{"id":11340,"date":"2025-12-12T13:09:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T13:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glossar.travel\/?p=11340"},"modified":"2025-12-12T13:09:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T13:09:04","slug":"tax-free-shopping-in-the-european-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glossar.travel\/en\/tax-free-shopping-in-the-european-union\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201e"Tax-free" shopping in the European Union\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shopping \u201e"no taxes"\u201d<\/strong> in the European Union refers to the value added tax refund system (VAT) <\/strong>available for non-EU residents<\/strong> for goods they purchase and export from the EU. Visitors can usually recover thebetween 10% and 20% of the purchase price,<\/strong> depending on the country's VAT rate and processing fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eligibility and general rules<\/strong>:
To be eligible for a VAT refund, you must meet the following criteria:
1) You must be a resident outside the EU.<\/strong> This applies even if you are a citizen of an EU country but permanently reside elsewhere.
2) The goods purchased must be for personal use and exported from the EU within three months <\/strong>from the end of the month in which they were purchased.
3) You must spend over a certain minimum amount per store (or per invoice), set by each EU country.
4) You must present the purchased goods, receipts and a completed VAT refund form to customs officials at your final point of departure from the EU for validation. The items must be unused at the time of presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step-by-step application process<\/strong>:
1\/ Buy from stores \u201e"Tax-Free":<\/strong> Look for stores displaying signs \u201e"Tax-Free Shopping".<\/strong>
2\/ Request a VAT refund form: At the time of purchase, inform the merchant that you wish to request a VAT refund<\/strong> and present the proof that you are not an EU resident<\/strong> (usually, passport<\/strong>). 3\/The merchant will provide you with a form<\/strong> (e.g. Formaire de D\u00e9taxe in France, Ausfuhrbescheinigung in Germany).
4\/Get validation <\/strong>customs: lat the airport<\/strong>, train station or border crossing point, when leave the EU, <\/strong>Go to the customs office before checking your luggage in. Present the forms, receipts, passport, and physical goods to get the official stamp on the forms.
5\/Submit the refund form: take the stamped forms to a tax refund counter (operated by companies such as Global Blue <\/strong>or Planet<\/strong>) from the airport or mail them to the merchant\/agency. You can choose to receive the refund inin cash or as a credit to the bank account<\/strong>\/on the credit card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Important details and exceptions<\/strong>:
# Minimum expenses: <\/strong>The minimum purchase amount varies significantly from country to country. For example, in Germany and Greece it is around \u20ac50, but in Italy it exceeds \u20ac154.95.
# Eligible goods:<\/strong> Most general goods, such as clothing, electronics, cosmetics, and jewelry, are eligible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

# services<\/strong> (hotel accommodation, car rental), tobacco products, pharmaceuticals and cars I am not<\/strong>, in general, eligible<\/strong> for reimbursement.
# Fees: <\/strong>VAT refund agencies often charge an administrative fee, so the final amount you will receive will be slightly less than the total VAT paid.
!!!! UK after Brexit: The UK (except Northern Ireland for non-EU residents) no longer offers a general VAT refund system for tourists<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cump\u0103r\u0103turile \u201ef\u0103r\u0103 taxe\u201d \u00een Uniunea European\u0103 se refer\u0103 la sistemul de rambursare a taxei pe valoarea ad\u0103ugat\u0103 (TVA) disponibil pentru reziden\u021bii din afara UE pentru bunurile pe care le achizi\u021bioneaz\u0103 \u0219i le export\u0103 din UE. Vizitatorii pot recupera, de obicei, \u00eentre 10% \u0219i 20% din pre\u021bul de achizi\u021bie, \u00een func\u021bie de rata TVA a \u021b\u0103rii […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11341,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[183,175,178],"class_list":["post-11340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-declaratie-vamala","tag-tax-free","tag-tax-refund"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glossar.travel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glossar.travel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glossar.travel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glossar.travel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glossar.travel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glossar.travel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11345,"href":"https:\/\/glossar.travel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11340\/revisions\/11345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glossar.travel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glossar.travel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glossar.travel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glossar.travel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}