You'll see signs like this in store windows throughout the European Common Market. The signs promote tax-free shopping with the promise you'll get a portion of your VAT tax back. All you need do is get the form (supplied by the store at purchase) stamped at the airport before you leave the Common Market. But here is where the process becomes complicated and semi-scammy.
What follows are two true stories, one with a hopefully happy ending (still to be determined), the other with a most frustrating conclusion.
My (hopefully) happy story... My quarter-century-old watch had been losing time, and I had been actively looking for a replacement. Walking past the Jacques Lemans store in Vienna, just around the corner from the Bristol Hotel, I saw a beautiful black ceramic watch at a quite reasonable price. I walked into the store, tried it on, and made the purchase. The sales associate completed the paperwork for me.
Next task: get the forms stamped and mailed. After leaving Vienna, I spent two nights in Budapest. On the morning of my flights back home, I took the form to the VAT refund desk at the Budapest airport ... and here's the rub. Because my flights connected in Paris, the customs agent in Budapest would not stamp my form. I had to get it stamped in Paris. Read on...
Fortunately, I had a nearly four hour layover at CDG. Unfortunately, there's no place within the secure area of the airport to get this administrative rubber-stamp of a task done. It required me to exit the secure area of the terminal and search for the tax refund office, to show the agent my outbound ticket to SFO, and to show him the watch's packaging (which I had with me in my carryon). He then stamped the form... but then I had to search for the yellow plexiglass box in which to deposit the stamped form. Was there one next to the office? No... that would be too easy. I eventually found the box in the check-in area at the front of Terminal 2E. I deposited the envelope, then had go back through security. The entire process took about 75 minutes from the time I left the plane until the time I was back airside. (Note: the 33€ credit has not yet hit my credit card).
The sad story. My friend Addie, part of our Brownell Travel group, also had a VAT tax refund. She likewise was told in Budapest to get it stamped at CDG. Unfortunately, she had a very short layover in Paris — not nearly enough time to accomplish the bureaucratic necessities and make her flight. (In point of fact, she had just barely enough time to make her flight to Atlanta). Addie left the Common Market without getting her form rubber stamped, thus losing out on the tax refund to which she was entitled.
Scam or semi-scam? The Common Market encourages foreign travelers to make large purchases under the promise of "tax free" shopping. But they make it difficult to collect your tax refund. Why can't your get the refund before the first flight on your itinerary? Why can't you get the refund if you leave the EU by train or car? Why aren't there VAT refund desks airside in every airport terminal, beyond security?
Is all of this intentional? Have they, by design, made it difficult to get the rubber stamp on your form? Is the promise of tax-free shopping an example of bait and switch, baiting consumers with the promise of VAT refunds but then making it logistically difficult, if not impossible, to collect on the promise? My hunch? Yes, this is all by design ... and that's why this tax-free shopping scheme is at least a semi-scam. That's just my opinion.
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