Tax refund rorts

[Sojourner]

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Almost two months ago I got my tax refunds processed at Malpensa airport through Premier Tax free and Global Blue

I provided all my receipts at the time and opted to have the money credited back to my 28 Degrees mastercard.

For Global, the tax refund came through almost immediately.

For Premier Tax Free, it took almost two months for the payment to appear in my account.

The worst part of this is the exchange rates used to process the refund.

For Premier Tax Free my original purchase was made in London, and it's come up on my statement as "PREMIERTAXFREE GBP411. RATE 1.7993 IRL $739.74"

Does anyone know what IRL means?

The mark up on the exchange rate is nearing 8% which is just a joke particularly given they've already taken about 8% on the "admin fee".

What are other people's experiences with the tax refund companies?

 

[RooFlyer]

I think this is on topic.

Leaving Turkey at Sabiha Gökçen airport (SAW). All documentation in hand, am at the appropriate refund desk airside.

Refused refund, as apparently I needed a stamp from some-one before I went airside. Can't go back of course (immigration) - so no refund. :evil:

 

[marki]

I think this is on topic.

Leaving Turkey at Sabiha Gökçen airport (SAW). All documentation in hand, am at the appropriate refund desk airside.

Refused refund, as apparently I needed a stamp from some-one before I went airside. Can't go back of course (immigration) - so no refund. :evil:

I have found that refunds unless you follow instructions implicitly are getting thinner and thinner at airport. Sometimes the refund takes ages being credited.

The bigger firms like YSL have partnered with firms that do a better job i.e. Refunds are at the Airport in cash ....

 

[Sojourner]

It's astounding how governments allow these kind of practices to continue.

Take for example if you bought something for 1200 GBP in the UK which includes a 20% VAT of 200 GBP.

The 'admin fee' charged by companies like Global Blue and Premier Tax Free is equivalent to around 35% of the tax refund.

So your 200 pounds goes down to 130. Then you get ripped off on the exchange rate which is around 8%. This leaves you with around 119.6 GBP.

So instead of the refund of your 20% VAT worth 200 GPB, it's now worth 119.6 GBP. A whopping 40% worth of fees and exchange rate rip-offs.

All sanctioned by the government. I actually think all governments should either regulate the fees charged or just axe these programs altogether and keep the revenue, rather than letting these parasites rip people off.

Given the bureaucracy they put you through to claim your VAT(and in many instance the GST or other taxes you have to pay to bring the goods back to your own country), I see little is little benefit in these systems other than to enrich the 'service' providers.

I just cannot see how you can charge someone claming back $50 bucks worth of tax back, the same % of fees as someone who say, is claming $5,000 of taxes back. Same amount of paperwork is involved, yet the fees increase by 1000% to claim for the latter.

 

[Sojourner]

I think this is on topic.

Leaving Turkey at Sabiha Gökçen airport (SAW). All documentation in hand, am at the appropriate refund desk airside.

Refused refund, as apparently I needed a stamp from some-one before I went airside. Can't go back of course (immigration) - so no refund. :evil:

Just to make it more confusing, the arrangements can vary from airport to airport. Some have refund counters both before and after immigration, some as in your circumstance - only before immigration.

 

[exceladdict]

My $20 USD or so in sales tax refund upon leaving Texas took two months to come through and had a hefty surcharge. By the time it reappeared on my citi visa plus debit I had written it off entirely...