If your habitual residence is in a non-EU Member State or in a third State, value added tax (VAT) can be deducted from the price of the goods you buy in France.

The visa of the customs office at the point of exit from the EU grants the seller the definitive benefit of the VAT exemption. It is for him to refund the tax on the basis of the customs visa.

Two visa procedures coexist in France:

• the visa by a customs stamp;
• electronic visa as part of the PABLO online service.

Disclaimer: from 1 January 2014, export sales notes must be published by merchants via the PABLO application and presented by travelers at electronic terminals installed in international ports and airports, as well as at the Swiss border.

You must be:

1. resident in a third State on the date of purchase;
2. visiting France for less than six months;
3. be 16 years of age or older.

You must be able to prove these qualities at the time of purchase, in particular by presenting a passport or, by exception, an original valid identity document if you are resident in a country outside the European Union but belonging to the Schengen area (Norway, Switzerland, Iceland or Liechtenstein).

The following are therefore excluded from the export sales voucher scheme:

• persons residing in a Member State of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden ;
• persons residing in the Principality of Monaco;
• persons leaving to take up their post in a third country or in a similar territory;
• persons who have returned to France or the European Union to resettle there;
• persons who leave the European Union permanently, even if they return to their country of origin;
• members of diplomatic missions, consular missions and international bodies posted in France or in the European Union;
• students and trainees, who stay in France or the European Union for six months or more per year;
• beneficiaries of a French social security body who apply for the tax exemption for pharmaceutical products that may be subject to a full or partial refund;
• persons residing in the overseas departments of Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion ;
• the personnel of transport companies (air, sea, road) when traveling in the course of their professional activity.

The purchase you make must correspond to a retail sale of a tourist nature and it must not have a commercial character.
Certain goods, because of their characteristics, cannot benefit from the tax exemption.
These are :

• goods subject to special formalities (such as those covered by the Washington Convention, or by the regulation of dual-use goods, narcotics, ...) ;
• manufactured tobacco ;
• petroleum products;
• weapons;
• cultural goods;
• means of transport for private use and their capital goods and supplies (food, fuel...).)

For these last three categories of goods, there are specific exceptions for which tax relief is possible. For any further information, please contact the customs services before your departure.

The purchase you make must correspond to a retail sale of a tourist nature.

Since January 1, 2021, in accordance with the provisions of the order of July 23, 2020, the amount of your purchases including all taxes (including taxes), in the same store, on the same day, must be greater than 100 euros. The seller gives you at the time of purchase, an export sales slip that must be signed by the seller and by yourself.

By this act, you undertake to carry out certain formalities.

On your final departure from the European Union, you must present, simultaneously and before check-in of your luggage, the goods and the slip with the customs visa. The concept of baggage may be extended to the trunk and passenger compartment of the private means of transport.
This formality must be completed before the end of the third month following the month in which your purchase took place.

In the context of the electronic visa at the PABLO terminal, the procedure is computerized

You must present the bar code of the voucher at the terminal equipped with an optical reader, located near the customs counter.

• The optical reader allows, in the language of your choice on the touch screen, the verification of the information contained in the barcode produced by the sales operator in tax free at the time of purchase.
• The message that appears on the screen is worth customs visa
• The message « OK Validated voucher » confirms the export operation of the goods as well as the customs stamp. The clearance of transactions is sent daily to the relevant tax refund operator via the Internet. You no longer need to send the seller a copy of the slip. The latter has direct knowledge of the electronic visa.

However, if your voucher is not recognized during its scan at the PABLO terminal, the screen of the terminal will display the following message: « Your voucher cannot be validated by French customs because it has not been issued regularly by your tax refund operator. If you have a complaint, please contact your tax refund operator. »

In this case, you will be invited to contact your tax refund operator, whose contact details are indicated in the insert provided for this purpose on your slip.

As a reminder, the customs and indirect duties administration is responsible for ensuring compliance with the tax refund procedure. It ensures the effective export of goods purchased tax-free. It does not deal with tax rebates.

In the case of a manual visa, the French customs will give you the two sheets of your slip bearing the customs stamp: you must then send the document endorsed by the customs to the seller.

If you travel by international train

You must have tax refund slips stamped during travel or at a border station (at the exit of the European Union) by the customs service.

If you are traveling on a ship or an international road vehicle

You must have the tax refund vouchers stamped with the customs services of the last port or exit point of the European Union.

If you leave the European Union by a Member State other than France

After checking, the customs service of that Member State shall give you the document referred to.

• When you arrive in your country of residence, you yourself send the seller the document in question.
• In any case, the seller will pay you, according to your indications and your contact details, the amount entered on the slip in box D, corresponding to the tax exemption granted.

The seller can also grant you the tax exemption at the time of purchase, which does not exempt you from the formalities described above.

This procedure is intended for travelers who have not been able to have their documents endorsed by customs when leaving the territory of the European Union, for reasons due to the organization of the customs service (malfunction of the PABLO terminals or absence of the customs service). It is recalled that travelers who have not been able to complete their tax-free formalities on the grounds of late arrival at the place of departure are not eligible for this procedure.

Consequently, regularization by a posteriori visa may be requested from the customs office with territorial jurisdiction.

For this, you can send your request (by post or email), before the expiry of a period of 6 months from the date of purchase, to the regional customs directorate in whose jurisdiction you left the territory of the European Union (example: regional directorate of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle for a departure from this airport).

You will find in the « Contact details of the relevant regional customs directorates » tab below the office concerned by your place of departure.

In this application you will have to:

1) Indicate the following information:

• the reasons which prevented you from completing the customs export formalities;
• the name of the place of exit and the date of your exit from the European Union.

2) Attach the following documents:

1. Any official document proving your habitual residence outside the European Union and your passage in France for a period of less than 6 months (copy of the original of your passport, identity document, consular card, residence card of a third country to the European Union);
2. Proof of export of goods. This proof is provided, either by the release of the customs services of your country attesting the payment of import duties and taxes, or by the certificate issued by the French Embassy or the French Consulate of your country of residence confirming the actual export of the goods, or by the visa of the A frame of the export sales note;
3. The original or digitized copy of the export sales notes;
4. A copy of your ticket.

This procedure also applies in the event that you have not been able to have your export sales notes stamped by the customs services of another EU Member State. In this case, you should send your request, including the documents listed above, to the regional customs department of Paris, 30 rue Raoul Wallenberg, 75019 PARIS.

Regional Customs Directorates in Metropolitan France

Regional Customs Directorates in Overseas France

• You do not have the required supporting documents;
• You do not present the goods at the same time as the tax refund slip;
• The goods for which you are claiming tax relief are not personal ;
• The tax refund slip you received from the merchant does not comply with the regulations in force;
• The period of validity of your tax refund slip has expired;
• The tax refund slip you received from the merchant is not signed;
• You are not the person whose name appears on the slip.

These are the main grounds for refusal, but this list is not exhaustive. Only one of the above reasons is sufficient for the customs to refuse to stamp your tax refund slip