A pension does not grow when you move. What changes is its relation to prices where you live — and who taxes it. Both can be quantified: with the payment figures of the German pension insurance, the wage data of the Georgian statistics office, and two articles of the 2006 double taxation treaty. This article works through the arithmetic, clears up the most persistent misconception about pensions paid abroad, and names the limit at which the model fails. It is not about the money.
What the pension is here and what it is there
The starting figures are uncontroversial. As at 31 December 2024 the average monthly amount actually paid for old-age pensions in Germany was €1,405 for men and €955 for women. That is not the model “standard pension” of a full working life, but what is actually transferred.
Against that stands the Georgian price level. The statistics office Geostat reports an average monthly wage of 2,363.80 lari for the first quarter of 2026, against 2,170.10 lari in the same quarter of 2025; in Tbilisi it is around 2,583 lari.
| Amount | in lari | to the national wage | to the Georgian state pension | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old-age pension, men, average paid German pension insurance, as at 31 December 2024 | €1,405 | 4,252 GEL | 1.80× | 8.6× |
| Old-age pension, women, average paid still above the Georgian average wage | €955 | 2,890 GEL | 1.22× | 5.8× |
| Pension near basic-security level worked example | €1,000 | 3,027 GEL | 1.28× | 6.1× |
| Georgian average wage Geostat, Q1 2026 | €781 | 2,363.80 GEL | 1.00× | 4.8× |
| Georgian state pension from 70 under 70: 370 GEL — 2026 budget, raised by 45 and 20 GEL respectively; over GEL 5 billion allocated to pension payments in total | €164 | 495 GEL | 0.21× | 1.00× |
That is the whole mechanism, and it is unspectacular: the pension stays the same, the denominator shrinks. A pension that sits below average income in Germany sits well above it in Georgia. Anyone following the German pension debate — a 53.3 percent net replacement rate against 63.2 percent across the OECD, 764,065 people on basic security in old age in December 2025 — finds here no solution to that problem, but a different basis for the arithmetic.
Who taxes the pension
This is the part that is routinely misrepresented. The double taxation treaty between Germany and Georgia was signed on 1 June 2006 and entered into force on 21 December 2007. It distinguishes three cases, not one.
- Statutory pension: Germany taxes (article 18 (2) of the treaty) benefits from statutory social insurance may, by derogation from paragraph 1, be taxed only in the paying state
- Occupational and private pensions: Georgia may tax (article 18 (1)) pensions and similar remuneration are taxable only in the state of residence
- And Georgia does not tax them (article 82 (1) (u) of the Tax Code) income without a Georgian source is exempt for resident individuals — nil in effect
- Civil-service pension: Germany taxes (article 19 (2)) paying-state principle for public service. It is otherwise only where the recipient is resident in Georgia AND a Georgian national
The practical consequence is a split. The statutory pension stays inside German taxation, through limited tax liability under section 49 (1) no. 7 EStG. The Neubrandenburg tax office is centrally responsible — but only for people assessed exclusively on pension income. Anyone with other German-source income, such as rent from a German property, falls to a different office. Everything that is not a statutory pension — occupational pensions, direct insurance, private pension policies, foreign investment income, rent from foreign property — falls, for a Georgian resident, into a territorial system that levies nothing on it.
The basic allowance, and how to keep it
Limited tax liability has a price: under section 50 (1) sentence 2 EStG the basic allowance is not granted. Income tax then runs without the floor that exempts the first €12,348 (2026) domestically.
Section 1 (3) EStG opens the way out: on application, people without a German residence are treated as fully liable to tax — with the basic allowance. The condition is that almost all income is subject to German taxation, or that non-German income remains below the basic allowance.
This is exactly where the subject meets the title of this article. For a retiree whose income consists essentially of the German statutory pension, the condition is typically met. Of a gross annual pension of €16,800, with a pension starting in 2026, 84 percent is taxable — €14,112, against a lifetime-fixed pension allowance of €2,688. Set against the basic allowance of €12,348, only a narrow taxable remainder is left.
The cut that no longer exists
Few pieces of received wisdom are as persistent as the claim that a German pension abroad is “cut to 70 percent”. That was once right and has not been for over a decade: paragraphs 3 and 4 of section 113 SGB VI, which ordered that reduction of personal earnings points, were repealed on 1 October 2013.
