How to start a church in Georgia

Short answer: To start a church in Georgia, you form a nonprofit corporation by filing articles of incorporation with the Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division and paying roughly $100 (about $105 online), then you publish a notice of intent to incorporate in the county’s legal-organ newspaper for about $40 — a step most states skip. After that you get a free EIN from the IRS, adopt bylaws, seat a board, and open a bank account. A church is automatically tax-exempt under federal law, so the IRS determination letter is optional. Two Georgia realities are worth knowing up front: a church that owns its building can claim a places-of-worship property tax exemption through the county tax assessor, but Georgia generally does not exempt a church’s everyday purchases from sales tax — most Georgia churches pay it.

The federal formation steps are the same in every state — incorporate, EIN, bylaws, board, books. This guide covers those briefly and then spends its time on the Georgia pieces that carry the real value. For the full national walkthrough of each universal step, read how to start a church; below, the focus is what changes inside Georgia.

The formation steps that are the same anywhere

Starting a church in Georgia follows the standard church-formation checklist, and most of it is federal, not state-specific:

1. Incorporate as a nonprofit corporation (the Georgia-specific part — covered in detail below).
2. Get an EIN — a free federal tax ID from the IRS, applied for directly at irs.gov. Never pay a third party for one; the EIN is always free.
3. Adopt bylaws — the church’s internal rulebook for decisions, leadership, and money. Start from a proven document rather than a blank page; see church bylaws for what to include.
4. Seat a board — Georgia’s nonprofit code generally calls for at least three directors for a new church, and a majority unrelated is the standard the IRS prefers, so the church is governed by a body rather than one person.
5. Skip or pursue the 501(c)(3) letter — a church is automatically tax-exempt and does not have to file Form 1023, though many apply for the determination letter as documentation (IRS Publication 1828).
6. Open a bank account in the church’s legal name using the EIN and formation documents.
7. Set up the books on fund accounting from day one, before the first offering arrives.

Each of these is walked step by step in the national formation guide linked above. The rest of this page is the Georgia layer on top.

Incorporating a church in Georgia

Georgia creates the church as a legal entity when you file articles of incorporation for a nonprofit corporation with the Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division, usually through the online eCorp system. The filing fee is $100 (about $105 filed online with the service charge, or $110 by mail) as of 2026; confirm the current amount with the Georgia Secretary of State Corporations Division, since fees change. Standard processing runs a couple of weeks, and the state offers paid expedite tiers if you need it faster.

The articles ask for the church’s name, its registered agent and registered office in Georgia, the incorporator, and the initial directors. Georgia’s nonprofit statute sets a low floor on board size — the base rule reads “one or more” directors — but a new church organized without members on or after July 1, 2023 should plan on at least three, and three mostly-unrelated directors is the number the IRS looks for in any case, so seat three from the start. Confirm the current director rule in the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code, § 14-3-803. Two clauses do the heavy lifting for tax-exempt status and should go in at formation rather than as an amendment later:

• A 501(c)(3) purpose clause stating the church is organized exclusively for religious and charitable purposes.
• A dissolution clause stating that if the church closes, its assets pass to another 501(c)(3) organization, not to any individual.

The IRS looks for both, so getting the language right on the Georgia filing saves a rewrite. The full breakdown of what these documents need is in articles of incorporation for a church.

Georgia’s newspaper publication requirement

Here is the step that catches most founders off guard, because few other states still do it. Georgia law requires a newly incorporating church to publish a notice of intent to incorporate in a newspaper — and the clock is tight. Under the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code, no later than the next business day after filing the articles, the incorporator must deliver a publication request to the newspaper that is the official legal organ of the county where the church’s registered office sits (or another qualifying newspaper of general circulation in that county).

The request goes to the newspaper with a $40 payment for the cost of publication, and the notice runs once a week for two consecutive weeks. The Secretary of State does not collect this $40 — the newspaper does — so it is a separate check from your filing fee. This requirement applies to nonprofit corporations through Georgia Code § 14-3-202.1, which carries over the business-corporation publication rule in § 14-2-201.1 to churches and other nonprofits. Two practical notes: your county probate court or the Corporations Division can tell you which newspaper is your county’s designated legal organ, and missing the next-business-day window is a paperwork headache rather than a fatal error, but you want to handle it promptly. Treat the $40 as a confirmed-with-the-newspaper figure, since legal-organ rates can vary slightly by county.

Does a Georgia church register with the state to fundraise

Georgia does regulate charitable fundraising — the Georgia Charitable Solicitations Act generally requires charities that solicit donations to register every year with the Georgia Secretary of State, Securities and Charities Division. But religious organizations are exempt from that registration. A bona fide church or religious organization that qualifies under section 501(c)(3) and is not required to file IRS Form 990 falls outside the definition of a “charitable organization” for solicitation purposes, so an ordinary congregation taking offerings and asking members to give does not file a fundraising registration.

That exemption is worth confirming for your own situation, because the line is about being a genuine religious organization, not just about calling yourself one. You can read the statute and the exemption on the Georgia Secretary of State charitable solicitations page. Note that “registering” still happens in one sense — filing your articles registers the church as a legal entity with the state. What an exempt church skips is the separate annual charitable-solicitation filing that non-religious nonprofits have to keep up.

