you take them back to the shop where you bought the goods and they give you back the money. So you always have to go back as you don't get any money back at the border.
Have fun
Martin
There are also some stores around that area and a big Lidl. The nly bad thing is that it is not near the border so I do not know where you would get your tax return stamped . It was worth going though!
If you have spent more than 300CHF, then it helps to show the green form the the Swiss customer, as it shows how much is MWST, which is then deducted from the total before adding the Swiss tax amount (at usually 7.6%).
If you spend €60 ~= 90CHF, you can get back, with a stamped green form, about €10 ~= 15CHF. Not to be sneezed at, and one of the things that makes German shopping even cheaper.
You can't get the money back without having the green form stamped.
I DID IT! My very own "first over the border crossing" and it was super simple! I think my over active imagination just saw it as one great daunting challenge just freaked me out a little bit - crossing borders- I'm thinking barbed wire, guard dogs, machine guns and soldiers, customs performing searches looking for contraband goods like beef over 1/2 a kilo etc..., etc....
Got off the Strassenbahn 8 at Kleinhunigen and saw the small bridge and crossed over and just kept walking til I got to the Big bridge and there it was....."Rhine Center"
Sorry, Stephanie, I got back and saw your post and would have loved to get together with you to "cross over". I'm going to be away for 2 weeks out of Switzerland but would happily join you if you haven't done so by then.
THANK YOU AGAIN everyone! I got all the stuff I needed from DM and look forward to heading back there in the future. YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Catch route 12 or 16.
[](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1320/1429143340_a644a6c93e.jpg)
It doesn't exactly scream out "None shall pass!"
I came back from Stuttgart yesterday, visiting friends. I bought some kitchenware from Galeria Kaufhof and suddenly remembered I don't live in the EU any more so thought I'd ask for a "green form".
They use Global Refund and won't do it any other way. I guess only places near the border expect you to go back to get the cash. Anyway, I arrived back last night at 19:30 to Basel Badischer Bahnhof expecting the customs to be shut. It wasn't, so I got my forms stamped.
About 10 minutes later as I was walking back to my hotel two customs men ran (quite out of breath) after me and wanted to see my receipts that I'd just had stamped.
It came to 220€ in total. They looked at the Global Refund tax stamps and explained I was very close to the limit. Global Refund appear to take around 35% of the tax refund as their commission. When they saw the original receipts (showing a pre-MWST amount of about 180€) they knew it was under 300CFH and let me go. They were very polite and almost friendly the whole time.
I assume if I hadn't got the forms stamped then they wouldn't have checked me.
So my advice ... keep under 300CHF. If you go over it, either don't bother with the tax refund and hope for the best at the Swiss side, or get a proper "green form" so you can reclaim the full MWST, then pay the Swiss import duties.
If you get back the "Global Refund" amount, as I did, and then pay Swiss import duties I think you'll end up quits at best, and it wastes time.
It's annoying that some places force you to use Global Refund, which is a private company, but that's the way it is. Asian friends of mine in London complained about shops there doing the same thing, but then most of them weren't coming back so they need to use a service to get paid in their own country.
In St Louis centre, you can get to Attac, which is a small supermarket, but carries some things (like brown sugar!) that are difficult to find in the Swiss supermarkets. There are also quite a few small boutique clothing stores which carry some nice clothing, again, different to Swiss stuff. Not better, just different, so you can maybe get more of a choice. A couple of places to check out are Mim and La Halle, which are in the pedestrian walking street called Croisée des Lys. They are reasonably priced stores that have brilliant sales. Some of the stuff is crap, but some is really great. Mim is only Womenswear but La Halle has childrens, babies and I think they have a small mens section. Their website is here so you can see what kind of stuff they have.
If you like French cheese, there is a great cheese shop further along the main road, and the best bakery in St Louis past that. If y ou're in the mood for a great pastry, check it out!
