Refund of money paid for VAT on purchases

In accordance with the legislation, only the supplier that delivers the goods or on its behalf an entity duly authorized to do so by the Tax Agency, can mediate the VAT refund procedure to travelers.

The following:

• Global Blue España  SA (antes European Tax Free Shopping Spain SA)
• Planet Payment Spain  SAU (formerly Cashback and Premier Tax Free)
• Epay Taxfree (Innova Tax Free Spain SL)
• Caja de Ahorros y Pensiones de Barcelona
• Open Refund  SL
• Comercia Global Payments Payment Institution SL
• El Corte Inglés Financial Institution, EFC
• Travel Tax Free, SLU
• S21 TAX FREE, SL
• KEEP SHOPPING TAX FREE, SL
• HISPANIA TAX FREE, SL
• B FreeTax Back SL
• Safety Tax Free Spain, SL
• Wiblink, SL
• WOONIVERS SPAIN, SL (antes Getrefund SL)
• Traveleasy  GmBH
• Pucela Brain Storm, SL
• Refundit, SL
• Yourtaxback, SL
• Upshop Tax Free Spain, SL
• Pie Systems Spain, SL

Travellers shall submit electronic refund documents endorsed by customs to these entities, which shall pay the amount (invoice minus commission), documenting their agreement.

Deliveries of goods to non-EU travellers will be exempt when the goods acquired actually leave the territory of the Community, complying with the requirements set out in art. 21.2.A) LIVA . The exemption is to be effected by reimbursement of the input tax on the purchases.

Once the supplier has made the reimbursement of the fees, accredited with the corresponding transfers to the interested parties or to the collaborating entities, the supplier obtains the reimbursement from the Tax Administration by filing form 308 (Request for reimbursement of the special equivalence surcharge and occasional taxpayers system).

The submission of the self-assessment with request for refund by taxpayers subject to the equivalence surcharge who have made refunds to exporters under the traveller system shall be made during the first twenty calendar days of the month following the end of each quarter, except for the fourth quarter, which shall be submitted during the first thirty calendar days of January of the following year.

In the form 308 submitted, only tax payments that have been reimbursed by the taxpayer in the quarter to which the form refers may be computed.

Given that form 308 is a return-settlement, i.e. a self-assessment, the right to obtain a refund of the taxes charged through the travellers' system, in accordance with the provisions of Article 67 of the General Tax Law, will expire four years after the day following the end of the period for submitting the corresponding self-assessment.

Once the electronic reimbursement document has been sealed, the supplier or collaborating entity must check its visa in the procedure included on this page or through the web server, before proceeding with the reimbursement of VAT .

Once the amount due has been reimbursed to the tourist, they shall electronically communicate that such payment has been made.

In the case where the stamping has taken place in another Member State and therefore through a manual procedure, the supplier or the collaborating entity shall check that the stamp is on the refund document and shall also electronically report the VAT refund.

Order HAP/2652/2012 establishes the minimum amount to be paid to travellers by the collaborating organisations. There is nothing to prevent, within these margins, the collaborating organisations from establishing different amounts to be refunded depending on the means of payment chosen by the traveller.

There is also no impediment for collaborating entities to act through an agent, established in the territory of application of VAT or outside it.

Regardless of whether or not an agent is involved and regardless of where the agent acting in the name and on behalf of the collaborating organisation is established, the collaborating organisation is obliged to refund the traveller the minimum amount set out in Order HAP/2652/2012 and this obligation is not affected by the involvement of an agent of the collaborating organisation, whether established in the territory where the VAT is charged or in another territory.

The authorization to act as a collaborating entity in the refund of VAT under the traveler regime establishes the obligations of said entity towards the traveler, obligations that in turn constitute the rights of the traveler.

These obligations include the organisation being required to pay the traveller the minimum amount set out in Order HAP/2652/2012, involving the correlative right of the traveller to obtain the minimum amount set out in that order.

This minimum amount cannot be reduced by fees charged on its own behalf by agents of the cooperating organisation, regardless of where these agents are established.