VAT refund calculator for shoppers from Switzerland

How tax-free shopping works when you live in Switzerland

Shops in Germany, Austria, France and Italy can give you their VAT back when you live outside the EU, because the goods leave the EU with you. What counts is where you live, not your passport: a German citizen who lives in Switzerland can shop tax-free, a Swiss citizen who lives in Germany cannot. A shop does not have to offer it, so ask before you pay.

It works in four steps. At the till you pay the full price and ask for an export form. On your way out, that country’s customs confirms that the goods leave the EU, with a stamp or digitally. Then the shop, or a refund company working with the shop, pays the VAT back to you, usually minus a fee. Customs and tax offices never pay it out themselves, and Swiss customs does not refund foreign VAT either.

At the Swiss border your goods stay free of Swiss VAT up to CHF 150 per person and day. Above that you pay Swiss VAT on the whole value: 8.1 percent, or 2.6 percent on food, books and medicines. The calculator works out both sides, so you see what is really left.

Only goods count: restaurant meals, hotel nights and other services do not. The goods must travel in your own luggage; sending them home by post does not count.

The four countries side by side

From the official pages of each country, checked on 14 October 2026; the Italian deadline and the German minimum again on 15 October 2026.

Germany: the dAKZ app

Germany’s digital export form for the Swiss border is called dAKZ, digitaler Ausfuhrkassenzettel (until early 2026 it was named eAKZ). It has been available since 16 June 2026 and is voluntary. You register in the customs portal and in the app, the shop scans the card in your app at the till, and you announce the export before you cross. The first time, you stop at a German customs office so it can check your data once. After that a green signal in the app means you drive on without stopping, a red one means you show the goods at customs. It works only at the crossings the app lists and only in shops that take part; anywhere else you need the paper form and the stamp. Press reports call this a pilot at the main customs offices of Lörrach and Singen; the official page leaves the list of crossings to the app.

Germany: the €50 minimum after 2026

Decided: until 31 December 2026 each receipt must be over €50, as it has been since 1 January 2020.

Open: what applies from 1 January 2027. The VAT Act ends the minimum at the end of the year in which Germany first issues export proofs electronically, as the federal government explained in 2021. Germany has issued them with the dAKZ app since 16 June 2026, and the federal government writes in its draft annual tax act 2026 that under this rule the minimum would end on 1 January 2027. The same bill, Bundestag paper 21/8283 of 30 September 2026, would keep the €50 for good from that day. The Bundesrat gave its opinion on 25 September 2026 and raised no objection to this point. On 15 October 2026 the Bundestag had not voted.

The calculator keeps counting the €50 minimum and shows a note for shopping dates from 1 January 2027. We check again in the first week of December and at the end of the year.

Italy: €70, not €154.94

Some pages, among them the English OTELLO page of the Italian Customs Agency, still show the old minimum of €154.94. It fell to €70 on 1 February 2024, with the budget law for 2024, as the Revenue Agency’s circular 3/E and the Customs Agency’s traveller guide of July 2025 say.

Italy: six months for a stamped invoice

Since 1 January 2026 an invoice that customs stamped on paper must be back at the shop by the end of the sixth month after the purchase; before, it was the fourth. The budget law for 2026, law 199 of 30 December 2025, article 1, paragraph 935, replaced the word fourth with sixth in article 38-quater of the VAT decree. The goods still have to leave the EU by the end of the third month after the month of purchase.

France: more than €100

The customs page says more than 100 euros, the customs circular of 24 April 2026 says 100 euros or more. The calculator counts more than 100 euros, so a shop total of exactly €100 shows as borderline.

Austria: 4.9 percent on basic foods

Since 1 July 2026 selected basic foods such as milk, butter, eggs, rice, wheat flour, pasta and bread carry 4.9 percent instead of 10 percent, so there is less VAT to get back on them.

Before you leave the shop

Customs compares the form with your documents and with the goods, so check it at the till:

• Your name and address exactly as in your passport or ID card. German customs compares them with your documents.
• Proof that you live outside the EU. Germany accepts a passport, ID card or other travel document. France asks for the original passport and an official document with an address outside the EU. Austria takes your home from your passport or travel document.
• Your passport or ID number where the form asks for it. In Italy the law wants these details on the invoice before the customs visa, and your copy should show the OTELLO request code.
• What you bought, item by item. In France each item needs an exact description: brand and serial number for watches, jewellery, cameras and computers, and colour, appellation, strength and the number and size of bottles for wine and spirits.
• The shop’s name and address, which in Germany belong on the form too.
• The goods stay with you until the export is confirmed. Customs can ask to see them, and in Germany it must.