One of the big drawcards to St Louis is, of course, the big supermarket Geant. You can either walk up the hill to get there or catch a bus one stop. Geant has an 'international' section, which is easy to miss, but look out for all the El Paso 'Mexican' stuff which is very yellow! There is also stuff for Indian, including jars and nans. The 'British' section there has some of the things you might miss from home. These sections used to be marked, so they were obvious to anyone, but are not anymore.
Ok, transportation. The easiest way to reach St Louis centre is to catch the 604 bus from Schifflande. It costs 1.10 euro and they don't take Swiss francs. (I actually think they don't take Swiss franc coins, but give change in euros if you have a 10 frac note, but don't quote me on that!)
You get off at the centre of St Louis, the 'carrefour centrale'. It is the main intersection in St Louis. Yep, it doesn't get any bigger...don't blink or you may miss it! Geant is up the hill on the crossroad. The street you get off in is Rue de Mulhouse (Avenue de Bale near the border and Elsasserstrasse on the Swiss side) and the cross road is avenue General de Gaule, that you go up to go to Geant.
For those who like fresh produce, go into St Louis on a Saturday morning for the farmers market. It is great. Its held until about 12.00-1pm (they'll start to stay til 1pm as the weather improves!) at Place de l'Europe.
I know this doesn't mean much, reeling off street names. For those of you profficient with Google maps, you'll be fine. For those of you who are not, here is a link to a pdf map of St Louis published by the St Louis mairie.
Geant is the big black square along Av. General de Gaulle, near the roundabout.
Croisée des Lys is marked on the map, surrounded by the numbers 80, 15, 20.
Place de l'Europe is next to number 12 on Rue de Huningue (opposite side of Av. Gen de Gaulle)
The bakery and cheese shops are past the number 5 marked on the map.
If you have any questions about St Louis, feel free to ask! Further out, I'm not the best one to ask, as I am a public transport girl and rely on it totally.
That being said, there is another large supermarket a big further out E Leclerc, which is on the same bus line, but you keep going and get off at the stop near Rue de Seville. Rond point itself is not marked on the map, but it is at the intersection with Rue de Seville.
Happy shopping!
No green forms, so no tax refund, but the prices are still good.
If you do not claim the German VAT back you still have to pay the Swiss VAT 7.6% or if you do not declare to the Swiss & they catch you then you pay a minimum of 2*7.6% penalty.
So you are either about 5% better off if you claim or if you do not claim then you are 7.6% worse off or more if you pay penalties.
Marton - I guessed at the exact percentages but there quickly comes a point that just buying the product, unless it's super expensive, is so much easier than (a) only buying from a place which offers the Global Refund, (b) Getting the form in the shop and filling it in (c) crossing the border at a manned station at the correct time and getting the form stamped by the German side and (d) getting the Swiss part to sign it and paying them, finally (e) going to a place to get your refund ... just isn't worth it.
And I think if you don't claim back the German tax then you're unlikely to be stopped at the border by the Swiss authorities as they'll have a hard time proving that whatever it is you're carrying was bought just now in Germany. Unless you have the receipt stuck to it or it's still wrapped in a shopping bag
another question, is "Geant" or "E leclerc" bigger than Carrefour or not? I was told there is a big Carrefour in Mulhouse, having no idea if it worth to go Mulhouse by train or St. Louis by bus?
Thanks again
There are several branches, but the one I am talking about won German supermarket of the year in 2008.
You can reach it from Schifflände by taking the 38 bus terminating in Grenzach-Whylen. The stop you need is Gleusen (15 mins). The bus stops right on the edge of their car park. The bus both departs Schifflände and the supermraket twice each hour.
It beats the dingy, depressing looking Marktkauf/Rheincenter hands down, except for the fact it's pretty much a food only supermarket.
For those from the UK, I'd say it's more like a Waitrose. For those from the Northeastern US, it's more like a Wegmans.
Enjoy.