Georgia establishes tax free relations with Cyprus, Liechtenstein and Iceland

Georgia is stepping up cooperation in taxation, customs affairs and a number of other avenues with Cyprus, Liechtenstein and Iceland.

Finance Ministers of Cyprus, Liechtenstein and Iceland signed a cooperation agreement with Georgia on avoidance of double taxation, prevention of evasion of income and capital taxes in Tbilisi today.

Georgia’s Finance Minister Nodar Khaduri hosted his counterparts and signed the document at the Parliament Building in central Tbilisi, where the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) 24th Annual Meeting is currently taking place. 

Double taxation is the levying of tax by two or more jurisdictions on the same declared income (in the case of income taxes), assets (in the case of capital taxes), or financial transaction (in the case of sales taxes). This double liability is often mitigated by tax treaties between countries.

The main goal of signing the agreement was to increase economic cooperation between the countries and attract more investments, underlined Khaduri after the meeting.

"This is an additional guarantee for investors that Georgia is an open country and its tax legislation is convenient for them. At the same time Georgian investors are also able to invest in Cyprus, Liechtenstein and Iceland benefiting from favourable conditions,” Khaduri said.

The Cyprus Finance Minister said: "We are delighted that we are in Georgia and have signed an agreement which is a very important factor to attracting investments for both countries. Exactly this document creates the conditions to deepen economic relations between the countries and to implement the investment projects."

Currently Georgia has treaties with more than 50 countries to ensure the avoidance of double taxation, and customs cooperation agreements with more than 16 countries.

Recently Georgia signed the same agreement on avoiding double taxation with Belarus, while its president Alexander Lukashenko paid an official visit to Georgia in April.