Residents of the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla

Upon arrival in the Canary Islands, you must go to the corresponding Customs office at the airport/port to manually stamp the Electronic Refund Document (DER) and present the purchased goods. This manual sealing must be done within three months of purchase.

The refund of VAT under the traveler regime is subject to the prior settlement of the IGIC , a procedure that can be carried out on-line through the Electronic Headquarters of the Government of the Canary Islands using Form 040, to which the DER previously stamped by Customs must be attached.

Subsequently, the ATC will send the copy of the DER and the settlement IGIC so that the Customs can proceed with the digital sealing.

The traveller will send the Electronic Refund Document (DER) electronically endorsed by Customs to the supplier, who will refund the amount charged within the following fifteen days by check, bank transfer, credit card or other means that allows the refund to be verified.

Refunds of the tax may also be made through collaborating entities authorized by the State Agency for Tax Administration. Travelers will present the electronic reimbursement documents endorsed by Customs to these entities, which will pay the corresponding amount, stating the traveler's consent.

No. The entire procedure is recorded electronically and it is an essential requirement that the operation be documented in an Electronic Refund Document.

If you meet the rest of the requirements and, provided that you can prove that your purchases have entered the Canary Islands within 3 months of their purchase (you must request that your purchases be verified upon arrival, when disembarking), you can ask the seller to issue you the Electronic Refund Document (ERD) afterwards.

No. The entire procedure is recorded electronically and it is an essential requirement that the operation be documented in a DER .

However, the retail establishment cannot deny you your right to a refund nor can it refuse to issue the DER. The seller must issue the corresponding invoice and, in addition, a DER, available at the Electronic Headquarters of the State Tax Administration Agency, in which he will record the goods acquired and, separately, the corresponding tax.

Thus, the issuance of the DER by the seller is not configured as a discretionary or optional circumstance for the seller, but rather as a genuine legal obligation situated at the same level as the obligation to issue invoices.

The seller's refusal to issue the DER, which it is legally and statutorily obliged to do, could be considered a tax dispute for the purposes of allowing the consultant to file the corresponding economic-administrative claim before the Economic-Administrative Court.

Neither the VAT nor the IGIC regulations regulate this period. However, it should be noted that the traveller's request may entail the seller's obligation to rectify the transferred fees, for which he has a maximum period of 4 years from the moment in which the Tax corresponding to the operation was accrued.

In accordance with the above, the traveller must send the invoice to the supplier within four years from the accrual of the transaction documented therein, so that said supplier can fulfil the obligation to rectify the assessed fees stated therein. After this period, the supplier will not be obliged to rectify these fees or return the amount thereof.

Therefore, the liquidation of the IGIC and the corresponding Customs visa must be made available to the seller within 4 years from the purchase.

Please note that, as the procedure is electronic and there is a maximum period of 3 months for purchases to reach the Canary Islands, registering transactions outside this period requires manual actions that may lengthen the processing by several days.