Luxembourg-Georgia Tax Treaty Protocol: Article 27 Applies From 2027
The protocol amending the Luxembourg-Georgia tax treaty entered into force for both countries on 6 July 2026, according to the notice published in Memorial A No. 504 on 23 October 2026. Signed in Luxembourg on 3 July 2025, the protocol deletes Article 27 of the double taxation convention signed on 15 October 2007, the exchange-of-information article, and replaces it with wording that the commentary in bill No. 8667 describes as corresponding to the current version of the OECD Model Tax Convention. Under Article 2(2) of the protocol, the new article applies to tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2027.
For reporting teams, the change sits in the request channel. Georgia has been a CRS Reportable Jurisdiction for Luxembourg reporting financial institutions since reports on calendar year 2023, so the annual account file already covers reportable accounts of Georgian residents. Under the new article, Georgia’s competent authority can ask for information foreseeably relevant to taxes of every kind, and Luxembourg cannot decline solely because a bank, nominee or fiduciary holds it. Where the Luxembourg administration does not already hold the information, the request reaches the holder as an injunction under the Law of 25 November 2014, with one month to answer in full.
Related reading: Luxembourg-Viet Nam Tax Treaty: Information Exchange Rules From 2027
Luxembourg-Georgia tax treaty protocol: dates and applicability
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 15 October 2007 | Convention and its accompanying protocol signed in Luxembourg |
| 3 July 2025 | Amending protocol signed in Luxembourg |
| 10 March 2026 | Approving law; published in Memorial A No. 131 on 16 March 2026 |
| 12 June 2026 | Conditions for entry into force fulfilled, as recorded in the notice |
| 6 July 2026 | Protocol in force for both countries, under Article 2(1) |
| 23 October 2026 | Entry-into-force notice published in Memorial A No. 504 |
| 1 January 2027 | Start of the first tax years the protocol applies to (calculated from Article 2(2)) |
Article 2(1) provides that the protocol enters into force on the date the last of the two diplomatic notifications is received. The notice records two dates, conditions fulfilled on 12 June 2026 and entry into force on 6 July 2026, without saying what the earlier date marks. Both fall in 2026, so the gap does not move the applicability date.
Article 2(2) applies the protocol to tax years beginning on or after 1 January of the calendar year immediately following the year of entry into force. With entry into force in 2026, that gives 1 January 2027. The date is calculated from the article; the commentary on the articles in bill No. 8667 describes the same rule. The protocol remains applicable for as long as the convention stays in force and contains no other transitional provision.
Memorial A No. 502, dated the same day as the Georgia notice, recorded the entry into force of the San Marino avenant covered in our article on the Luxembourg-San Marino tax treaty MAP expiry.
The 2007 exchange clause and its replacement
The 2007 Article 27 had two paragraphs; the replacement has five. The table follows the coordinated text in bill No. 8667, which prints the 2007 article struck through above the new wording. The English renderings of the French are mine; the protocol’s French, Georgian and English texts are equally authentic.
| Point | 2007 Article 27 | Article 27 from the 2025 protocol |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Information “necessary” to apply the convention or domestic law | Information “foreseeably relevant” (vraisemblablement pertinents) to apply the convention or to administer and enforce domestic law |
| Taxes | Domestic law on the taxes covered by the convention | Taxes of every kind and description levied for either State, its political subdivisions or local authorities |
| Articles 1 and 2 | No statement | Exchange is not restricted by Articles 1 and 2 |
| Recipients and use | Persons and authorities dealing with the covered taxes, for those purposes only | Adds bodies overseeing those functions; other uses allowed where both States’ laws permit and the supplying State’s competent authority authorises |
| No domestic tax interest | No provision | The requested State uses its gathering powers even without a tax need of its own (paragraph 4) |
| Banks, nominees, fiduciaries, ownership | No provision | No refusal solely because such a holder has the information, or because it concerns ownership interests (paragraph 5) |
| Grounds for refusal | Paragraph 2(a) to (c) | The same three grounds, now paragraph 3, read with paragraphs 4 and 5 |
The sentence with the widest reach closes the new paragraph 1. Article 1 of the convention covers residents of one or both countries. Article 2 identifies the existing taxes covered, including profit tax, income tax and property tax in Georgia, and individual income tax, corporate income tax, wealth tax and municipal business tax in Luxembourg. Article 2(4) also extends coverage to identical or substantially similar taxes imposed subsequently. Because the exchange is not restricted by either article, a Georgian request can concern a person resident elsewhere or a tax outside that list, provided the information is foreseeably relevant and the taxation is not contrary to the convention.
