Georgia Crypto Tax Reporting: CARF and CRS 2027

On 14 September 2026 the OECD Global Forum updated its list of jurisdictions committed to the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. Seventy-seven jurisdictions are on it. Georgia is not, and it sits in a group of four that the Global Forum considers relevant to the framework but that have not committed to it.

That single line has been read as a green light more often than it deserves. This article sets out what the list actually says, what Georgia already reports today, and the four specific reasons why the missing commitment is a much smaller opening than it looks.

One clarification before anything else, because search results mix the two constantly: this is Georgia the country in the South Caucasus, capital Tbilisi, currency the lari, tax authority the Revenue Service at rs.ge. Nothing here concerns the US state of the same name or its Department of Revenue.

Last verified: 15 September 2026, against the Global Forum commitment list dated 14 September 2026.

What the September 2026 list actually says

The Global Forum sorts jurisdictions by the year of their first exchange of crypto data. As of the 14 September 2026 update the groups are:

• First exchanges by 2027, 46 jurisdictions. Every EU member state, plus the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Uganda and the Crown Dependencies.
• First exchanges by 2028, 27 jurisdictions. Among them Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia, Israel, Panama, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands and Türkiye.
• First exchanges by 2029, 4 jurisdictions. Argentina, Azerbaijan, Mexico and the United States.
• Relevant but not yet committed, 4 jurisdictions. El Salvador, Georgia, India and Viet Nam.

Read the fourth group next to the first one and the practical position becomes clear. If you are tax resident in the EU, the UK, Türkiye or the Gulf, your own country is in the system. The jurisdiction where the exchange sits is only one half of a reporting relationship, and it is not the half that taxes you.

The wording of the fourth group is worth attention too. It does not say these jurisdictions are outside the scope of the framework. It says the Global Forum has identified them as relevant and that they have not committed yet.

One detail there is easy to miss, and most write-ups get it wrong. A footnote marks the jurisdictions that are already working towards a political commitment. On the current list that footnote is attached to India alone. Georgia does not carry it. You will still find write-ups describing Georgia as being in the process of committing. That description does not match the list as it stands. On the September 2026 version Georgia is simply not committed, with no published signal about when that changes.

What CARF is, in one paragraph

CARF makes crypto-asset service providers report their users to a tax authority, which then passes the data to the user's country of tax residence. Exchanges, brokers, custodians and some wallet providers fall in scope. What gets reported is transaction level: crypto acquired against fiat, crypto disposed of for fiat, crypto-to-crypto exchanges, and transfers out to external addresses, together with the identity and tax residence of the user behind them. Data collection in the 2027 group began on 1 January 2026, so the first reportable year is already running.

It works the way the Common Reporting Standard works for bank accounts, applied to a different asset class. Which brings up the part most discussions of Georgia and crypto skip.

Georgia already reports, and has done since 2024

Georgia joined the CRS Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on 9 November 2022. The domestic machinery followed in early 2023, when articles 70² and 279² were added to the Tax Code. The first creates the reporting obligation for financial institutions; the second backs it with penalties of up to GEL 3,000 per day against an institution that does not comply. Rules of procedure came from the Ministry of Finance on 5 April 2023. The first reporting year was 2023, and the first exchange ran in September 2024 with that year's account data.

The annual rhythm since then runs like this. Georgian financial institutions identify reportable account holders, report them to the Revenue Service by 30 June following the reporting year, and the Revenue Service exchanges the data with partner jurisdictions in September of the same year. Balances, interest, dividends and gross proceeds are all in scope, along with the account holder's name, address, tax identification number and jurisdiction of residence.

So the common framing, that Georgia is a jurisdiction which does not report, was already wrong before CARF entered the picture. Bank accounts have been reported for two exchange cycles. What is missing is a reporting obligation on crypto service providers specifically. That is a narrower gap than the headline suggests, and here is why it narrows further.

Four reasons the missing commitment matters less than it looks

1. Your home country taxes you under its own rules

Reporting frameworks move information. They do not create or remove tax liability. If you are tax resident in Germany, Spain or Türkiye, your crypto gains are taxable there under that country's law whether or not any Georgian institution ever sends a file. The absence of an automatic feed changes the probability of detection, not the legal position. Anyone selling you the first as if it were the second is selling you a risk, and pricing it at zero.

Georgian tax residency is a different question with a different answer, and it has its own conditions. We cover it separately in our guide to tax residency in Georgia.

2. The cash-out is already visible

Crypto that stays in crypto is outside CRS. Crypto that becomes lari, dollars or euros in a Georgian bank account is a bank balance, and Georgian bank balances have been reportable since the 2023 reporting year. The exit is the point of visibility, and almost every real position eventually has an exit.

This catches people who think in terms of the asset rather than the flow. The asset may sit outside the framework. The proceeds usually do not, and a large inbound transfer from an exchange is also the kind of movement that triggers questions from a compliance department long before it reaches a tax authority. Our comparison of banks in Georgia for foreigners goes into how the major banks handle crypto-linked funds.

