase" agreement) of real estate in Georgia is carried out according to the passport - no other documents are required. The process of registering property rights takes from 1 to 4 days.
Purchased real estate in Georgia can be registered both for an individual and a legal entity. Registration of property rights takes place in the same House of Justice on the basis of a "sale and purchase" agreement and confirmation of payment to the seller. If the buyer is represented by his representative, it is additionally necessary to provide the phone number of the notary who certified the power of attorney for representation. This information is needed to confirm the legality of the representation.

The amount of the cost of registration of property rights depends on the timing:

• Day a day - 200 GEL.
• Within 1 working day - 150 GEL.
• Within 4 working days - 50 GEL.

As a result, a confidant can go through the entire process instead of a non-resident buyer. It turns out that in order to become a happy owner of real estate in Georgia, you don't even have to visit the country!

Be sure that the scheme and algorithm is as simple as when buying real estate. Any site is checked according to the Cadastral Code in the same unified register, our lawyer will certainly help with this! You can send your request now!

Georgia is interesting for those who want to develop production or import goods, since there are 4 tax-free industrial zones in this country.

Free Industrial Zone - a tax territory provided for by the Tax Code of Georgia, where rules favorable to business, preferential tax and customs system are applied. The free industrial zone is open for the production and processing of any goods or services, with a few exceptions.

Special tax regime:

• No income tax
• No property tax
• No value added tax
• Privileges for the import of foreign goods
• Operations carried out in the Free Industrial Zone
• Export of goods produced in the Free Industrial Zone to another territory of Georgia.
• Personal Income Tax (PIT)
• Import - 4% of the received profit
• Export - 4% of the market value of the supplied goods.

There are four free industrial zones in Georgia in the following cities: Poti (seaport), Kutaisi (third largest city) and Hualing (Kutaisi) and Tbilisi (capital).