Paragraph 5 speaks directly to information holders. The fact that a bank, another financial institution, a nominee, an agent or a fiduciary holds the information cannot, on its own, justify a refusal, and neither can the fact that the information relates to ownership interests in a person. The paragraph 3 grounds survive, including the one under which trade, industrial or professional secrets, trade processes, and information whose disclosure would be contrary to public policy can still be withheld.
How a Georgian request reaches a Luxembourg information holder
The exchange runs between competent authorities, which Article 3(1)(i) of the convention defines as the Ministry of Finance in Georgia and the Minister of Finance in Luxembourg, or their authorised representatives. Inside Luxembourg, the Law of 25 November 2014 governs how the administration obtains information it does not already hold. Its Article 1(1) covers requests under a bilateral double taxation convention as well as other legal bases, such as the 2014 law approving the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters; the protocol amends only the bilateral route.
The wider tax scope matters for routing. Article 1(2) of the 2014 law allocates a request, by the nature of the tax, to the direct tax administration (ACD), the registration and estates administration (AED) or the customs and excise administration. Where none of them is competent, the ACD handles it (Article 1(3)).
For a holder to whom an injunction may lawfully be addressed, the procedure runs as follows. Article numbers refer to the ACD’s coordinated text of the 2014 law (version of 11 March 2019), read with the December 2025 amendment described below.
- The administration checks that the request is formally regular, including its legal basis and requesting authority, and that the information is not devoid of all foreseeable relevance given the person concerned, the holder and the needs of the tax procedure (Article 3(1)).
- The director, or a delegate, notifies the holder of an injunction by registered letter. The request itself is not disclosed; the injunction contains only what the holder needs to identify the information (Article 3(3) and (4)).
- The holder has one month from notification to supply the information in full, precisely and without alteration, including the documents it rests on (Article 2(2)). The ACD’s page on exchange on request states that replies to its injunctions can be sent electronically through the State’s One-Time-Exchange (OTX) tool.
- If the requesting authority asks that the person concerned not be informed, the administration bars the holder, its managers and its employees from revealing the existence or content of the injunction. A knowing breach carries a fine of EUR 1,250 to EUR 250,000 (Article 4).
- Information not supplied within the month exposes the holder to an administrative tax fine of up to EUR 250,000, set by the director or a delegate (Article 5(1)).
- The holder can bring an action for annulment of the injunction, or for reformation of a fine, before the administrative tribunal within one month of notification, and the action has suspensive effect (Article 6).
One category of holder sits outside this sequence. Article 3(3bis), inserted by Article 8 of the Law of 19 December 2025 and in force since 23 December 2025, prohibits an injunction addressed to a lawyer within the meaning of the Law of 10 August 1991 who holds the requested information as a third party while acting in judicial representation or legal advice.
CRS files, withholding relief and existing MLI anti-abuse rules continue
Automatic exchange with Georgia predates the protocol. Georgia appears among Luxembourg’s CRS Partner Jurisdictions and, from reports on calendar year 2023, among its Reportable Jurisdictions under Article 2 of the grand-ducal regulation of 15 March 2016 (ACD coordinated text, version of 18 March 2026); the paragraph covering calendar year 2025 and later years carries it forward. That list is set under the CRS law and its regulation, which the protocol does not amend, so a reporting financial institution’s CRS file keeps its Georgian records as before. The filing mechanics are in our CRS reporting guide for Luxembourg financial institutions.
Treaty-relief positions sit equally outside the protocol, which has two articles: Article 1 replaces Article 27, and Article 2 covers entry into force and applicability. The dividend, interest and royalty articles (Articles 10 to 12) and Article 24 on the elimination of double taxation are untouched.
