The GoodVat VAT Refund App Is in Private Beta
Tourists lose a third of their VAT refund to desk commissions and paperwork. The GoodVat app automates the claim and pays out 90%. Private beta is open.
Every visitor who shops in Europe pays VAT they’re legally entitled to get back. Almost none of them see the full amount. Plenty give up and never claim at all.
We think that’s absurd. We’ve already issued 1,300+ refunds by hand to prove it can be done better, and now we’re turning that into an app. The private beta is open today.
Calculate your refund and join the private beta →
The refund you’re owed vs. the refund you get
If you live outside the EU and take your shopping home, the VAT in the price is yours to reclaim. On a €1,000 purchase in France, that’s €166.67.
Here’s what actually happens to it:
- The shop hands you a form. One per shop, filled in at the checkout, while a queue builds behind you.
- You find customs at the airport. Then you find the refund desk, which is somewhere else, with its own queue.
- The refund operator takes its cut. A typical desk pays out around 70% of the VAT. Take cash and it’s less.
- Or you miss a step and get nothing. A lost form, a missed stamp, a spend just under the minimum.
That €166.67 becomes roughly €116.67, on a good day.
What the app does
The GoodVat app turns that into something you do on your phone:
- Shop as usual and snap each receipt. Purchases from different shops collect in one claim.
- We do the paperwork. No forms at the checkout, no envelope to post.
- Validate at customs when you leave. That step is the law and no app can skip it, but the app tells you exactly where to go and what to show.
- Get paid. 90% of the VAT, back on your card or in your bank account.
On that same €1,000 purchase, that’s €150.00 instead of €116.67. And you know the number before you get to the airport, not after.
Why us
GoodVat started as a tax encyclopedia. Our VAT refund guides cover all 27 EU countries: the minimum spends, the customs systems, the deadlines, the mistakes that cost people their refund. Travellers read them every day, and the questions they send us are always the same two:
How much will I actually get? and Why is this so hard?
We built the VAT Refund Calculator to answer the first one. The app is our answer to the second.
Where it works
All 27 EU countries. Japan, the UAE and Vietnam are coming soon, with other countries that offer tourist VAT refunds to follow.
Get in
The app is in private beta and we’re sending invites by email. Private beta members get their first refund fee-free.
Work out your refund and join the private beta →
Don’t leave your VAT at the airport.