What the form looks like

The shop gives you one of these documents. Pick a country to see a simplified drawing and what to check on it before you leave the shop. The numbers in each drawing match the list under it.

Without a car: train, bus, bike or on foot

The stamp always comes from the customs of the EU country you leave, with you and the goods there. Swiss customs cannot give it: it has not handled exports for France since 1 July 2023, and Germany does not accept a confirmation from the customs of a country outside the EU.

• France by train. To Geneva, the French customs office at Genève-Cornavin station validates the slip every day from 6:30 to 18:30, as the Swiss customs list of staffed French posts shows. The list also names Ferney-Voltaire airport, every day from 6:00 to 23:00. On other trains French customs asks for the stamp during the journey or at the border station, and to Switzerland only a staffed post counts, so ask before you travel.
• Italy by train. At Chiasso station the Italian customs app VAT REFUND lets you request the digital visa yourself, as the Customs Agency announced on 16 January 2026.
• Germany. Take the goods, the form and your passport or ID card to a German customs office before you leave. The dAKZ app works only at the crossings it lists, never on the green border or on field and footpaths.
• Austria. Only the last EU customs office before you leave confirms the export, so stop there with the goods.

In the calculator, choose Without a car under How you cross the border, and your steps change.

Missed the stamp?

• Germany. A German embassy or consulate in Switzerland can confirm the export later, for a fee, if you show it the goods. A confirmation from Swiss customs does not count.
• Austria. A late confirmation is given only in exceptional cases, usually with a customs clearance confirmation from Swiss customs.
• France. Only if the post was closed or the PABLO kiosk failed: email the regional customs office in charge of your exit point within six months of the purchase, and keep the goods in their original packaging. A request after an unstaffed crossing is never accepted.
• Italy. The Italian rules we could read offer no later visa. Without one, the shop has to charge the VAT once the six months have passed.

At the Swiss border

• CHF 150 per person and day. Goods for your own use or as gifts come in free of Swiss VAT while their total value stays within CHF 150. Children count as people too, and each person can use the limit once a day.
• Above it, the whole value is taxed. With CHF 400 of goods you pay VAT on CHF 400, not on the part above the limit.
• Which value counts. Customs takes the price without the foreign VAT, if the receipt shows it, converted into francs.
• Swiss VAT rates. 8.1 percent, and 2.6 percent on food, non-alcoholic drinks, books, newspapers and medicines.
• Single items over CHF 150 are always taxed, however many people travel together.
• Travelling together. Once a group is over its limits, customs counts the limit of all but one person. Two people with goods worth CHF 360 pay VAT on CHF 210.
• Meat, butter, alcohol and tobacco also have quantity allowances, with duty above them, for example on more than 1 kg of meat per person. The Swiss customs calculator works that out.
• Declaring. In the QuickZoll app before you cross (you pay at the earliest 48 hours ahead, in a two-hour window) or at a staffed crossing. If you are unsure, declare at a staffed crossing.
• Swiss VAT is due whether or not you claim the foreign VAT back.

What you really get back

The VAT on the receipt is the most you can get back. How much of it reaches you depends on who pays it out:

• The shop itself. Often the whole VAT, sometimes minus a handling or transfer fee. In France the shop must tell you its fee.
• A refund company such as Global Blue or Planet. It pays at a counter, by card or by transfer and keeps a fee. None of them publishes one fixed rate, so look at the form or the company’s refund table.
• dAKZ in Germany. The app replaces the paper form and the stamp, not the payout: the refund stays between you and the shop, as zoll.de says.

An example at 0.9330 francs per euro: a jacket for €300 in Germany contains €47.90 of VAT, about CHF 44.69. If the shop pays it all back, you get CHF 44.69; if a refund company keeps a quarter, about CHF 33.51. At Swiss customs the jacket, CHF 235.21 without German VAT, is a single item over CHF 150, so you pay CHF 19.05 of Swiss VAT either way. You keep CHF 25.64 with the shop and CHF 14.46 with the company.