Point 3 of the 2007 protocol was replaced by Article 7(1) of the Multilateral Instrument (MLI), which establishes the principal purposes test. Under that test, a benefit under the convention is not granted in respect of an item of income or capital if it is reasonable to conclude, having regard to all relevant facts and circumstances, that obtaining that benefit was one of the principal purposes of any arrangement or transaction that resulted directly or indirectly in that benefit, unless it is established that granting that benefit in these circumstances would be in accordance with the object and purpose of the relevant provisions of the convention. For taxes withheld at source, the ACD synthesised text states that the MLI provisions have effect where the event giving rise to the tax occurs on or after 1 January 2020. The 2025 protocol does not amend this existing MLI rule.
The 2025 protocol changes none of the wording a Georgian dividend, interest or royalty claim is tested against.
Frequently Asked Questions
A Georgian request received in 2026 concerns the 2025 tax year. Does the replacement Article 27 govern it?
Article 2(2) of the protocol applies the replacement to tax years beginning on or after 1 January 2027. A request confined to the 2025 or 2026 tax year therefore falls outside the replacement Article 27. The applicable exchange-of-information legal basis must instead be assessed for the period concerned. Article 2(3) of the Law of 25 November 2014 separately lets a request cover years before the entry into force of the convention concerned where the requesting State establishes that the information is foreseeably relevant to taxable income for a tax year after that entry into force. The bill No. 8667 documents do not say whether that provision applies to a protocol’s application date.
Will every Georgian request lead to an injunction to the bank or fiduciary?
Article 3(3) of the 2014 law provides for an injunction only where the competent administration does not hold the requested information. Where a request is not formally regular, Article 3(2) has the administration ask the requesting State for additional information first, and it executes the request once it is complete.
Related Articles
- Luxembourg-Viet Nam Tax Treaty: Information Exchange Rules From 2027: the same replacement Article 27 in the Viet Nam treaty, in force since 14 April 2026, and the injunction workflow under the 2014 law.
- Luxembourg-San Marino Tax Treaty: Three-Year MAP Expiry Deleted: the avenant in force since 16 September 2026 that deletes the three-year MAP expiry rule.
- CRS Reporting in Luxembourg: Practical Guide for Financial Institutions: entity classification, due diligence, filing, deadlines and penalties under Luxembourg’s CRS law.
Sources and References
- Memorial A No. 504 (23 October 2026): Luxembourg-Georgia protocol, entry into force on 6 July 2026
- Memorial A No. 502 (23 October 2026): Luxembourg-San Marino avenant, entry into force on 16 September 2026
- Law of 10 March 2026 approving the protocol, with the protocol text, Memorial A No. 131 (16 March 2026)
- Bill No. 8667, consolidated dossier: deposit of 10 December 2025 (explanatory memorandum, commentary, coordinated 2007 convention and protocol), Council of State opinion, Finance Committee report
- ACD coordinated text, Law of 25 November 2014 on the procedure for exchange of information on request in tax matters (version of 11 March 2019)
- Law of 19 December 2025, Memorial A No. 614 (22 December 2025): Article 8 (Article 3(3bis) of the 2014 law) and Article 10 (entry into force)
- ACD: exchange of information on request (legal bases and OTX reply route)
- ACD coordinated text, grand-ducal regulation of 15 March 2016 on CRS Partner and Reportable Jurisdictions (version of 18 March 2026)
- ACD synthesised text of the Luxembourg-Georgia convention as modified by the MLI (point 3 of the protocol replaced by MLI Article 7(1))
Georgian requests from the 2027 tax year
The date to diarise is 1 January 2027, the start of the first tax years governed by the replacement Article 27. The 2014 law’s one-month clock stays the same, and the range of Georgian requests that can start it widens. Holders of account, ownership or fiduciary data linked to Georgia can bring their injunction-response procedure up to date before then: who receives the registered letter, how the reply travels through OTX, and how a non-disclosure instruction reaches managers and staff.
Disclaimer: The information on RegReportingDesk.com is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, regulatory, tax, or compliance advice. Always consult your compliance officer, legal counsel, or the relevant supervisory authority for guidance specific to your institution.