3. The amended CRS closed part of the gap on 1 January 2026

The revised Common Reporting Standard, widely called CRS 2.0, took effect on 1 January 2026 in the jurisdictions applying it. It adds explicit definitions for electronic money, central bank digital currencies and crypto-assets. Specified electronic money products and CBDCs are treated as depository accounts, and the definition of a Financial Asset was widened so that crypto-assets sit inside it. First exchanges of that expanded data are due in 2027, covering the 2026 year.

Whether Georgia adopts the amended standard on the same timetable is a question we could not settle from public sources, and we are not going to guess at it. Treat it as open. The point that holds regardless is that the boundary between crypto reporting and bank reporting is being deliberately erased at the OECD level, which makes any planning built on that boundary short-lived by design.

4. Not committed is not the same as never

Georgia is on the Global Forum's list of relevant jurisdictions. That designation exists precisely because the Global Forum expects these places to join. Commitments have been added to this list repeatedly over the past two years, and a jurisdiction that commits in, say, 2027 would typically begin collecting data the following January and exchange the year after that.

The practical consequence is a planning horizon measured in a couple of years, not a permanent state. Structures that only work while Georgia stays off the list are structures with an expiry date that nobody controls.

How Georgia taxes crypto itself

This is separate from reporting, and it is the part that is genuinely favourable.

The Ministry of Finance published public decision N-201 on 28 June 2019. Under it, income received by an individual from the supply of crypto assets is not subject to personal income tax, and converting crypto into national or foreign currency does not create a VAT obligation.

The reasoning behind that result is worth understanding, because it explains the edges. Crypto assets have no physical form, no fixed location and usually no identifiable issuer, so the gain is characterised as foreign-source income. Georgia runs a territorial system in which foreign-source income of individuals is generally untaxed. The favourable outcome is a consequence of that characterisation rather than a special carve-out for crypto, which is why it does not stretch to everything crypto-adjacent.

Three limits matter in practice. Mining is treated differently from trading, and mining services can attract VAT. Crypto received as payment for services you performed is ordinary income for the work, taxable under the general rules, regardless of the currency it arrives in. And this treatment belongs to individuals, not companies: a Georgian company trading crypto is taxed under the corporate rules, which means 15 percent corporate income tax payable on distribution under the Estonian model.

One more line is worth drawing. The boundary between passive personal investment and an active trading business is a question of facts, not of labels. Someone running high-frequency activity through personal accounts and calling it investment is relying on a characterisation the Revenue Service is entitled to test.

The regimes available on the company side are compared in our Georgia tax guide.

If you operate a crypto business in Georgia

Running a service rather than holding an asset puts you under the National Bank of Georgia, and that regime has been tightening while the CARF question stays open.

Virtual asset service providers register with the National Bank rather than buying a licence off a shelf. The review is substantive: corporate structure, beneficial ownership, the fitness of management, the AML controls actually in place, and real presence in the country, meaning an office in Georgia and responsible officers who are genuinely there.

On general capital, be careful what you read. Published summaries disagree with each other, and the tiered figures that circulate for exchange, transfer and trading-platform services could not be traced to a National Bank source when we checked. What the specialist Georgian firms consistently say is that a limited liability company acting as a VASP faces no statutory minimum capital of its own, while a joint stock company carries the ordinary GEL 100,000 subscribed capital of that form. Confirm your own figure with the National Bank before budgeting against a number from a blog, this one included.

Stablecoins are the exception, and there the rule is documented. On 6 March 2026 the Governor of the National Bank signed Order No. 52/04, setting the framework for stablecoin issuance by a VASP. An issuer needs at least GEL 500,000 in capital, held legally and operationally apart from reserve assets, with reserves backed in full, redemption inside three to five business days, annual financial statements to the National Bank, quarterly reserve audits, and notification of corporate changes within ten days. Companies already issuing stablecoins when the order took effect were given six months to comply, a transition that ran to September 2026.

The full requirements are set out in our article on the Georgian crypto licence and VASP registration, and our crypto licence service covers the application itself.

What to do before the 2027 exchanges

Four things are worth settling now rather than in 2027, in roughly this order of importance.

Establish where you are actually tax resident, on paper. Not where you spend time, not where your company is, but which country would win a tie-breaker. This determines which reporting stream reaches you and under which law your gains are assessed. It is the input to every other decision on this list.

Reconstruct your acquisition history while you still can. Cost basis records are the thing people cannot produce when asked. Exchanges close, accounts get deleted, and a CSV export costs nothing today. When an assessment arrives without a basis, the default assumption is rarely generous.

Assume your Georgian bank account is visible, because it is. Plan cash-outs on that basis rather than on the hope that a particular flow goes unnoticed. This is not a caution about doing something wrong; it is a caution about being surprised by a question you could have prepared an answer to.

Get advice in both jurisdictions. Georgian treatment and home-country treatment are separate analyses and they interact. A Georgian adviser who tells you your home country is irrelevant, or a home-country adviser who has never looked at decision N-201, is giving you half a picture each.

Frequently asked questions

Does Georgia report my crypto holdings to my home country?

