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Former Soviet Republic of Georgia To Become IT Tax Haven

Posted by kdawson on from the here's-a-hint-one-of-them-is-black-and-sticky dept.

A few days ago we noted how Ukraine is driving out its software freelancers with the threat of onerous taxation. Now comes news that another former Soviet republic, Georgia, will become a tax-free zone for IT companies. It might be the Google translation, but it seems that officials there are somewhat worried about how to categorize the IT segment: "[T]he main difficulty ... is to determine which organization is the IT company, and what is not: 'While from a formal point of view it is impossible to distinguish between software developers from the oil.'"

3 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Does this mean Georgia will be invaded again? by mrsteveman1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    They do control a large percentage of our Peach reserves......oh you mean the other Georgia? Fuck who knows.

  2. Re:So now our jobs go to Georgia? by Luckyo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Taxation is merely one small variable in a big formula.

    Among others are:

    1. Infrastructure
    2. Workforce availability
    3. Culture of working
    4. Political stability
    5. Religious stability
    6. Social stability
    7. Corruption
    8. Legal system
    etc.

    If you really believe that taxation is the biggest issue, I have a zero-taxation location for you in Somalia.

  3. Re:So now our jobs go to Georgia? by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Informative

    Georgia is #11 in the "Ease of Doing Business Index", and generally has very lax economic regulation across the board. There have been some sweeping social and political reforms since 2004, and the guys at helm are die-hard economic liberals, with all that implies - very little bureaucracy, and tendency of government to keep its nose out of business affairs for as long as all taxes are paid.

    I'd say that, if you're looking for a libertarian paradise, it's one of the places closest to that. How long that will last is a good question, though - there have been some claims recently that Georgian economic growth has all signs of an investment bubble, and it's about to burst.