Shopping in France: how can you benefit from tax relief on your purchases?

Tax-free purchases

If you are over 16 and live outside the European Union or in a non-EU country, you are entitled to a VAT (value-added tax) deduction, whatever your nationality. To benefit from this deduction, you will be asked for proof of identity when you make your purchases.

This deduction applies to tourist and non-commercial purchases of more than €100 including VAT from the same retailer on the same day. Certain items are excluded from the tax-free allowance (services, cultural goods, manufactured tobacco, private vehicles, petroleum products, weapons, etc.).

In practice, tax is either paid directly at the time of purchase or reimbursed at a later date. In the latter case, the retailer issues an export sales note bearing a barcode and signed by the seller and yourself. This slip must be presented to customs on departure.

A simplified system of electronic endorsement of the export sales note (PABLO) means that you can avoid queuing in front of manual tax-free counters, thanks to the multilingual electronic terminals available in airports in particular.

Good to know: from 2 June 2025, any French tax-free sales note that is not recognised when scanned at a PABLO terminal will not be validated by French customs.

In practice, if the duty-free operator has not complied with the issuing procedures laid down by the regulations in force, the scanning terminal will display the following message: ‘Your sales slip cannot be validated by French customs because it has not been duly issued by your duty-free operator. If you have a complaint, please contact your duty-free operator’. To contact the duty-free operator, please refer to the contact details shown on the sales slip.