Georgia sales tax and your church

Be ready for this one, because it surprises people coming from Texas or Florida: Georgia generally does not exempt a church’s purchases from sales tax. The Department of Revenue states plainly that “in general, Georgia statute grants no sales or use tax exemption to churches, religious, charitable, civic and other nonprofit organizations,” and that these organizations “are required to pay the tax on all purchases of tangible personal property.” So when your Georgia church buys chairs, sound equipment, office supplies, or Bibles, expect to pay state and local sales tax on them like any other buyer.

A few narrow exceptions exist rather than a broad exemption. Georgia specifically exempts a nonprofit church’s purchase of steeple bells and pipe organs, and there is separate relief for qualifying short-term fundraising sales a church makes (under conditions, generally capped at 30 days per activity per year), which is about sales the church collects, not purchases it makes. There is no general church purchasing exemption. Confirm the current rules on the Georgia Department of Revenue’s tax-exempt nonprofit page before you assume a purchase is exempt — and budget your startup costs assuming sales tax applies.

Claiming the Georgia property tax exemption

Property tax is where a Georgia church does get real relief. A church that owns its building can exempt that property from local ad valorem (property) tax under the places-of-religious-worship exemption in Georgia Code § 48-5-41. All places of religious worship, and property owned and operated exclusively as a church, qualify — provided the organization is a 501(c)(3)-recognized religious organization and the property is used for worship rather than to produce income.

This exemption runs through your county Board of Tax Assessors, not the Secretary of State or the Department of Revenue. You file the county’s exempt-property application (often listed under a “places of religious worship” category) with the tax assessor in each county where the church owns property. Most counties want the application by April 1 of the tax year you are claiming, and they will ask for supporting documents — typically your articles of incorporation, bylaws, and your IRS 501(c)(3) letter if you have one. Because the form name and exact deadline vary by county, confirm both with your county Board of Tax Assessors before you file. Property used primarily to earn income, or rented out, generally loses the exemption.

Georgia filing at a glance

The table below maps each Georgia step to its agency, form, and cost. Treat the fees as accurate as of 2026 and confirm with the listed agency, since state fees and newspaper rates change.

What you’re doing	Agency	Form/step	Fee (as of 2026)
Incorporate the church	Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division	Articles of incorporation (nonprofit)	~$100 ($105 online; confirm with the SoS)
Publish notice of intent	County legal-organ newspaper	Notice of intent to incorporate	~$40 (paid to the newspaper)
Get a federal tax ID	IRS	EIN application (online)	Free
501(c)(3) recognition (optional)	IRS	Form 1023 or 1023-EZ	$600 / $275 user fee
Sales tax	Georgia Department of Revenue	No general church exemption	Generally taxable
Property tax exemption	County Board of Tax Assessors	Exempt-property application	No state fee
Charitable-solicitation registration	Georgia Secretary of State, Securities and Charities	Religious organizations exempt	—

Setting up the books once the church exists in Georgia

Now the work shifts from one-time paperwork to the monthly routine — and that routine is where churches actually fail or hold together. A church holds money in trust for the people who gave it, much of it tagged for a purpose (the building, missions, benevolence), so it tracks money by fund rather than as a single bottom line. Set the books up on fund accounting before the first offering, keep the giving records your donors need for their own taxes, and document that the board reviews the finances. None of the Georgia rules excuse a church from keeping clean records; the IRS still expects records that substantiate income and expenses (IRS Publication 1828). It also helps to track the sales tax you pay, since Georgia churches generally cannot recover it.

FAQ

How much does it cost to start a church in Georgia? The required state cost is modest. Filing the nonprofit articles of incorporation with the Georgia Secretary of State runs about $100 (roughly $105 online) as of 2026, the newspaper notice of intent to incorporate is about $40 paid to the county’s legal-organ newspaper, and the EIN from the IRS is free. So the bare legal minimum to form a Georgia church is roughly $140 in filing-plus-publication costs, plus your time. Optional add-ons raise it: the IRS determination letter is $275 (Form 1023-EZ) or $600 (full Form 1023), and insurance runs a few hundred dollars a year. Remember that Georgia generally charges sales tax on the church’s purchases, so factor that into your startup budget.

Does a Georgia church have to publish a notice in the newspaper? Yes. Georgia is one of the few states that still requires it. No later than the next business day after you file the articles of incorporation, you must send a notice of intent to incorporate, with a roughly $40 payment, to the newspaper that is the official legal organ of your county; the notice then runs once a week for two consecutive weeks. The Secretary of State does not handle this — the newspaper does — and your county probate court or the Corporations Division can tell you which paper is your county’s legal organ.

Do you need 501(c)(3) status to start a church in Georgia? No. A church is automatically tax-exempt under federal law and does not have to file Form 1023 or hold an IRS determination letter to be exempt (IRS Publication 1828). That said, the determination letter is useful in Georgia: the county property tax exemption and the charitable-solicitation exemption both lean on being a recognized 501(c)(3) religious organization, and banks, grant-makers, and large donors often ask for the letter. Many Georgia churches still apply for it as documentation — see are churches tax exempt for the fuller picture.

Can I just start my own church in Georgia? Practically, anyone can start a church in Georgia — there is no state license or denominational permission required, and the First Amendment protects the right to form a religious organization. What you do need, to operate as a real and exempt church, is the structure: a nonprofit corporation formed with the Secretary of State, the published notice of intent, an EIN, adopted bylaws, a board of at least three mostly-unrelated directors, a bank account in the church’s name, and books set up on fund accounting. The freedom to start one is unlimited; running one properly is a checklist.

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Vestrybooks sets up a new Georgia church’s books on fund accounting from day one — funds, reconciliation, and the board reports — so the financial side is right before the first offering. See how it works.