When a German reads “tax adviser”, they know what stands behind it: an examination, a chamber, a professional indemnity policy. In Georgia the same word carries none of that. This is not a failing but a different design decision — and it moves the question you should be asking before you engage anyone.
What is unregulated in Georgia
Georgia regulates commercial activity through an exhaustive catalogue. The Law on Licences and Permits lists what requires state permission and, in the same breath, provides that activities other than those listed are not subject to a licence. Tax advice is not in that catalogue. Nor is legal advice outside court proceedings.
On top of that, there is no protected title for tax advisers. Nobody has to pass an examination in order to use the term, and nobody can stop them from using it.
Together this has an uncomfortable practical consequence. In Georgia the title carries no information. It says neither that someone is qualified nor that they are not — it simply says nothing. What a provider can actually do has to be checked against other markers.
What stays reserved to advocates
Representation in court, by contrast, is regulated sharply, and it is graded by instance. Art. 94(1) of the Georgian Civil Procedure Code admits “other persons with legal capacity” as representatives — expressly only before the court of first instance. Art. 440 states the converse: anyone who has not passed the advocates’ qualification examination and is not a member of the Georgian Bar Association is barred from acting as a representative above the first instance. The same threshold appears a second time in the transitional provisions of the Law on Advocates.
Two qualifications belong in the picture. First, admission in the individual case is for the court to decide; there is no entitlement. Second, a company can never itself be an advocate — admission is tied to a natural person. So when an advisory firm offers “representation”, what is meant can only be a named authorised individual, not the firm.
The surprising exception: bookkeeping
The area most people assume to be the least sensitive is the only one carrying a registration duty. With its accounting reform Georgia provided that professional bookkeeping and the preparation of financial reports for clients require entry in a state register kept by SARAS — natural persons in the register of accountants, companies in the register of accounting firms.
The dividing line is more precise than it first sounds, and it matters in practice: where an employed accountant keeps the books of their own company, no registration duty arises. The statute places both routes side by side — bookkeeping through an employed accountant, or through an accountant providing professional services. Only the second triggers registration.
For you as a client this is the one hard marker in an otherwise unregulated market: a provider keeping your books belongs in that register, and the register is public.
Where the remit ends
Georgian freedom ends at a border — not a geographic one, but one drawn by subject matter. Under § 1(1)(1) the German Tax Advisory Act covers assistance with taxes governed by federal or Union law and administered by federal or state revenue authorities. Advice whose subject matter is exclusively Georgian tax law does not fall under it. Advice on German exit taxation very much does, no matter where it is delivered from.
Austria draws the line more tightly. § 2(1)(1) of the Public Accountants Act 2017 reserves “advice and assistance in the field of tax law” to tax advisers — without limiting the reservation, in its wording, to Austrian taxes. Something comparable applies to the German Legal Services Act: it exempts a service only where it is provided exclusively from abroad and has no connection to German law. Both conditions have to hold at once.
| Activity | In Georgia | For DACH law |
|---|---|---|
| Advice on Georgian tax law | not applicable | |
| Advice on German or Austrian tax law reserved to the professionals admitted there | not applicable | |
| Contracts under Georgian law | not applicable | |
| Representation, first instance (civil and administrative) | an authorised person, at the court’s discretion | not applicable |
| Representation from the appeal stage admitted advocates only | not applicable | |
| Criminal defence an advocate from the investigation stage | not applicable | |
| Bookkeeping for clients | only with SARAS registration | not applicable |
What to ask a provider
- Are you entered in the SARAS register — and under what number? only relevant where they are to keep your books
- Who exactly represents me in court — and from which instance no longer you?
- Do you advise on Georgian law, or on my country of residence as well? the second answer should be no
- Which admitted professional in Germany or Austria do you work with?
- Does the engagement name the subject matter — law, place of performance, forum?
The third question is the most revealing. A provider who promises to assess the German or Austrian side as well is either promising something they may not do, or has not understood the question. Either is a reason to keep looking.
What the Georgian side looks like when it is kept separate is set out in our piece on the binding ruling under Art. 47; what has to be settled in parallel on the German side, in A Georgian company and German authorities.
Advice in Georgia — frequently asked
Does a tax adviser in Georgia need a licence?
No. The Georgian Law on Licences and Permits sets out an exhaustive catalogue of licensable activities, and tax advice is not in it. Nor is the title protected. Anyone advising on Georgian tax law needs no state permission — which also means the title alone tells you nothing about competence.
Can an advisory firm represent me in court?
In civil and administrative matters a named authorised person with legal capacity may appear at first instance; admission is at the court's discretion. From the appeal stage onwards an advocate admitted to the Georgian Bar Association is required. A company can never be an advocate — admission is tied to a natural person.
Does the first-instance rule apply in criminal matters too?
No, and this is the most common misconception. In criminal matters only an admitted advocate may act as defence counsel, and that applies from the investigation stage. Carrying the rule of thumb about lawyers from the second instance over to a criminal case gets it wrong.
Why is bookkeeping of all things regulated?
Because Georgia wanted its accounting reform to secure the reliability of financial statements. Anyone keeping books or preparing financial reports for clients must be entered in the state register kept by SARAS. Where an employed accountant keeps the books of their own company, no such duty arises.
Can my Georgian adviser handle my German tax return?
No. The German Tax Advisory Act covers assistance with taxes administered by German revenue authorities; anyone assisting there needs the local authorisation. Austria draws the line even wider. The Georgian side and the side of your country of residence therefore belong in different hands.
This article is general information and does not constitute legal or tax advice. The Georgian provisions cited are sourced in their Georgian text, as is § 2 WTBG 2017; the German provisions are named by section and subsection but without a link to the official consolidated text, which was unreachable at the time of writing. Whether a chamber extends the Austrian reservation to foreign tax law has not been settled by a court. As at August 2026.
Sources
Every legal statement in this article is backed by the primary source listed below.
- Law of Georgia on Licences and Permits, No. 1775-რს, Arts. 4 and 6 — exhaustive catalogue of licensable and permit-bound activities
- Civil Procedure Code of Georgia, Art. 94(1) and Art. 440 — capacity to represent and the instance threshold; Georgian text, publication 178
- Law of Georgia on Advocates, No. 976, Art. 40(4) — the same instance threshold in the transitional provisions
- Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia, statutory definition of defence counsel — only an admitted advocate may act as defence counsel
- Law of Georgia on Accounting, Reporting and Auditing, No. 5386-IIს, Art. 4(3) and Art. 13¹(3) — registration duty for bookkeeping provided to clients
- Order of the Head of SARAS No. ნ-3 of 2 May 2023 — maintenance of the state registers of accountants and accounting firms
- Austrian Public Accountants Act 2017 (WTBG 2017), § 2(1) — activities reserved to tax advisers; version BGBl. I No. 6/2026