VAT (VALUE ADDED TAX)
OR EUROTAX

HOW TO GET A REFUND

Scorching sales taxes of up to 25 percent in European countries make it highly desirable to seek the rebate you're allowed on goods you buy to take home. Getting it is another matter. True, it becomes a little easier each year to collect refunds, but there are still many snags.

It is easy to overlook the Value Added Tax (VAT), the European version of American sales tax, because it is already built into retail prices. Although it is levied on almost everything you buy in Europe, refunds are usually confined to purchases you send or take home; for hotel rooms, meals and suchlike, forget it. A notable exception occurs in Austria, which will refund the VAT on the use outside that country of a car you rent inside it.

Of the 20 countries that levy the VAT and refund at least part of what they collect, most say their procedures are simple. The typical scenario is to get some form of documentation when you make a purchase, stipulating the amount of refund due. You get the actual refund after showing the purchase and the documentation to customs on leaving Europe. But after customs approval, if you prefer not to wait further, you can claim the refund by mail once you are home.

Most countries insist that to qualify for a refund, you spend a minimum amount in the same store on the same day. Spain specifies a minimum amount per item purchased (about $115). Some countries won't refund the entire VAT, only part of it. Many travelers complain that appropriate customs officials often aren't on duty, or that there isn't enough time at the airport before a departure to complete the paperwork. Sometimes, stores either delay refunds requested by mail or don't respond to claims at all. But European officials, eager to harvest the most tourist dollars possible, are sensitive to complaints. As a result, procedures slowly but persistently get easier. For example, within the European Union (15 member countries now that 3 more have joined this year), you can amass all your refund documentation and arrange repayment for everything when you leave the last country to return home.

All 20 European countries that impose the VAT--except Iceland, Ireland and Switzerland, participate in a program called Europe Tax-free Shopping (ETS), which represents 70,000 merchants and is growing. When you buy from participating merchants, all of whom display the ETS logo, you simply show your passport and get a Tax-free Shopping Cheque showing the amount of refund owed to you after ETS has exacted a fee of about 20 percent. When you leave that country, or the last EU country on your itinerary, you show your purchases to an appropriate customs official, who stamps your Cheques. You then obtain your refund either from the ETS desk on site, by mail, or by transfer to your credit card account.