VAT Refund Rates by Country 2026: What You Actually Get Back
Compare Prices Now →The refund you actually receive is roughly 60-75% of the headline VAT rate. France charges 20% VAT but a tourist nets about 12%. Italy charges 22% and nets about 14%. The gap is the refund operator's commission, and almost every “VAT refund” article quotes the first number rather than the second. Below is the second number, for every country worth shopping in.
Why the refund is never the VAT rate
Two things shrink it, and one thing can eliminate it entirely.
- VAT is charged on the net price, not the gross. A 20% VAT rate means a €120 tag contains €20 of tax — which is 16.7% of what you paid, not 20%. This alone accounts for a few points.
- The refund operator takes a commission. Global Blue, Planet and their competitors keep roughly a quarter to a third of the recoverable amount. Cash refunds at an airport desk cost more than credit-card refunds, typically by another few percent plus a fixed fee per form.
- Some countries have no tourist scheme at all. The UK abolished tax-free shopping for visitors after Brexit, and the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and India refund nothing. In those countries the tax is simply part of the price.
What you actually get back, ranked
Net refund rate is the share of the ticket price you should expect to see returned on a card refund, after typical operator commission. Use it, not the VAT column, when comparing countries.
| Country | VAT rate | Net refund | Min. spend |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇦🇷 Argentina | 21% | ~16% | ARS 70 |
| 🇬🇷 Greece | 24% | ~15% | €50 |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | 22% | ~14% | €154.94 |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal | 23% | ~14% | €61.35 |
| 🇮🇪 Ireland | 23% | ~14% | €75 |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | 21% | ~13% | €90.16 |
| 🇧🇪 Belgium | 21% | ~13% | €125 |
| 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 21% | ~13% | €50 |
| 🇫🇷 France | 20% | ~12% | €100 |
| 🇦🇹 Austria | 20% | ~12% | €75 |
| 🇮🇱 Israel | 17% | ~12% | ILS 400 |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 19% | ~11% | €50 |
| 🇨🇾 Cyprus | 19% | ~11% | €50 |
| 🇯🇵 Japan | 10% | ~10% (instant) | ¥5,000 |
| 🇦🇺 Australia | 10% | ~10% | AUD 300 |
| 🇱🇺 Luxembourg | 17% | ~10% | €74 |
| 🇨🇳 China | 13% | ~9% | CNY 500 |
| 🇮🇩 Indonesia | 11% | ~8% | IDR 5,000,000 |
| 🇰🇷 South Korea | 10% | ~7% (instant) | KRW 30,000 |
| 🇸🇬 Singapore | 9% | ~7% | SGD 100 |
| 🇻🇳 Vietnam | 10% | ~7% | VND 2,000,000 |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 7.7% | ~5% | CHF 300 |
| 🇹🇭 Thailand | 7% | ~5% | THB 2,000 |
| 🇹🇼 Taiwan | 5% | ~5% | TWD 2,000 |
| 🇲🇾 Malaysia | 6% | ~4% | MYR 300 |
| 🇦🇪 UAE | 5% | ~4% | AED 250 |
Countries that refund nothing
Worth knowing before you plan a trip around tax savings. These countries either never had a tourist refund scheme or withdrew it:
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom — 20% VAT, no tourist refund since 2021. This is the single most common mistake shoppers make, because the UK ran one of the best-known schemes for decades.
- 🇺🇸 United States — no VAT; state sales tax is added at the till and is not refundable to visitors.
- 🇭🇰 Hong Kong, 🇰🇼 Kuwait, 🇶🇦 Qatar — no VAT at all, so nothing to reclaim. Prices are already tax-free.
- 🇨🇦 Canada, 🇲🇽 Mexico, 🇧🇷 Brazil, 🇮🇳 India, 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia, 🇵🇭 Philippines — VAT or GST applies, no tourist refund.
The mistake this table is meant to prevent
Refund rate is a tiebreaker, not a decision. A 14% Italian refund sounds better than a 4% Emirati one, but the shelf price matters far more than the refund: brands set prices per market, and the spread between the cheapest and most expensive country for the same item is routinely 20-40%. A 14% refund on an expensive market can easily lose to a 0% refund somewhere the item is simply cheaper.
The order of operations that actually works is: find where the item is cheapest at retail, then check whether that country refunds anything, then confirm you clear the minimum spend. You can do the first step on WiseBuy's country pages, which rank live retail prices per country, and the trip calculator applies the refund and your home country's import duty on top.
Practical notes that change the number
- Take the card refund, not cash. Airport cash desks charge a premium and often convert at a poor rate. Card refunds take a few weeks but keep more of the money.
- Decline dynamic currency conversion. If a refund desk offers to pay you in your home currency, that is a second spread on top of the commission. Always take the local currency.
- One shop, one day, one receipt. Minimum spends usually apply per store per day. Consolidating a purchase gets you over thresholds like Italy's €154.94 that separate receipts would miss.
- Japan and South Korea refund at the register. No airport queue, but you must carry your passport and the goods must leave the country unused.
- Budget time at the airport. Customs stamping before check-in, then the refund desk. On a busy day in Milan or Paris this is a genuine hour.
Remember the duty on the way home
A refund you win abroad can be handed straight back at your own border. Most countries have a duty-free allowance for returning residents that is far below the price of a luxury bag or watch — and declaring above it means paying import duty plus your domestic VAT on the full value. Netting 14% in Milan and paying 20% on arrival is a losing trade.
Rates and minimum spends are reviewed against official sources and can change; the figures above are current for 2026. For the full step-by-step process at the airport, see our VAT refund walkthrough.
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