VAT Refunds?

[D Alt]

Has anyone ever applied or gone through the process of obtaining VAT (Value Added Tax) Refunds from a foreign country?  I didn't even know this was a thing until I saw a video about it on Tiktok. Wondering if I missed out on some money from Barbados recently, but I don't think I spent enough anyway. 

[KristiZ]

Barbados didn't used to do VAT refunds at all. Not sure if that's still true, but since you get a "web page not found" error on the Barbados tax site when you try to look up VAT I'm guessing you didn't miss anything!  

[D Alt]

here's an interesting blog i found about it. 

points guy - vat refunds

[D Alt]

VAT rates per country 

Rates

[D Alt]

23 minutes ago, KristiZ said:

Barbados didn't used to do VAT refunds at all. Not sure if that's still true, but since you get a "web page not found" error on the Barbados tax site when you try to look up VAT I'm guessing you didn't miss anything!  

no probably not, which is good, but I got a couple more international trips next year, so good to know ahead of time. 

[DoomSlayer]

It depends on the county and their laws if they will do a VAT refund for foreigners visiting. I’ve only ever done this while traveling in Europe. I wouldn’t get my hopes up for anything in the Caribbean as taxes from visiting foreigners is a big part of their governments’ income.

[Ray]

I believe the Bahamas are the only Caribbean country that offers Vat cash back for tourists. 

Some countries may have a minimum of 100 of whatever currency per item while others could be only 25. You can not claim refunds for food and drink.

One problem is that shops can use different companies ie superdry may use Global Blue while Mango uses another company for Tax refunds this means you need to find different locations at airport to make your claims. 

You must remember to get a VAT tax back receipt as well as your normal receipt. 

Global Blue is probably the main company that does this and they have an easy to use App