Italy tax refund directly at the customs?

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1

Hi folks

I have experiences in doing tax refund from shopping in Germany. So in my experience you either need to come back to the shop (in Germany) with the form stamped at the customs or send them original by post. Only then you can get the cash back.

So today I asked about this for the first time in Italy (Esselunga market). To my surprise, the lady gave me the form and said, that I will get the refund directly at the customs in cash.

Is it true and the IT-CH customs system is so different to DE-CH?

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2

So no one heard of it? I thought we have here a lot of people from Ticino.

3

Sorry you had to wait so long for an answer…

The way it works now that the VAT refund limit in Italy has been reduced to 70 Euros is as follows:

  1. You get the tax-free form filled out in the store
  2. At Customs you show the ID card/Passport that you used in the store and the original of your Swiss residence permit (if you are not Swiss). They won’t accept photocopies.
  3. You stop at a Global Blue refund point and pick up your money (NOT at customers). Global Blue generally has refund sites close to the main border crossings. Alternatively, you can get the Global Blue app and they will refund you directly to your card/account. This generally takes about 3 weeks though.
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4

Thanks! Is the refund in full amount or is Global Blue ripping off 50% of your money as they used to in the past?

5

Seeing it‘s Global Blue it won‘t be the full amount.

6

Actually, it seems to be the full amount…surprisingly enough.
If you get cash at a Global Blue payment point tey will give you Euros.
If you get it repaid via the app they convert the EUR into CHF.

7

That is really surprising, thanks for the update.