SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2004

Commission File Number 0-21656

UNITED COMMUNITY BANKS, INC.

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (706) 781-2265

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None

Name of exchange on which registered: None

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
Common Stock, $1.00 par value

     Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes þ No o

     Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. þ

     Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes þ No o

     Aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of the Registrant: $757,280,857 (based on shares held by non-affiliates at $25.18 per share, the closing stock price on the Nasdaq stock market on June 30, 2004).

     As of January 31, 2005, 38,551,078 shares of common stock were issued and outstanding, including 372,000 shares deemed outstanding pursuant to prime plus 1/4% convertible subordinated payable-in-kind debentures due December 31, 2006 and presently exercisable options to acquire 1,259,289 shares.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s Proxy Statement for the Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held on April 27, 2005 are incorporated herein into Part III by reference.

Porter Keadle Moore, LLP

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Board of Directors
United Community Banks, Inc.
Blairsville, Georgia

We have audited the consolidated balance sheets of United Community Banks, Inc. and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2004 and 2003, and the related consolidated statements of income, changes in stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2004. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provided a reasonable basis for our opinion.

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of United Community Banks, Inc. and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2004 and 2003, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2004, in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the effectiveness of United Community Banks, Inc. and subsidiaries’ internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2004, based on criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) and our report dated February 16, 2005 expressed an unqualified opinion on management’s assessment of the effectiveness of United Community Banks, Inc.’s internal control over financial reporting and an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of United Community Banks, Inc.’s internal control over financial reporting.

Atlanta, Georgia
February 16, 2005

Certified Public Accountants

SIGNATURES

     Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, United has duly caused this Report on Form 10-K, as amended, to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of Blairsville, State of Georgia, on the 17th of March, 2005.

EXHIBIT 23

CONSENT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

     We have issued our report dated February 16, 2005, accompanying the consolidated financial statements incorporated by reference in the Annual Report of United Community Banks, Inc. on Form 10-K, as amended, for the year ended December 31, 2004. We hereby consent to the incorporation by reference of said report in the Registration Statement of United Community Banks, Inc. on Forms S-8 (File No. 33-80885, effective December 27, 1995; File No. 333-70471, effective January 12, 1999; File No. 333-86876, effective April 24, 2002; File No. 333-99849, effective date September 19, 2002; and File No. 333-120623, effective date November 19, 2004) and on Form S-3 (File No. 333-116623, effective date July 9, 2004) of our report dated February 16, 2005 relating to the consolidated financial statements, management’s assessment of the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting and the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting, which is included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004.

/s/ Porter Keadle Moore, LLP

Atlanta, Georgia
March 17, 2005

Exhibit 31.1

I, Jimmy C. Tallent, President and Chief Executive Officer of United Community Banks, Inc. (the “registrant”), certify that:

1. I have reviewed this annual report on Form 10-K, as amended, of the registrant;

2. Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;

3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;

4. The registrant’s other certifying officer and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a - 15(f) and 15d - 15(f)) for the registrant and have:

a) Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared;

b) Designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles;

c) Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and

d) Disclosed in this report any change in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the registrant’s most recent fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting; and

5. The registrant’s other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the registrant’s auditors and the audit committee of the registrant’s board of directors:

a) All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrant’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

b) Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant role in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting.

Exhibit 31.2

I, Rex S. Schuette, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of United Community Banks, Inc. (the “registrant”), certify that:

1. I have reviewed this annual report on Form 10-K, as amended, of the registrant;

2. Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;

3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;

4. The registrant’s other certifying officer and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a - 15(f) and 15d - 15(f)) for the registrant and have:

a) Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared;

b) Designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles;

c) Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and

d) Disclosed in this report any change in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the registrant’s most recent fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting; and

5. The registrant’s other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the registrant’s auditors and the audit committee of the registrant’s board of directors:

a) All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrant’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

b) Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant role in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting.

Exhibit 32

CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO
18 U.S.C. SECTION 1350,
AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO
SECTION 906 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002

In connection with the Annual Report of United Community Banks, Inc. (“United”) on Form 10-K, as amended, for the period ending December 31, 2004 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the date hereof (the “Report”), I, Jimmy C. Tallent, President and Chief Executive Officer of United, and I, Rex S. Schuette, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of United, certify, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, that: