To be eligible for tax free shopping in the EU, you have to fulfill the following conditions: (1) you must be over 18 years of age and reside outside of the EU. (2) you must have a valid travel visa or other types of visa, which should be valid for no more than 3 months. (3) shopping in the same store within one day with the purchase amount exceeding tax refund standard. Every EU country has their own tax refund policy, for example there are two different value-added tax rates in Germany, which are respectively 19% and 7%. Tax refund is applicable when the consumption of any one of each VAT rate is over 25 euros. (for details please refer to "Tax Refund Policies" page on our website.
Products that are not eligible for tax refund: all services which you have enjoyed in Germany such as train tickets, bus rides, restaurant or hotel bills, all car parts such as bumpers, exterior mirrors, etc. and products for the supply or maintenance of a car such as fuel or care products, are not eligible for tax refund. Safety Tax Free only provides tax refund services for products that will be brought leaving the EU in hand luggage or checked baggage. Please don't open or use the products that you bought, the customs has the right to check your products. Once been proven as used products, the customs also has the right to refuse to offer customs stamps.
Safety Tax Free currently provide tax refund service in Germany, Belgium, Austria and Spain. Meanwhile, we are still expanding our markets to other EU countries.
The refund amount will be printed on your tax free forms. You could also calculate the refund amount via our online calculator, mobile app or WeChat mini-program.
If you're a registered Safety Tax Free user, you can withdraw your tax refund via our WeChat/Mini-Program or mobile app, we provide payments through Alipay, WeChat Pay, UnionPay cards, PayPal, Visa and MasterCard. If you haven't registered, please fill in your account information on your VAT forms, your will receive your refund via selected payment method once we confirm the validity of your forms and receipts. For non registered users, the duration of the transaction might vary from one bank to another.
For registered Safety Tax Free users, if you have already filled in your completed personal information while registering, you will only have to confirm the contents and sign. Simply show your Safety Tax Free QR code to the shop assistant while paying to receive VAT forms with your personal information already printed on it. For users that haven't registered yet, please provide your passport to the shop assistants while paying for scanning, confirm your personal data, account information and sign. Please make sure your forms are completed before getting stamps at the customs. You will fail to receive your tax refund if the information on the forms are incomplete or invalid.
Please get your tax free forms stamped by the customs within three months after the day you shopped, then you have another three months after stamped by the customs to send us your forms and original receipts.
Checked baggages: please get your forms stamped at the customs before airport security check. You can go directly to the customs office to get your forms stamped after checked in at most of the airports. (For regulations of different airports please refer to our WeChat mini-program.) Hand luggage: please get your form stamped at the customs office after security check.
According to the European Union tax refund policies, travellers who will be entering two or more countries in the European Union should apply for tax refund at their last departure point from the EU. If you have a transit flight, please check if you already have the interline ticket. If so, please stamp your forms for products in the checked baggage at the first airport, and get the stamps at the last departure airport for hand luggages. If you do not possess an interline ticket, please get the customs stamps at the last departure point from the EU. For example, if you are leaving from Munich via Vienna to Beijing with an interline ticket, please get your forms stamped in Munich for checked baggages and in Vienna for hand luggages.
Although the UK is leaving the EU, you can still get your forms stamped at the airport in the UK before the procedure is completed. Switzerland is a member of Shengen countries but not the EU, which means that you can't get customs stamps in Switzerland for products purchased in the EU. Products bought in Switzerland can also only receive customs stamps in Switzerland. If you're traveling to Switzerland from the EU, please make sure to receive customs stamps before leaving the EU. There are customs offices at the airports or borders when leaving the EU. If you are leaving by train, please get off at the EU city nearest to the border and stamp your form at the customs office in the train station.
Yes, some of the airports in France, Spain and Italy have already started to offer electronic customs stamps, you can get your VAT forms electronically verified from a kiosk, if the verification has failed or the VAT forms don't support electronic verification, please get your forms stamped at the customs office.
No, except for few EU countries (e.g. Spain), which have already fully applied electronic VAT procedure, customs stamps are one of the essential conditions for tax refund application. It proves that your purchased items have been exported to countries outside the EU. If you haven't stamped your VAT forms, you can re-enter the EU within 3 months with your purchased items and get your VAT forms stamped at the customs office. (Please notice: the purchased items should remain unopened).
It is mandatory to send us your stamped VAT forms and original receipts to shop tax free in most of the EU countries, except for few EU countries (e.g. Spain) that have already applied electronic VAT procedure.
For Chinese customers, please send your stamped VAT forms and original receipts to our office in Qingdao, China via S.F. express within three months after leaving the EU. Please send all your documents together in one envelope to us and choose "recipient pay", as we offer a one-time free S.F. standard service for each customer's trip abroad. Please note that we don't offer pay back service if you already paid for the mailing fee.
For other customers, please send your stamped VAT forms and original receipts with the provided STF-envelope via any mailbox within the EU. The delivery fee is covered by us when using the STF-envelope.
If you want to keep records of your receipts, please ask the shop assistants for a copy while paying or take photos of your receipts. If you choose to send the documents as insured items, Safety Tax Free will only share 1 RMB of the price.
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