US car import customs clearance in Georgia: excise, VAT and a full breakdown

Customs clearance is calculated from several variables: the car's age, engine size, which side the steering wheel is on, fuel type and customs value. Get any one of them wrong and the final number shifts by thousands of lari, which is why it's worth calculating before you bid at auction, not after the car lands in Poti. The current rules have been in force since April 2, 2026.

What the total is made of

• Excise: 1.5 GEL per cc of displacement for cars up to six years old inclusive, 4.5 GEL for anything older; there is no import duty charged as a percentage of value on passenger cars
• VAT: 18 percent, charged on the customs value together with the excise
• Fixed processing charges: customs fee, inspection, declaration and registration certificate, around 272 GEL in total regardless of model or year
• A separate line: auction fees, container shipping to Poti, port and customs terminal handling (not taxes, but part of what the car costs you landed). The US-to-Georgia shipping calculator works these out

Why the car's age matters more than the badge on it

Age is worked out simply: the year the customs declaration is registered minus the model year. Up to six years inclusive the rate is 1.5 GEL per cc; from the seventh year it's 4.5 GEL, exactly three times as much. There's only one step, but it's a steep one: the same 3.5-liter engine pays 5,250 GEL of excise at six years and 15,750 GEL at seven. The reduced rate of 1.0 GEL per cc applies only to a car recognised as a classic under the Law on Motor Transport (Art. 1 and 8⁶): it has to be over 30 years old, but age alone doesn't give it that status. Right-hand drive is its own story: the rate triples in every age bracket, so 4.5 GEL per cc for a car up to six years old and 13.5 GEL for anything older. The outright ban on importing cars over six years old that was debated heavily before April never came in. The excise went up instead.

Engine size, hybrids and EVs

The rate is tied directly to displacement in cubic centimeters, so every extra hundred cc costs 150 GEL on a recent car and 450 GEL on one over six years old, plus 18 percent VAT on top. Check the exact spec against the VIN before you bid rather than the rounded-off figure in the listing: 3,456 cc and “3.5 liters” are not the same number. Left-hand-drive hybrids up to six years old inclusive get a 60 percent cut (0.6 GEL per cc); past six years the relief disappears and a hybrid pays the same 4.5 GEL as a plain gasoline car. Left-hand-drive EVs pay no excise at all, leaving only VAT and the fixed charges; a right-hand-drive EV pays a fixed 3,000 GEL.

A worked example

A 2021 crossover with a 3,500 cc gasoline engine, bought at auction for $14,000. Cleared in 2026 it is five years old, so the rate is 1.5: excise of 3,500 × 1.5 = 5,250 GEL. At roughly 2.7 GEL to the dollar the customs value is 37,800 GEL, and 18 percent VAT on 37,800 + 5,250 = 43,050 GEL comes to 7,749 GEL. Add around 272 GEL of fixed charges and clearance totals 13,271 GEL, about $4,915. On top of that: roughly $700 in auction fees, about $1,900 for container shipping to Poti and around $350 for port and terminal. The car lands in Tbilisi at roughly $21,865 on a $14,000 hammer price.

The same car built in 2019 falls into the 4.5 bracket instead: 15,750 GEL of excise, 9,639 GEL of VAT, 25,661 GEL with the fees. That's 12,390 GEL, about $4,590, more for an identical car. You can size up a specific lot in our customs calculator, and we run the exact numbers before the bid is placed, so the client sees the full landed cost in Tbilisi, not just the price on the Copart or IAAI screen. One caveat: customs sets the dutiable value from its own database rather than the figure on your invoice, so the total can come out either side of the hammer price.