Customs payments in Georgia

1. Import duties in Georgia, their rates and payment terms
2. What is the import tax?
3. Import duty rates
4. When is the import duty paid?

What are import duties, how or when are they paid, and generally what are import duties?

We will answer each of these questions in today's article and try to explain in detail the essence of import duty.

Import duties in Georgia, their rates and payment terms

Import duties have rates that include the following:

• The VAT rate is 18% of the import amount.
• Import tax rates - 5%, or 12% or fixed differential depending on the type of goods.
• Excise tax rates - fixed and differentiated according to the type of goods;

Meaning of terms

*Differentiated - goods or products that differ in physical or other parameters from a similar product produced by another firm.

What are the payment terms?

It is necessary that the payment be made no later than 45 calendar days, and no later than 30 calendar days from the date of assignment of the registration number for the simplified customs declaration.

In other cases, no later than 5 calendar days after the release of the goods.

What is the import tax?

What is an import duty in general and why is it important?

Import tax is an import tax, excise duty or value-added tax stipulated by the Tax Code of Georgia, the obligation to pay of which arises in connection with the importation of goods into the customs territory.

Import duty rates

Excise duty

What is excise duty? - This is a tax that an individual pays to the state when purchasing certain goods or services. Locally produced as well as imported products are taxed with excise duty.

Who pays the excise duty? - All persons who import goods to Georgia or import excise goods.

The objects of excise duty are import and export of excise goods.

The subject of excise duty is everything that can harm people or the environment, such as:

1. alcoholic drink.
2. Tobacco products
3. Raw tobacco or tobacco waste
4. petroleum products
5. Natural gas for condensate or liquefied natural gas
6. For electronic cigarette liquid

The amount of import of excise goods is determined as a result of the calculation of the amount of import tax.

The supply of the goods specified in the code of the national commodity nomenclature of foreign economic activity is allowed only if it is packed in a 50 or 100 gram net weight base, except in the cases determined by the order of the Minister of Finance of Georgia for the purpose of making tobacco products.

According to the established rules, tax authorities confiscate goods that are imported without an excise stamp. From the moment of confiscation, the goods are considered state property, and their destruction or sale is carried out according to the procedure established by the Minister of Finance of Georgia.

Who is exempt from excise duty?

Passengers who bring 200 packs of cigarettes or 200 packs of tobacco products, 10 capsules or similar products are exempt from excise duty.

Also, a passenger who brings in a total of 1 liter of beverages with an alcohol content of 22% or more than 22% or ethyl alcohol with an alcohol content of 80% or more than 80% is exempt from excise duty. As for beer, it is allowed to import 16 liters of beer, which is carried with hand luggage and is not intended for economic activity.

A natural person with a vehicle in which there is fuel in the tank and said fuel is used to power the engine is exempt from excise tax.

Also free are items intended for persons with disabilities, alcoholic beverages used for pharmaceutical products, and alcoholic beverages with a content of no more than 1.2%.

Value Added Tax (VAT)

A person who carries out any kind of economic activity, regardless of the purpose and result of this activity, is taxed with VAT.

During VAT, the supply of goods that enter the border in return for compensation within the framework of economic activity is taxed.

Exemption from value added

Exempted from VAT:

1. Import of raw materials and substances intended for medicinal purposes.
2. Imports for transportation purposes
3. Import of goods necessary for the movement of persons with disabilities.
4. Import of baby food or hygiene products
5. Import of diabetic bread
6. Import of assets or state-owned items. Import of magazines/newspapers
7. Import of money and securities
8. Import of natural gas for power generation (thermal power plants).
9. Import of agrochemicals, agricultural seeds and planting materials
10. Import of fuel in the tank
11. Import of gold to be transferred to the National Bank of Georgia
12. Import of goods to be transferred for the purpose of humanitarian aid
13. Import of diplomatic mission property
14. Import of goods intended for the implementation of mandatory signs/marking of excise and/or non-excise goods by a person selected by the Revenue Service in accordance with the rules established by the legislation of Georgia
15. Import of personal items and household items intended for oil and gas exploration and production
16. import of goods (books);
17. Import of electric bus (including electric minibus).

With the right of deduction from VAT, the supply of goods outside Georgia is also exempted (export/re-export of goods). In addition, if the goods are to be transported by the passenger outside of Georgia as personal baggage, the mentioned tax relief is applied only if the passenger does not live in Georgia (the place specified in the passport or other identity document stipulated by the legislation of Georgia is not Georgia), the goods are transported from Georgia to his within 90 days of delivery and the price of the goods, including VAT, exceeds 600 GEL

When is the import duty paid?

When calculating the amount of import tax, the various costs of storage of temporarily stored goods will not be taken into account, if the declarant submits the relevant document confirming this cost.

Also, the customs value, quantity and origin of the foreign goods used in carrying out the permissible actions in the warehousing of these goods shall be taken into account when calculating the amount of import duty.

If, as a result of carrying out permissible actions on the goods (actions necessary for the improvement of the goods or preparatory actions for the sale of the goods), the SES ESN code of the goods placed in the customs procedure in the customs territory is changed. At the request of the declarant, the original SES ESN code is used for this item.

If a customs duty is incurred on a product undergoing inward processing, at the request of the declarant, this customs duty is determined at the time of this processing, based on the SES ESN code, quantity, type and origin of the said goods

With the orders of the Minister of Finance of Georgia, in order not to avoid the amount of import tax, the amount of import tax will be calculated without the request of the declarant according to the rules established by the third and second part of this article.

*What is ESS and ESN?

CES and ESN are search codes that allow us to search for goods either by name or description.

Summary

Knowledge of import rates and their essence is necessary if we want to conduct customs procedures at a high professional level.

We hope that the information provided in the article will help you to successfully complete the customs procedure.