What remains is not a cut but an allocation. Payment follows section 110 (2) SGB VI even to non-treaty states — and Georgia is a non-treaty state, because no social security agreement exists. Section 113 SGB VI provides that personal earnings points are determined from federal-territory contribution periods, that is contributions paid under federal law after 8 May 1945. From which follows, very concretely:
- Contribution periods from German employment: 100 percent federal-territory contribution periods are fully exportable — moving away changes nothing
- Non-contributory periods (school, university, illness, supplementary period): pro rata section 114 SGB VI — in the ratio of federal-territory contribution periods to all contribution periods; for a purely German biography that ratio is one, so no loss
- Periods under the Foreign Pensions Act: lost entirely neither a federal-territory contribution period nor added back under section 114 — this is where the real reduction sits
For a working life spent in Germany, moving away therefore changes the pension amount by nothing. It bites for resettlers and displaced persons with Foreign Pensions Act periods in their record — those periods are not exportable. Anyone who has them should have the foreign pension calculated by the German pension insurance before leaving. That is an answer from the institution, not an estimate from a blog post.
In practice: the pension is paid worldwide, Deutsche Post’s pension service handles payment, and as a rule a proof of life must be submitted annually — it is waived only for the few states with automatic data exchange. Whether Georgia is among them is a question for the pension service.
The item almost everybody overlooks
One position disappears on departure, and it appears in no sales brochure. The German pension insurance pays retirees a subsidy towards health insurance under section 106 SGB VI — for voluntarily or privately insured people, roughly half the contribution on the pension. Section 111 (2) SGB VI withdraws it entirely, in terms: “Beneficiaries receive no subsidy towards the cost of health insurance.”
At the same time, compulsory membership of the health insurance scheme for pensioners ends, because German social insurance follows the territoriality principle and no agreement bridges it. The result is that health care must be funded entirely out of pocket: no subsidy, no entitlement, no crediting of periods. That loss belongs in every comparison — it is the honest counter-item to the low Georgian premiums.
And if the pension comes from Austria
The structure is the same; the details differ. Austria too has a double taxation treaty with Georgia — signed in Vienna on 11 April 2005 — and it follows the same logic: pensions are taxable in the state of residence under article 18 (1), while benefits from statutory social insurance are taxable, by derogation, in the paying state under paragraph 2. The Austrian ASVG pension therefore stays taxable in Austria, while second- and third-pillar provision falls to Georgia — and there under the territorial principle.
On payment Austria is less complicated than many expect: the pension is transferred to almost any country, the only exception being states subject to a payment embargo. There is no reduction merely because the recipient lives abroad. A life certificate must be submitted once a year.
On health insurance contributions there is a difference from Germany that cuts both ways: with residence in a third country such as Georgia, no health insurance contribution is withheld from the Austrian pension — 6.0 percent since 1 June 2025, up from 5.1. The pension therefore arrives gross. The price is the same as in Germany: cover must be arranged entirely by oneself. Whether any residual entitlement against Austrian health insurance remains in an individual case is a matter for the pension institution, not for a blog post.
What residence requires
Georgia makes the entry unusually easy and the long-term status not particularly hard, but it knows no retirement permit.
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A year visa-free — the trial run, with one ambiguity
German, Austrian and Swiss nationals may enter and stay without a visa. The Georgian regulation speaks of a full year, the German Federal Foreign Office of up to 360 days — plan with the conservative figure. Either way it is enough time to test city, climate, doctors and daily life before giving anything up.
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Proof of insurance on entry
Since 1 January 2026 proof of health and accident insurance covering the entire stay is required, with minimum cover of 30,000 lari — about €9,900. Without it, entry is refused.
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Apply for the permit in time — and have it granted
There is no permit for retirees; the aliens act lists the types exhaustively. In practice that leaves property above USD 150,000, the investment permit from USD 300,000, and work, study or family reunification. Timing is critical: the permit must not merely be applied for but granted within the visa-free period. And the property permit hangs permanently on ownership — if that ends, so does the permit.
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Establish tax residence deliberately
Residence follows from 183 days in any twelve-month period, not from the permit. And it only bites if ties in the country of origin are demonstrably severed — a German residence under section 8 AO is enough on its own to keep unlimited tax liability alive.
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Settle health cover before deciding anything else
This is the step that sets the order. Georgian insurers usually accept new customers only up to 65 to 70. Anyone past that limit needs international health insurance — which costs a multiple of the local policy.
One detail for anyone thinking beyond the first year: permanent residence requires, for foreigners without Georgian family members, ten years of uninterrupted residence on a temporary permit. Years spent in the country visa-free do not count on the wording — so anyone who has “lived” there visa-free for years is still at zero on the ten-year clock.
What speaks against it
An article that stopped here would be a sales brochure. The objections are concrete, and three of them are weighty enough to sink the model in an individual case.
