# VAT Refund - Custom Stamp



## FrankAZ (Feb 19, 2009)

Resurrecting a dying thread for completeness of the tale.

I flew back from Manchester (UK) last Tuesday and for once there was a real-life person on duty at the Customs Office in Terminal 2 and not just an unattended mail slot. That is rare and I did not have all my goods in my carry-on to show him so I feared the worst. Fortunately he was in a good mood and stamped all my VAT refund forms anyway.

He stamped a refund form for Austria and a higher value one for the UK. He also stamped one my wife collected but did not get stamped when she visited Spain in May. Things were going so well I did a dangerous thing: I asked a question which I didn't for 100% know the answer to, and which might have cost me money if the answer was not to my expectation. I asked if he was always so willing to stamp non-UK VAT refund forms.

He told me that since the goods were being exported from the EU through Manchester it was his job to stamp all and any forms from any EU country. He would normally want to see the actual goods to assure himself that they were being exported but personally he didn't see the point since I could just as easily walk back through security and hand them off to someone staying in the EU if I wanted to. He took my assurance that the goods my wife had bought in Barcelona were already in the USA and stamped that form without any hesitation.

In summary: VAT refunds are a great thing. The processing fees collected by the 3rd party administrators (and which introduce the concept of a minimum purchase so that the VAT refunded will cover them) are horrible but in the absence of the old free government administered schemes are unavoidable. Similarly, the protocol of one form per retailer (and therefore a minimum purchase per retailer) are awful but required. Travelers should keep all their VAT forms until their port of last departure from the EU.

In the past it has taken 6-8 weeks for my VAT/Mwst refund to materialize in my bank account. I'm curious about how long the Spanish and Austrian refunds will take this time since for the first time I am using a direct deposit to my Euro account for that.

Frank.


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## kimluk (May 24, 2007)

Is VAT for hotel and car rental refundable?


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## beewang (Dec 18, 2001)

Are you diplomat??!!


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## FrankAZ (Feb 19, 2009)

kimluk said:


> Is VAT for hotel and car rental refundable?


No. With rare exceptions that would not apply to anyone not already acutely aware of eligibility you can only get VAT refunded for goods physically exported from the EU. Anything consumed or enjoyed in the EU is ineligible for VAT refund.

There are further rules about whether the goods are exported within typically 6 months of purchase, or will be exported within 12 months without any possibility of return to EU. Also, member states have slight variations in interpretation and timing of export but nothing which would affect a tourist.

Personally, almost everything I claim VAT on is clothing.

Addendum: Many years ago (late 80s, early 90s) when I lived in the EU and visited Canada for extended periods I was able to claim PST/GST from the Ontario/Canadian governments directly. Canadian rules meant that I *was* able to reclaim sales taxes on hotel rooms. Not thinking about it too hard, perhaps the difference in rules arises from the different concepts of sales and value added taxes. I can easily see how in the EU one might enjoy the added value of the hotel room while in the EU; but in Canada the sales taxes were simply paid.

Frank.


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## JSpira (Oct 21, 2002)

FrankAZ said:


> but in the absence of the old free government administered schemes are unavoidable.


This may be before my time but thinking back to when I travelled with my parents, there were no government administered programs. Rather, many stores offered to refund the MWSt. directly back to the customer and they would adjust their books accordingly. That really wouldn´t count as a "free government administered scheme" - it was just the way the taxation system worked.

Today, if I make a large purchase from a store (such as a watch), the particular store I have in mind will do the same thing and there will be no administrative fees.

So in that regard, other than the advent of third-party processing schemes, from my perspective, I don´t think anything´s really changed.

Incidentally, in the 1980s, my father regularly used a Swiss tax firm to apply for German MWSt. refunds for all sorts of expenses incurred for business purposes (covering, I believe, purchases, dining, petrol, and lodging) and they kept a small percentage of what they recovered. The goods did not have to have been exported, I should add, but purchased for business purposes. I know that the firm still offers this service so that aspect of a government administered service (the tax firm applies to the government for the refund) is still applicable.


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