How to Work as a Private Craftsman in Georgia

In brief: what to check before your first order

First determine your status and your right to work in Georgia, then the form of your activity and a suitable tax regime. Separately, check the conditions for specific types of work. After that, prepare a description of your service, an order calculation and a procedure for agreeing terms with the client. Registering as a sole proprietor, tax status and professional qualification each answer different questions.

Start with one clear specialization: which tasks you perform, which devices or materials you work with, where you travel to and what result you can show a client. Before publishing a listing, also define the limits of your service. If the necessary conditions for work are not yet in place, prepare your documents and portfolio before accepting orders.

Sources, categories and the public form were checked on 31.10.2026. The rules apply depending on a person's status, the type of service and the client; before starting work, check your own situation against the official documents.

Categories by place of work: find your profile

Open the section for your area and see how suitable services are named. In the general "Private craftsmen" section, go on to your specialization. The items below name a specific profile: tailor, cobbler or tow truck operator. The existence of a category does not confirm the right to practise a profession, the quality of providers or the availability of orders.

• Adigeni: Private craftsmen
• Ambrolauri: Private craftsmen
• Aragvispiri: Private craftsmen
• Akhalkalaki: Private craftsmen
• Akhaltsikhe: Tow truck operator
• Akhmeta: Private craftsmen
• Batumi: Private craftsmen
• Bolnisi: Private craftsmen
• Gori: Private craftsmen
• Dedoplistskaro: Cobbler
• Dmanisi: Private craftsmen
• Zestafoni: Private craftsmen
• Zugdidi: Private craftsmen
• Kabali: Private craftsmen
• Kvareli: Private craftsmen
• Kvemo Kartli: Private craftsmen
• Kobuleti: Private craftsmen
• Kutaisi: Private craftsmen
• Lagodekhi: Private craftsmen
• Marneuli: Tailor
• Muganlo: Private craftsmen
• Mtskheta: Private craftsmen
• Ninotsminda: Private craftsmen
• Ozurgeti: Private craftsmen
• Oni: Private craftsmen
• Poti: Private craftsmen
• Rustavi: Private craftsmen
• Sagarejo: Private craftsmen
• Samtredia: Private craftsmen
• Sachkhere: Private craftsmen
• Sighnaghi: Private craftsmen
• Stepantsminda (Kazbegi): Private craftsmen
• Surami: Tow truck operator
• Tbilisi: Private craftsmen
• Telavi: Private craftsmen
• Tetritskaro: Private craftsmen
• Tkibuli: Private craftsmen
• Kharagauli: Private craftsmen
• Khashuri: Private craftsmen
• Tsalka: Private craftsmen
• Tsnori: Tailor
• Chiatura: Private craftsmen

Compare your service with the category profile before asking for a listing to be added. For example, appliance repair, equipment installation and work on a gas system may require different training. Do not expand your list of services just to appear in more sections.

Can a foreigner work independently

For a foreigner without a permanent residence permit, whether the rules on independent work apply is checked under the law on labor migration. It contains exceptions based on status and the nature of the activity. Registering as a sole proprietor does not in itself replace the right to work and the grounds for residence required by law.

For a self-employed foreigner who falls under these rules, the law provides for applying directly for the right to work; it is tied to a specific profession and field of activity. The right to work, a suitable visa or residence permit and the lawfulness of your stay in the country are checked separately. The procedure for a hired employee cannot be automatically applied to an independent craftsman.

Before an order, prepare the following for checking: citizenship, the document and grounds for your stay in the country, the type and term of your residence permit if you have one, the actual service and the place where it is performed. Find out whether an exception applies to you, who submits the application and which documents are needed for your profession. Do not replace this check with a message from an acquaintance who was registered in a different period or worked as an employee.

Whether you need to be a sole proprietor and how registration differs from tax status

Under the Law "On Entrepreneurs" entrepreneurial activity means lawful, repeated, independent and organized work for profit. A sole proprietor acts as a natural person and is not a separate legal entity. The law also provides for types of activity that are not entrepreneurial, so the form is chosen according to the actual work.

Describe your future service before registering: what exactly you do, alone or with assistants, for individuals or organizations. This description will be useful both for the registry and for the tax service. If you plan to combine repair with selling parts or with another service, analyze each part separately.

For registering and changing sole proprietor data, the NAPR tariffs page listed, at the time of checking, 26 lari for one working day and 75 lari on the day of application. This is the fee for the named registration service, not the full cost of starting work. Check the set of documents and the requirements for address, translation and representation for your own application; do not include additional services in these amounts by default.