Not through CARF, because Georgia has not committed to it as of the 14 September 2026 Global Forum list. Bank accounts are a different matter: those have been reported under CRS since the 2023 reporting year, with the first exchange in 2024. So fiat proceeds sitting in a Georgian bank are reportable even though crypto held at a Georgian service provider currently is not.

Is Georgia a CRS country?

Yes. It joined the CRS Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement in November 2022, first reporting year 2023, first exchange September 2024. Anyone describing Georgia as a non-CRS jurisdiction is working from information that is at least three years out of date.

When would CARF start applying in Georgia?

No date exists, because no commitment exists. If Georgia committed during 2027, a realistic sequence would be data collection from the following January and a first exchange the year after. That is a pattern drawn from how other jurisdictions have phased in, not a published Georgian timetable, and it should be treated as an estimate rather than a plan.

Do I pay tax in Georgia on crypto profits?

An individual selling crypto assets is exempt from personal income tax under Ministry of Finance decision N-201 of 28 June 2019, and conversion into currency does not trigger VAT. Companies are outside that exemption and are taxed under the corporate regime. Whether your activity counts as personal investment or as a business is decided on the facts.

Does a Georgian company solve the reporting question?

No, and it can complicate it. A Georgian company has its own tax profile, its bank accounts are reportable under CRS, and beneficial ownership information is held in the register. If your aim in forming one is to sit outside a reporting framework rather than to run something in Georgia, the structure is doing the opposite of what you think.

Which countries start receiving crypto data first?

The 46 jurisdictions in the 2027 group, which includes every EU member state and the United Kingdom. Türkiye, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong and the UAE follow in the 2028 group. The United States is in the 2029 group and also operates its own FATCA regime separately.

Conclusion

Georgia's absence from the CARF list is real, current and easy to verify: the Global Forum document dated 14 September 2026 names four jurisdictions that have not committed, and Georgia is one of them. What it is not is a reporting shield. Bank accounts have been exchanged since 2024, the amended CRS is pulling adjacent products into scope from the 2026 year, and the commitment list has only ever grown.

The durable reasons to be in Georgia are the ones that do not depend on any of this: a 0 percent personal income tax on crypto disposals by individuals since 2019, corporate tax payable only on distribution, a functioning VASP regime under the National Bank, and company formation that takes days. Those hold whether or not Georgia signs CARF next year. A plan built on the signature not arriving is a plan with someone else's timetable inside it.

Sources

Every figure and date above traces to one of the following. Where sources disagreed, which happened on VASP capital requirements, we have said so in the text rather than picking the convenient number.

Primary

• OECD Global Forum, Jurisdictions committed to implement the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, last updated 14 September 2026. Source for the four groups, the counts of 46, 27, 4 and 4, Georgia's place among the jurisdictions that have not committed, and the footnote attached to India.
• OECD, Automatic exchange of information: exchange relationships. The register of activated bilateral CRS relationships.
• Tax Code of Georgia, legislative herald of Georgia. Articles 70² and 279², added in 2023, carry the CRS reporting obligation for financial institutions and the penalty for failing it.
• Revenue Service of Georgia. The authority that collects CRS reports from Georgian financial institutions and runs the exchange with partner jurisdictions.
• National Bank of Georgia. VASP registration and supervision, and Order No. 52/04 of 6 March 2026 on stablecoin issuance.

Professional commentary

• Orbitax, Georgia joins the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement, reporting the OECD update of 9 November 2022 and Georgia's stated intention to exchange from September 2024.
• AttorneyAtLaw.ge, Georgia's Common Reporting Standard implementation. Source for the Ministry of Finance rules of procedure of 5 April 2023, the 30 June reporting deadline, the September exchange, and the penalty of up to GEL 3,000 per day.
• Maples Group, CRS 2.0: key amendments effective 2026 to 2027. Source for the 1 January 2026 effective date, the new definitions for electronic money, CBDCs and crypto-assets, and the separation between CRS and CARF as distinct regimes.
• Andersen in Georgia, taxation of crypto for individuals. Source for the foreign-source characterisation that produces the exemption, and for the different treatment of mining and of crypto received as payment for services.
• PB Services, Georgia's new stablecoin law. Source for the detail of Order No. 52/04: the GEL 500,000 capital held apart from reserves, full reserve backing, redemption in three to five business days, quarterly reserve audits and the transition period to September 2026.
• Legalese Georgia, VASP licence in Georgia. Source for the absence of a dedicated minimum capital for an LLC acting as a VASP and the GEL 100,000 subscribed capital of a joint stock company.

Two things we could not establish from public sources, and therefore do not assert anywhere above: whether Georgia is adopting the amended CRS on the same 2026 timetable as the jurisdictions applying it, and the current number of Georgia's activated CRS exchange relationships.

Last updated: September 2026. This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. Commitment lists, reporting obligations and Georgian tax treatment all change; verify the current position with the OECD Global Forum, the Revenue Service of Georgia and the National Bank of Georgia, and take advice in Georgia and in your country of residence before acting.

Author: GeorgiaRegister editorial team.