The age limit on health insurance is the hardest. Anyone arriving at 68 and only then looking may find no affordable policy. Pre-existing conditions lead to surcharges or refusal. The cheap premiums much written about — for our own staff in Tbilisi they sit in the order of €15 to €30 a month — come from an individually negotiated group policy for a young workforce. That is not a figure a 67-year-old may count on, and it is not a list price either: group premiums are negotiated per contract and reset at every renewal.
What a private individual pays instead can be stated: IRAO’s cheapest individual tariff starts at around 65 lari a month for the youngest age band and runs at about 95 lari — some €31 — in the 60-to-66 band; GPI Holding’s individual tariffs begin at around 80 lari. The premium therefore rises with age, and above the underwriting limit it is not available at all.
How thin the market is for an incomer buying as a private individual shows in the Georgian supervisory data: of 785,361 health policies in force at the end of 2025, only 82,911 were held by individuals — 10.6 percent, in a country of roughly 3.7 million. The rest run through companies and state bodies. Looking for an age-appropriate individual policy here means looking in a niche.
Long-term care is not covered. No equivalent to German care insurance exists. Care in old age is arranged and paid for privately — cheaper at Georgian wage levels than in Germany, but without entitlement and without a legal framework to rely on.
No social security agreement. Georgia is not among the 21 treaty states. There is no aggregation of insurance periods, no benefits-in-kind assistance, no claim against the German scheme for treatment on the spot — and, as described above, no subsidy under section 106 SGB VI. Under section 6 (3a) SGB V, return to the statutory health scheme is as a rule barred from 55 — a door that closes unnoticed.
Three further points can be budgeted for but not argued away.
The currency risk: the lari lost about nine percent against the euro between 2023 and 2026; anyone thinking in euros and living in lari carries that.
Purchasing power is not a law of nature. Georgian consumer price inflation stood at 5.5 percent in July 2026, well above the euro area, while the average wage rose 8.9 percent in the first quarter of 2026. The gap that carries this model is therefore closing on its own — a pension fixed in euros loses real value unless the lari depreciates to match. That is no argument against moving, but it is one against assuming today’s ratio still holds in ten years.
And the limits of specialist medicine — complex oncology, transplants, rehabilitation. Those are precisely the benefits local policies routinely exclude, which makes the gap doubly effective.
A footnote on the Georgian state pension, in case anyone counts it as a safety net: foreigners acquire an entitlement only after ten years of lawful residence — and the pension is paid only inside the country. Anyone who earns it and later moves back loses it.
What follows from this
Georgia is not a pensioners’ paradise, and it does not become one by rounding the figures more kindly. What it is: a country where an average German pension represents one and a half to nearly twice the local average wage, where occupational and private provision is left untouched by tax, and where you may spend a full year testing the proposition before deciding.
The order matters more than the arithmetic. Health cover first — it decides whether the model works at all. Then the structure of your retirement income, because that decides the basic allowance. Only then the move.
What the German system looks like on the cost side is in A €15,136 Ceiling and The Pension Gap: 53.3% Replacement Rate, the Austrian counterpart in Austria’s Pensions: 86.8% Replacement Rate and Leaving Austria. Why return to the scheme is barred from 55 is in Leaving the Scheme Is Easy. Getting Back In Is Not. The territorial principle in detail is in Foreign Income Tax-Free, the first roadmap in Moving to Georgia: 365 Days Visa-Free. And because interest from Georgian accounts is treated differently from the pension: Taxing Georgian Interest.
Frequently asked questions
Will my German pension be cut if I move to Georgia?
Not for a pension earned in Germany. The widespread belief in a cut to 70 percent is out of date: paragraphs 3 and 4 of section 113 SGB VI, which ordered that reduction, were repealed on 1 October 2013 — and they turned on nationality. Payment abroad, including to non-treaty states, follows section 110 (2) SGB VI. Contribution periods from German employment are federal-territory contribution periods and are exported in full. Two limits remain: non-contributory periods such as school, university or illness count only in the ratio of federal-territory contribution periods to all contribution periods — for a purely German working life that ratio is one, so nothing is lost. And periods under the Foreign Pensions Act cannot be exported at all; they fall away entirely. That mainly affects resettlers and displaced persons and should be calculated by the pension insurance before departure.
Who taxes my German pension if I live in Georgia?
It depends on the type of pension, and the difference is substantial. For benefits from the statutory social insurance scheme, article 18 (2) of the double taxation treaty assigns the taxing right to the paying state — Germany. For other pensions, such as occupational or private pension insurance, article 18 (1) applies: they are taxable only in the state of residence, that is Georgia. And because article 82 of the Georgian Tax Code exempts income without a Georgian source for resident individuals, no tax arises there. Civil-service pensions follow article 19 (2) and remain German.
Do I lose the basic tax allowance as a pensioner abroad?