Three examples

Anna shops in Konstanz

Anna lives in Kreuzlingen and shops in Konstanz on a Saturday: clothes for €89.90 and groceries for €64.20, each with an Ausfuhrschein, plus €38.50 at the drugstore, too little for a form. She gets back €18.55 of German VAT, about CHF 17.31. Without the German VAT her goods are worth CHF 156.65, just over the limit, so at the border she owes Swiss VAT on all of it: CHF 9.60. She keeps CHF 7.71. Had she bought the drugstore things at home, her goods would have been worth CHF 126.47 and she would have kept all CHF 17.31.

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A family of four in Weil am Rhein

Two adults and two children from Basel spend a morning in Weil am Rhein: €212.40 at the supermarket, €58.90 at the drugstore, €145 for children’s shoes and a tablet for €329. All four receipts are over €50, and the shops pay back €98.98 of German VAT, about CHF 92.35. At Swiss customs the tablet, worth CHF 257.95 without German VAT, is taxed on its own because it is a single item over CHF 150: CHF 20.90. Their other goods, CHF 345.07, fit within the limits of the other three people. They keep CHF 71.45.

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A coat from Milan

Marco buys a coat in Milan for €1’290 and asks for a tax-free invoice. It contains €232.62 of Italian VAT. He uses a refund company; say it keeps a quarter of the VAT (the real fee is on its form), then he gets €174.46, about CHF 162.77. On the train home the Italian customs at Chiasso gives the digital visa. At Swiss customs the coat, CHF 986.54 without Italian VAT, is a single item over CHF 150: he declares it and pays CHF 79.90 of Swiss VAT. He keeps CHF 82.87.

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Examples at the ECB rate of 14 October 2026, 0.9330 francs per euro. Customs uses its own rate of the day.

Questions and answers

Can I add up receipts to reach the minimum?

In Germany, Austria and Italy, no: each receipt or invoice counts on its own, so pay for everything at once. In France your purchases at one shop or chain within up to 3 days go on one form together.

Do I pay Swiss VAT even when I get the foreign VAT back?

Yes, once your goods are over CHF 150 per person, and it is due whether or not you claim the foreign VAT. Claiming is still worth it: the foreign rates, 19 to 22 percent on most goods, are well above the Swiss 8.1 percent.

Which value counts for the CHF 150?

The price without the foreign VAT, if the receipt shows it, in francs. A German receipt of €170 with 19 percent VAT counts as €142.86, about CHF 133.

What is the dAKZ app?

Germany’s digital export form for the Swiss border, available since 16 June 2026 at the crossings the app lists and in shops that take part. The shop scans your app instead of filling in a paper form, and a green signal lets you drive through. Everywhere else the paper Ausfuhrschein and the stamp still work.

The customs office was closed. What now?

Germany: a German embassy or consulate in Switzerland can confirm the export later, for a fee, if you show it the goods. Austria: a late confirmation only in exceptional cases. France: if the post was closed or the PABLO kiosk failed, email the regional customs office within six months, but never after an unstaffed crossing. Italy: no later visa that we could find. Details under Missed the stamp.

I travel by train. Where do I get the stamp?

From the customs of the country you leave: to Geneva at the French customs office in Genève-Cornavin station, every day from 6:30 to 18:30, and to Ticino with the Italian VAT REFUND app at Chiasso station. Swiss customs cannot stamp the form. More under Without a car.

How long do I have?

In all four countries the goods must leave the EU before the end of the third month after the month of purchase: buy on 6 March, leave by 30 June, as the German Ministry of Finance’s own example says. In Italy a paper-stamped invoice must be back at the shop by the end of the sixth month after the purchase. The calculator shows the dates for your shopping day.

Shop or refund company?

Shops near the Swiss border often pay out the VAT themselves, sometimes minus handling or transfer costs. Refund companies such as Global Blue and Planet pay at a counter, by card or by transfer and keep a fee that is not one fixed rate, so look at the form. In France the shop must tell you its handling fee.

Can I order online and have it sent to Switzerland?

Not with this procedure: the goods must leave the EU in your own luggage. In Germany you may order online and pick the goods up yourself.

What about fuel, a bike or car parts?

Germany never exempts bikes, e-bikes, parts and accessories for a car or bike, or fuel. France excludes motor vehicles, their parts and fuel, but bikes and e-bikes up to 250 watts and 25 km/h are fine. For Austria and Italy the official pages we read say nothing, so ask the shop. Fuel in your car’s tank comes into Switzerland free.

