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A New Way to Handle Tax Free Shopping
Category | Important Information
Published: 18/06/2018
| Updated: 27/07/2024
Everyone loves shopping while on holiday, but nobody likes the hassle of dealing with tax free shopping paperwork. Since we're in the business of making your travel easier, we thought we'd get proactive and do something about that!
ACE-FX is proud to be a part of an exciting new way of dealing with tax-free shopping forms. It's totally electronic, so of course we consider it a welcome new development for the 21st century... and you will too. Here's what it's all about.
A new way to handle your tax-free shopping paperwork.
Imagine if your tax-free shopping paperwork was automated, electronic, and available for preparation via handy kiosks located in convenient locations. Imagine if you could quickly prepare your tax-free shopping forms at a self-service kiosk located right inside the retail shop? You would simply pay at the register, and everything would then happen behind the scenes:- you will be identified as an international shopper (in other words a tax-free shopper) right at the register, via your ACE-FX credit card
- all your purchase information is stored in the store's system, where it's available for generating your tax-free forms
- after you pay for your items, you are given a receipt with a special bar code on it
- take that receipt to a special tax-free shopping kiosk
- select your language
- scan your receipt
- then scan your passport (don't have it on you? no problem: you may also manually enter the information)
- sign the forms
- the retailer signature is automatically applied to the form
- out comes a fully compliant tax-free form that fulfills all local and international regulations
- staple that form to your receipt, tuck them in your bag and you're ready to go
- no lines!
- no waiting for someone at the store to translate the instructions for you- it's completely self-service
- for a fast refund, insert your credit card right into the kiosk and that's taken care of too
What about VAT refunding rules?
The tax free shopping forms issued by the convenient new system are fully compliant with VAT refunding rules wherever the service is available. Export validation may be carried out very conveniently, with less risk of rejection. You'll get your validation stamp from Customs and be on your way.Where to find these amazing kiosks.
Right now, there are many locations with kiosks for processing your tax free shopping. Europe has the most, with a few in Africa, the Middle East, and Singapore. There are currently none in North America, Central America, or South America. For all the Francophiles out there who love tax free shopping, France has PABLO-connected kiosks at Marseille Provence Airport, as well as several in and around Charles de Gaulle Airport. Several department stores in France have adopted this system and have the kiosks right within their walls. What's wonderful about this is that tourists may shop at several different stores within the centre, and then add up those purchases in order to make the minimum spend for a VAT refund. In case you weren't aware, usually the rule is that one must reach the minimum spend (which is €175.01) with purchases all made in the same store. Now, with the self-service kiosk system one can get the 12% VAT refund by shopping anywhere in the department store. Participating shopping centres in tax-free shopping France are:- ITALIE DEUX
- Printemps