Small business status is obtained through a separate application to the Revenue Service. Before applying, check that the work is eligible, and after the application is reviewed, check the status and the date it takes effect. Obtaining an extract on the sole proprietor does not mean the preferential regime is automatically granted.

Which taxes apply to the chosen activity

The rate is chosen by activity and income, not by the word "craftsman" in a listing. Articles 88–93 of the Tax Code regulate small business status. For taxable income under this regime, 1% is provided, and if the overall threshold of 500,000 lari per calendar year is exceeded, 3% from the beginning of the month of excess until the end of the calendar year. The rule applies to the eligible income of the status holder; it does not extend the regime to excluded services and receipts.

An increase in the rate and loss of status are different things. Article 89 provides, among other things, for cancellation of status when the established threshold is exceeded in each of two calendar years. Therefore a single excess of the threshold cannot be described as an automatic transfer of any sole proprietor to the general regime. Check all grounds for cancellation of status and the date of their consequences for your situation.

Check the annexes 4 and 5 of Resolution No. 415: one contains restrictions by type of activity, the other income outside the special regime. In particular, income from the construction services listed in Annex 5 of group 41.2 and sections 42 and 43 is excluded from it if the client is an enterprise, organization or entrepreneur under the Tax Code. It cannot be concluded from this that there is a single regime for any apartment renovation or any client.

To check a construction or installation service, name the actual operation, its classification and the status of the recipient. Replacing part of equipment, finishing, installation and consultation do not become one activity just because one person performs them. Before calculating a payment, find out from the RS which regime each income falls under and how to keep separate records when services are combined.

For small business, the code requires filing the return and paying the tax no later than the 15th of the month following the reporting month. Check the set of reports, the recording of receipts and documents, settlements with an assistant and what to do when there is no income, as they apply to your regime. Do not transfer the deadlines of another type of return to monthly reporting.

VAT is checked separately. Under the general rule of Article 165, if the relevant taxable operations exceed 100,000 lari over any continuous 12 calendar months, you must apply for registration no later than two working days. The code contains special cases and rules on the composition of operations; this is not simply annual income and not net profit. Small business status does not in itself remove the need to check VAT.

How to define the limits of your service

Make a list of operations you can perform and verify, and a separate list of work you are not yet taking on. Indicate familiar models, materials, equipment and restrictions on access to the site. Describe training documents and work examples accurately: a photo of a completed order does not confirm permission for any technical operation.

The table shows a way to describe a service, not a list of professional permits. For work with special requirements, first establish the rules for the specific operation and site. If at inspection the task goes beyond the agreed limits of your training, stop the discussion of terms and suggest that the client contact a specialist of the appropriate profile.

How much you can earn: calculate the order, do not promise a salary

A private craftsman's income depends on paid orders and the costs of carrying them out. To start, calculate one order, then a week with actual workload. Time for travel, correspondence, purchasing and a repeat visit also takes up the working day, even if the client pays only for a separate operation.

Working formula: revenue for the agreed work − actual materials − travel − assistant − share of tool costs − applicable taxes = order result before personal expenses. This is a calculation scheme, not an estimate of market earnings or of the tax base.

In your calculation, separate the client's money for purchases from payment for your labor and account for it under the applicable rules. Write down which expenses are already included in the stated price. If you take a share of the tool's cost into account when assessing whether an order is worthwhile, that does not mean the same amount can be deducted when calculating tax.

A hypothetical example without market amounts: for one repair you allowed time for inspection and work. Buying a part and a second trip also turned out to be needed. Compare the final payment with the costs of both visits, the part and all the time spent. If you count only the time at the client's place, the calculation will look better than the actual result.

The Geostat salaries section publishes indicators of employee pay. The profit of an independent craftsman cannot be obtained from them by simply carrying over an amount. For your own plan, use your own completed orders; until you have them, consider several workload scenarios without promising an income.

How to find your first orders

Prepare a short description of your service: specialization, area you travel to, work format, languages of communication and way to contact you. Instead of "I do everything quickly and well," name specific operations. If you accept only certain models or materials, state this right away so as not to waste the client's time or your own.

Build your portfolio from work you can describe and have the right to show. Get the owner's consent to publish photos, and remove addresses, faces, documents and other personal information. Separate your own work from participation in a team: write which part you were responsible for. Do not use an illustration as a photo of a completed order.