Where are my entries saved?

Only in this browser, on this device. Nothing is sent to travelfrugally.com. Copy link puts your entries into a link you can open on another phone or computer.

Is it free?

Yes. No sign-up and no app.

More free tools

• Export stamp finder: the customs offices at the Swiss border where you get the tax-free form stamped, with hours and which are open now.
• Halbtax or GA calculator: single tickets, Halbtax, Halbtax PLUS or GA, what pays off for how you travel in Switzerland.
• Swiss customs calculator: what you can bring into Switzerland free, and what you pay above the CHF 150 limit.
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• Colosseum and Roman Forum map: a free phone map with routes, entrances and opening hours.
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Sources

• Germany: zoll.de, Tax free einkaufen (more than €50 per receipt since 1 January 2020, three months, excluded goods, what the form needs, confirmation by an embassy, dAKZ from 16 June 2026), VAT refund with dAKZ (how the app works) and the dAKZ app; Federal Ministry of Finance, Merkblatt zur Umsatzsteuerbefreiung im nichtkommerziellen Reiseverkehr, March 2025 (section 6 paragraph 3a of the VAT Act, the deadline example, excluded vehicle goods, confirmation by an embassy); zoll.de, 19 and 7 percent; Bundestag, government bill for the annual tax act 2026, paper 21/8283 of 30 September 2026 (article 13 number 7 keeps the €50 minimum from 1 January 2027; reasons, entry into force and the Bundesrat opinion of 25 September 2026), and government answer 19/29727 of 18 May 2021 (when the minimum ends under today’s law). All in German.
• Austria: Federal Ministry of Finance, Umsatzsteuerrückerstattung (§ 7 UStG 1994: more than €75 per invoice, the deadline, the U 34, late confirmations, clearing agencies); USP, VAT rates and the new 4.9 percent rate; Austrian Parliament, press release of 21 May 2026. All in German.
• France: French customs, Vous achetez des marchandises en détaxe (minimum, 3 days, age 16, documents, excluded goods, deadline, staffed posts to Switzerland since 1 July 2023, trains, late validation) and the circular of 24 April 2026 (what the slip must show, documents, late validation by email); Ministry of the Economy, détaxe (handling fees) and VAT rates. All in French.
• Italy: Revenue Agency, circular 3/E of 16 February 2024 (€70 from 1 February 2024, the three-month deadline, OTELLO); Gazzetta Ufficiale, budget law for 2026, law 199 of 30 December 2025 (article 1, paragraph 935: sixth instead of fourth month, in force since 1 January 2026), and the research dossier of the Senate and the Chamber on it, volume IV; Customs and Monopolies Agency, Carta doganale del viaggiatore, July 2025, and press release of 16 January 2026 on the VAT REFUND app at Chiasso. All in Italian.
• Form drawings: Germany, the model form in appendix 2 of the Merkblatt above; Austria, the U 34 form as published by the Austrian Economic Chamber, WKO, U34 Ausfuhrnachweis für Umsatzsteuerzwecke (24 March 2026) and its page for tourists (1 June 2026), all in German; France, the circular of 24 April 2026 itself (points 19 to 27, 32, 39 and 40), in French; Italy, Customs and Monopolies Agency, La procedura OTELLO 2.0 and Rimborso IVA, in Italian.
• EU: European Commission, Your Europe, VAT rates in EU countries (last checked by the Commission on 13 July 2026, without Austria’s 4.9 percent rate).
• Switzerland: BAZG, CHF 150 tax-free limit, examples for several people, QuickZoll questions (in German) and the brochure Info Zoll für Privatpersonen (in German), Refund of French VAT: end of exemption (the staffed French posts with their hours) and Rückerstattung der ausländischen MWST (in German); Federal Tax Administration, Swiss VAT rates (8.1 and 2.6 percent since 1 January 2024); ch.ch, shopping tourism.
• Exchange rate: European Central Bank reference rate of 14 October 2026, 0.9330 francs per euro.

All checked on 14 October 2026; the Italian deadline, the German minimum, the help on forms, trains and missed stamps and the form drawings on 15 October 2026. The minimums, the VAT rates and the dAKZ rollout are checked every month and on 1 January, the German minimum also in the first week of December.

An estimate to help with the sums, not tax advice and not a statement of any customs office. The shop or the refund company decides on the refund, and customs on what you pay.

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