Britain stopped refunding VAT in 2021, whatever those guides say

You cannot claim a VAT refund on a coat bought in London and carried home in your suitcase. The government's own guidance leaves Great Britain, meaning England, Scotland and Wales, exactly one route: goods delivered straight to an address outside the UK. That has been the position since 1 January 2021, it still was when we read the page in August 2026, and at least six commercial sites currently publish 2026 dated instructions for the forms and the customs stamp that went with the old scheme.

The thing they describe was real once. HMRC withdrew it, with the airside tax free concession, when the transition period ended on 31 December 2020, in Revenue and Customs Brief 21 (2020). The VAT 407 form, the queue before security, the stamp, all of it stopped that morning. A guide walking you through those steps is out of date by more than five years.

The one route that still works in Britain

Do not carry it. Buy the piece in the shop, leave it there, and have it sent to your address abroad. The announcement of 11 September 2020 promised this much and nothing beyond it: overseas visitors would still be able to buy items VAT free in store and have them sent direct to their overseas addresses.

This is a direct export rather than a refund, which is the better deal. The 20 percent comes off at the till instead of coming back through a third party months later. VAT Notice 703, last updated 4 March 2026 and read again this August, gives the retailer three months to export the goods and hold the evidence, and it is explicit that goods you carry out yourself in accompanied baggage for personal use cannot be zero rated. That is exactly what the wrong guides describe.

Two things before you use it. The shop has to run the paperwork and hold the evidence, and nothing obliges it to, so ask at the counter first. And the parcel lands at home as an import, so whatever your own country charges on a garment from Britain is now your problem rather than the airline's.

Northern Ireland is a separate answer

Northern Ireland kept the old scheme. Retailers there still run the Retail Export Scheme for visitors from outside Northern Ireland and the EU, on the VAT 407(NI) form. HMRC's notice sets no minimum sales value, though a shop may set one of its own, and the goods have to leave Northern Ireland and the EU by the last day of the third month after the month of purchase.

There is a trap in it that catches people flying home through Heathrow. You get nothing back if you travel from Northern Ireland straight to Great Britain, or to Great Britain through an EU country. The stamp happens on the way out of Northern Ireland or the EU, never in a British departure hall.

France, where the number is not twenty

France does refund, and publishes the mechanics. French customs sets the conditions: you live outside the EU, you are 16 or over, you are in France for under six months, and your purchases come to more than 100 euros including tax in the same shop on the same day. The slip has to be validated before the end of the third month following the month of purchase, by scanning its barcode at a PABLO terminal. A screen reading OK, validated voucher is the customs stamp. Checked at douane.gouv.fr in August 2026; the English page carries an update date of 4 June 2026.

Now the arithmetic nobody selling a refund service will do. The French standard rate is 20 percent, checked in August 2026 on the government's service public portal, but it is charged on the price before tax, not on the sticker. A bag priced at 1,000 euros off the rue Saint-Honoré contains 166.67 euros of VAT, because 1,000 divided by 1.20 is 833.33. The ceiling on your refund is therefore 16.7 percent of what you handed over, before anyone takes a cent. Every page promising 20 percent back is quoting the tax rate and calling it the refund.

That ceiling is not what you get either. The refund is paid by a private operator, and Planet publishes its cash fees by airport: 5.50 euros to redeem a French form once the refund reaches 20 euros, 20 euros at the desk on an international form once it reaches 230. The commission taken out of the refund itself is separate, and we could not find it published as a single rate anywhere. Ask which operator a shop uses before you pay, in the Marais or anywhere else, and read the slip rather than the poster.

Italy, seventy euros and a machine called OTELLO

Italy's threshold moved. The Agenzia delle Dogane requires the goods on each invoice to exceed 70 euros, down from 154.94 euros until 31 January 2024, with the buyer resident outside the EU and the goods out of the Union by the third month following the invoice date. Since 1 September 2018 the tax free invoice must be electronic and the stamp is applied digitally through OTELLO at the exit point. The invoice has to carry your passport details, so the passport comes out at the till, not at the airport. Checked at adm.gov.it in August 2026.

The Italian rate is 22 percent, per the Agenzia delle Entrate, which by the same division puts 180.33 euros of tax inside a 1,000 euro price and caps the refund at 18 percent of the tag. Italian customs is unusually blunt about who pays: its own page states that VAT refunds are never made by customs offices, only by authorised tax free intermediary companies. Planet's Italian cash fees run from 3 euros to 11 euros at most airports, and 1.5 percent at Milan Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino once the refund passes 800 euros.

A refund is not a discount. It is a rebate you have to go and earn at an airport.

What it is actually worth

Work it as one number. Take the price on the tag, multiply by 0.167 in France or 0.180 in Italy, subtract the operator's commission and the cash fee, then subtract whatever your card charges on a foreign transaction, and refuse dynamic currency conversion at the till. The whole thing is zero if the barcode fails to validate or you check the bag before you reach the terminal.

Then set that against the risk. Final sale is ordinary abroad, alterations happen in a city you have left, and a return means shipping a garment back across a border. On a 1,000 euro coat the refund rarely beats a shop at home that will take the piece in for a fitting. That calculation is most of the reason we exist, and why the city guides start with shops rather than tax.

Common questions

Can tourists claim VAT back in the UK?

No, tourists cannot claim VAT back on goods bought in Great Britain and carried home, because the VAT Retail Export Scheme was withdrawn on 1 January 2021 and has not returned. It still runs in Northern Ireland on the VAT 407(NI) form. In England, Scotland and Wales the only VAT free route is to have the shop ship the goods to an address outside the UK.

How much do you actually get back in France?

The most anyone gets back in France is 16.7 percent of the price on the tag, not 20 percent, because the 20 percent rate is charged on the price before tax. The refund operator deducts its commission from that figure, and a cash fee on top if you take the money at the counter. Minimum spend is more than 100 euros in the same shop on the same day, and the slip must be validated at a PABLO terminal before the end of the third month after purchase.

Is tax free shopping coming back to the UK?

Not as of August 2026, when the government's guidance still offers Great Britain only the shipped route and leaves the old scheme to Northern Ireland. Anything promising a 2026 UK refund process is describing the rules as they stood before 2021.

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