Why do I pay a service fee? /

Service fees are standard in the tax-free market. 

Most stores outsource VAT refund procedures to companies like vatfree.com. Why?

To process a VAT refund claim stores and companies need to:

• Carry out some non-standard administrative procedures which cost more time and money than standard administrative procedures
• Have regulatory and compliance knowledge regarding end-consumer exports, not only in their finance departments but also in customer care
• Build secure (digital) environments to store customer's data and ID documents

For most stores and companies the costs of human resources and information infrastructure required for these processes are too high in light of the small % of customers requesting back VAT. Most stores therefore outsource this process to VAT refund companies like vatfree.com.

These processes require funds from our side too and this is reflected in our fees. Because we are specialised in these processes our fees are still lower than the fees of many stores that process refunds directly.

One of our top goals is to lower service fee's dramatically and get them close to zero. We know you have the right to receive a full refund and we aim to offer our customers close to full refunds in the future. We plan to do that through digitalisation so manual administrative checks are no longer needed. Developing the tech requires funds and getting all stores and customs departments on board takes time. We're working on it!

In the mean time, we try to offer the lowest service fee's as possible and we're proud of that. If you find a lower fee somewhere else, please let us know. We'll adjust our service fee's for you.