vatfree.com5.1.1 - App Store

Thanks to a special EU-regulation, international travelers can claim the Value Added Tax paid over goods they have bought in the EU. We will help you get a VAT refund on your shopping in the European Union, even if you shop online. We make it easy, we ensure you get the highest refund possible and are here to help you claim what’s yours. We think it’s a shame that millions of euro are left unclaimed each year. Money which could be reinvested in yourself, in others or in the world.

Why Vatfree.com?

The Highest Refund
Keep your receipts and save up to 25% on your shopping made in the EU. Rates differ per country. Refund of VAT is only possible when shopping at partner- and participating shops as EU regulation does not legally obligate shops to participate. Find a full list of participating stores in our taxfree shopping guide or in the vatfree.com mobile app.

The Most Transparent
We offer an inclusive service, every merchant or shop is welcome to join. Offering our tax-free shopping service next to other refund partners will give you more choice as we are the fastest growing mobile option with the highest refund guaranteed to the most diverse traveler groups.

The most common feedback we get from travelers is that they feel uncomfortable being subjected to high fees for claiming back Value Added Tax they are entitled to. Especially after having to go through so much effort to arrange the refund. We get that.

The regulation states that when exporting goods to a non-EU country, you do not have to pay VAT. For travelers to claim back the initial paid VAT, they have to stand in line at Customs, before flying back home, to get proof of the export. Quite stressful, time-consuming and sometimes leads to missing out if queues are long and you have to catch a plane. Once the stamp is collected, the only way to claim back VAT is to contact the shop. If the shop is unwilling to cooperate, charges high fees (with or without a tax-free partner) or just takes a long time to process it all, disappointing to say at least. Traditional tax-free companies charge fees varying from 35% to 60% of the VAT amount and are only an option if shops are affiliated. We decided to use modern technology to create an open platform for all shops to easily join, without necessary contracts, and to minimize costs so that we can continue to offer the highest possible refund. Our service fee starts at €2,50 per receipt with a maximum of €80. With this, we help travelers ánd stores as we believe a happy customer is a customer for life.
Our mission is to help travelers easily shop tax-free at stores and brands that love them back.

The Best in Mobile
With airports requesting travelers to show up at least three hours before their flight, and safety procedures taking up a lot of time, most travelers have little time left to arrange to get a Customs validation stamp on their receipts. Standing in line at Customs may take up to half an hour or more. Being required to then stand in line at a desk for a cash refund, can increase the time of this entire process to an hour or more. Time is sparse so we built the first-ever tax-free shopping app in 2016, so travelers can finalize refund claims once they find a spare moment, on the plane home or in the comfort of their own house.

The Most Diverse
We are the first and only tax-free shopping service founded by travelers, specifically for travelers, with the main focus on travelers’ needs. Our service, therefore, ranges from helping a range of travelers from tourists, cruise passengers, military staff, expats and international students.

We also are able to help travelers get back VAT over shopping made online, offline, cross-border, over purchases charged with low as well as high VAT rates at shops that are either listed in our shopping guide as well as not listed and new to us.

Version History Fixes a bug where the QR code scanner will sometimes render a blank page 5.1.1 Sep 12 Bug fixes and performance enhancements. 5.1.0 Sep 8 Fixes a bug with enabling push notifications. 5.0.5 Jul 7 Bug fixes and performance improvements. 5.0.4 Jun 22 Bug fixes and performance enhancements:
- Fixed a bug that would block passports from being submitted. 5.0.3 May 28 Bug fix for passport photo upload 5.0.2 Apr 22 Bug fixes and performance improvements 5.0.1 Apr 12 New major version supporting the new digital customs validation process. 5.0.0 Mar 11 Bug fixes and performance improvements. New digital customs process. 4.1.9 Feb 22 Improved support for digital customs 4.1.8 Jan 7 New reduced payout costs for paypal users.
General improvements and bug fixes 4.1.6 10/20/2025 Bug fixes and performance improvements 4.1.4 08/23/2024 General maintenance and bug fixes 4.1.2 07/18/2024 Bug fix edition, we streamlined some hiccups. 4.0.31 12/06/2023 Bug fix edition, we streamlined some hiccups. 4.0.1 01/17/2023 We updated the account flow and squashed some bugs in the process. Keep the suggestions coming! 4.0.0 12/08/2022 - Small bug fix for when registering QR code receipts 3.5.4 02/04/2021 We made some improvements and killed some bugs. Added Sign in with Apple. 3.5.1 11/03/2020 - Bug fixes
- Updated social logins 3.4 05/21/2020 Added option to upload boarding pass for a faster refund experience.
Bug fixes. 3.3 03/28/2020 - Updated social logins for Facebook and LinkedIn.
- Small energy usage improvement with regard to scanning QR codes. 3.1.2 12/19/2019 - Updated flow when adding a receipt. No need anymore to photograph an unstamped receipt.
- Added faster image processing. 3.1.1 12/05/2019 Updated flow when adding a receipt. No need anymore to photograph and unstamped receipt. 3.1 12/05/2019 We've listened to your feedback and have updated the way receipts are added to your account. A much easier and user-friendly way.
It is now also possible to add Cargo receipts to your account directly in the app. 3.0 08/23/2019 Minor bug fix update related to loading language strings.
The app should now be fully functional in English, Dutch and Chinese. 2.4.2 04/27/2019