Initially yes. Anyone with neither residence nor habitual abode in Germany who draws a German pension is subject to limited tax liability under section 49 (1) no. 7 EStG; under section 50 (1) sentence 2 EStG the basic allowance is not granted. The tax office in Neubrandenburg is centrally responsible. Section 1 (3) EStG, however, allows treatment as fully liable on application — which restores the basic allowance of €12,348 (2026). The condition is that almost all income is subject to German taxation, or that non-German income stays below the basic allowance.
How far does a German pension actually go in Georgia?
The average monthly amount actually paid for an old-age pension was €1,405 for men and €955 for women as at 31 December 2024. The Georgian average wage in the first quarter of 2026 was 2,363.80 lari a month according to the statistics office Geostat, and around 2,583 lari in Tbilisi. At the National Bank of Georgia rate of 19 August 2026 (3.0265 lari to the euro) the male average pension is about 4,252 lari — 1.8 times the national average. Even the female average, at about 2,890 lari, still sits above it.
Can I get health insurance in Georgia as a pensioner?
This is the decisive constraint and should be settled before any tax question. Georgian insurers usually accept new customers only up to an age between 65 and 70; pre-existing conditions attract surcharges or lead to refusal. Do not count on the state Universal Health Care programme: by its own programme description it addresses the population of Georgia together with stateless persons, refugees and protection holders — holders of an ordinary residence permit are not listed as entitled. Anyone arriving at 68 and only then looking may find no policy at all. There is no social security agreement between Germany and Georgia covering health insurance.
What residence status do I need as a pensioner?
None at first — although the sources differ on the length: the Georgian regulation speaks of a full year, the German Federal Foreign Office of up to 360 days. Plan with the conservative figure. Georgian law knows no retirement permit; the aliens act lists the permit types exhaustively and retirement is not among them. The realistic routes are property ownership with a market value above USD 150,000, the investment permit from USD 300,000, and work, study or family reunification. Timing is critical: the permit must not merely be applied for but actually granted within the visa-free period. Since 1 January 2026, proof of health and accident insurance covering the entire stay, with minimum cover of 30,000 lari, is also required on entry.
What speaks against Georgia as a place to retire?
Four things, and they are serious. First, the age limit on private health insurance. Second, the absence of long-term care cover: there is no equivalent to German care insurance, so care is arranged and paid for privately. Third, currency and inflation risk — the lari lost about nine percent against the euro between 2023 and 2026, and Georgian consumer price inflation stood at 5.5 percent in July 2026. Fourth, the limits of specialist medicine: complex oncology, transplants and rehabilitation run into capacity limits, and those are precisely the benefits local policies routinely exclude. Anyone leaving after the age of 55 should also know section 6 (3a) SGB V, which as a rule bars return to the statutory health scheme.
This article is general information and does not constitute legal, tax, pension or insurance advice. Pension payment figures follow the statistics of the German pension insurance as at 31 December 2024; replacement rate and basic security figures follow the OECD and the Federal Statistical Office respectively. Georgian wage data come from the statistics office Geostat (first quarter 2026). The allocation of taxing rights follows the agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and Georgia for the avoidance of double taxation of 1 June 2006, in force since 21 December 2007, articles 18 and 19, together with article 82 (1) (u) of the Georgian Tax Code. Statements on limited tax liability rest on section 49 (1) no. 7, section 50 (1) sentence 2 and section 1 (3) EStG; the basic allowance and taxable share refer to 2026 and to a pension starting in 2026. Statements on pensions paid abroad follow sections 110, 111, 113 and 114 SGB VI as in force since 1 October 2013, and the loss of the health insurance subsidy section 106 in conjunction with section 111 (2) SGB VI. Whether a pension is paid in full in an individual case is a matter for the German pension insurance. The Austrian statements follow the agreement between Austria and Georgia for the avoidance of double taxation of 11 April 2005, the information of the Austrian pension institution on pensions abroad, and the 2026 social insurance parameters. Residence-law statements follow the Georgian law on the legal status of aliens and stateless persons and the travel advice of the German Federal Foreign Office; on the length of visa-free stay the Georgian regulation (“a full year”) and the Federal Foreign Office (“up to 360 days”) diverge. Figures on the structure of the Georgian health insurance market follow the market statistics of the Insurance State Supervision Service of Georgia for 1 January to 31 December 2025. Statements on age limits of Georgian insurers rest on market observation and do not replace an insurer’s underwriting decision. Conversions use the National Bank of Georgia rate of 19 August 2026, 3.0265 GEL to the euro; the National Bank expressly designates it an indicative rate. As at August 2026; subject to changes in the law.