Living near the South Coast, it’s so easy for us to pop over to France. We love the culture, the history and also the shopping. Since the UK left the EU, UK residents are able to shop tax free in France and other EU countries. However, I found very few blogs sharing personal experiences of this, so wanted to share my experiences with you all.
In September 2022, we thought we would have a long weekend in France. Living on the South Coast, we decided to drive over, which gave me the opportunity to look at tax reclaims on our shopping. Firstly, make sure you check out the rules around this – there are regulations such as they can’t be consumed/ used whilst in the EU (so keep all tags firmly on the items), certain products aren’t applicable, amongst others. There are plenty of helpful websites detailing the regulations around this so I recommend reading up on this online. This post focuses on the process of doing the tax reclaim and the options available for this process.
I downloaded Wevat. (Use code RE39NT93 to get an extra €5 if you spend over €500 on your next trip to France – see disclaimer at the end of this article). I researched online and this app looked good. In order to claim back the tax, it has to be over 100 euros. If you are doing this yourself, you would have to spend 100 euros in each shop, however Wevat allows you to build up different receipts until it totals over 100 euros. So, as I spent 80 euros in Mango and 40 euros in Zara, I was able to combine these receipts on the app to total the 100 euros needed. The app also gives you a running total of how much of a refund you are due and has a really helpful screen in French, to show to the cashier explaining what type of receipt you require for the reclaim. Very handy if you’re not good at speaking French! You do your ID verification, using your passport, through the app as well. Wevat does take a commission of your reclaim, however for its ease and simplicity in organising everything for you, I would still highly recommend it.
I also wanted to try a reclaim independent of Wevat to see what this process was like. In the Carrefour in Calais, they had signs about tax back for UK residents at every till point and had their own forms and process. We easily spent over 100 euros here and I went to the customer service desk to fill this form in. Make sure you take your passport with you as this is needed for this form. This was a quick and painless process, but I suspect this was because the Carrefour in Calais was very used to this.
I’m interested to see which tax reclaim comes back to me first, so I will post an update when I have them both back. Although Carrefour made the process easy, I think I would generally prefer to use Wevat in the future as it was simple and easy to follow.
The next stage before leaving France was to scan the tax free forms. This part I couldn’t find a lot of info online about so hopefully my experience helps others here. I wasn’t sure what the machines were like or where they were located. For Calais Ferry Port, I found info online saying they had some onsite, but not where they were located. We arrived at Calais, with plenty of time for me to explore this. We cleared through customs and parked up. We went into the main building which houses a duty free shop, restaurant and toilets, but this was not correct. The tax reclaim machines, where the tax free forms are scanned, are located in a separate building, shown in the photo below.
The hardest part at the Ferry Port was locating this building! Once inside, the machines were easy to use and the forms were quick to scan.
I’m now waiting on both of my tax reclaims to come through and I will update with the time frames on these, once they are processed. I would definitely do this again and would recommend trying it. Bon shopping!
If you enjoyed reading this blog post and found it useful, and would like to use Wevat on your next trip to France, please do use referral code RE39NT93 you will get an extra €5 if you spend over €500 on the app, As a disclaimer, I get €10 for a completed referral.
Update: Both tax reclaims came in just under two weeks later and directly to my bank account with no issues. Carrefour with their paperwork was quicker by two days than Wevat, but I would be happy using either service again.
MM xx
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