Tell a suitable local community about your prepared service, following its rules, or post the information in a directory. Answer inquiries to the point: whether you take on the task, what data is missing and how to arrange an inspection. Having a listing or a card does not guarantee a flow of clients.

Ask for a review after the order is completed without demanding a particular rating. Respond to a complaint according to the circumstances of the work: clarify the task, the date and the agreed way of contacting you again. Do not publish correspondence or the client's personal data for the sake of an argument in the comments.

How to agree on an order and accept the result

Before starting, write down the task, scope, inspection format, terms of the visit and method of payment. After diagnostics, agree on the work and the materials separately. If a new circumstance comes up, explain how it affects the scope, the amount and the deadline, and get confirmation before performing additional operations.

A short sample message to the client, to be filled in for your own order:

Hello. Based on your description, I am ready to discuss [specific task] for [model or object] in [territory]. Before confirming the work, I will clarify [missing information]. Terms of the visit and inspection: [composition and agreed payment, including if you decline]. After the inspection I will send a list of work and materials with a calculation. I carry out additional work and replacements only after your confirmation. We will check the result against [list of functions or criteria]; the terms for any repeat contact will be recorded separately.

In an estimate it is convenient to itemize work, materials, delivery and other agreed expenses. State the unit and volume, who buys the parts and when payment is due. If the exact amount is not yet known, explain why and agree on a maximum cost or a separate assessment stage. Do not leave the client with the wording "we'll calculate later."

Before handing over the result, compare what was done with the agreed task. Show the functions or signs of completion that can be checked, and note any deferred checks and their procedure. Record the parts and documents handed over and the terms for repeat contact. Do not promise a single warranty on all work if such terms are not defined for the specific service.

How to add your listing to Madloba

On the page for adding an organization at the time of checking on 31.10, the following are available: name, category, city, address, phone, schedule and service languages, as well as contact person details and e-mail. Website, social networks, identification code and comment are marked as optional. Prepare the information in advance and check the contact for replies.

The checked form has no separate visible "specialization" field and no portfolio upload. Describe the service profile in the comment, and discuss a suitable category and photos with the manager. If you work on site at clients' locations and do not receive clients at an address, ask how to indicate this correctly in the listing; do not enter a fictitious workshop.

The public page states that listing is free and that after the form is filled in, a manager will get in touch to clarify details and publish. Submitting a request does not mean the listing appears instantly and does not confirm the right to work or qualification. Before submitting, read the data processing terms; after publication, check how the profile, territory and contacts are displayed.

Checklist before your first order

• Your personal status, right to work and grounds for residence have been checked as applicable.
• A form of activity has been chosen; the tax regime and its effective date have been checked separately.
• The service is described specifically, and its classification and the conditions for the relevant profession have been clarified.
• The territory, work format and operations you do not take on are defined.
• Your own work examples are prepared, with permission to publish and without clients' personal information.
• The inspection, visit, composition of the estimate, materials and payment if the client declines are agreed.
• Additional work requires separate confirmation from the client.
• Checking of the result, documents and the procedure for repeat contact are defined.
• Recording of receipts, expenses for your own calculation and applicable reporting are planned.

Frequently asked questions

Do sole proprietor status and small business status mean the same thing?

No. Sole proprietor refers to the form of conducting activity, while small business status refers to a special tax regime. Registration, the eligibility of the service, the granting of status and the date it takes effect are checked separately. None of these steps in itself confirms professional permits.

Can a foreigner take orders immediately after registering as a sole proprietor?

Such a conclusion cannot be drawn from registration alone. Check whether the law on labor migration applies, the exceptions for your position, the right to work and the grounds for your stay in the country. For independent activity, consider your own profession and field, not the procedure for a hired employee.

Is the 1% tax suitable for all private craftsmen?

No. A suitable status, eligible activity and income that falls under the special regime are required. For construction services, the classification and the recipient of the service are also taken into account. VAT and other obligations are checked separately.

How can I estimate my future earnings?

First calculate the result of a specific order after costs and applicable taxes, then the workload, taking into account travel, purchases and downtime. Do not equate an employee's salary from statistics with the profit of a private craftsman. Do not include an order you did not receive in actual income.

Will the listing appear immediately after the form is filled in?

The public form provides for a manager to get in touch afterwards to clarify details and publish. Check your contact details and prepare an accurate description of the service. The time when the listing will appear does not follow from the mere fact of submitting a request.