I Saved £340 Shopping in Paris Last Month. Here's the One Thing Most Brits Still Don't Know

Since Brexit, British tourists can reclaim up to 20% VAT on everything they buy in France. I found out on my third trip. Here's what I wish someone had told me on my first.

I've been going to Paris roughly twice a year since my early twenties. City breaks, long weekends, the odd work trip with an extra day tacked on. I know which arrondissement to stay in, which boulangerie near the Marais does the best croissant, and exactly how long it takes to get from Gare du Nord to anywhere useful on the Métro.

What I didn't know - until last fall - was that for nearly six years I'd been overpaying for everything I bought there.

Not because the prices were wrong. Because I wasn't claiming back the tax I was legally entitled to as a British tourist.

On my last trip, I got £340 back. On a long weekend. Without queueing at a single desk, filling in a single paper form, or doing anything more complicated than photographing a receipt.

Let me explain.

The Brexit perk nobody told you about

Here's the thing about leaving the EU: it came with a genuinely useful upside that barely anyone talks about. When you buy something in France as a UK resident, you're paying French VAT — currently 20% on most goods. But as a non-EU visitor, you're not actually supposed to pay it. It's a tax for people who live there. You're just passing through.

EU citizens can't claim it back. We can. We've been able to since January 2021.

The scheme existed before Brexit too, but it applied only to non-EU tourists — Americans, Australians, tourists from the Gulf. After we left, it quietly extended to British passport holders as well. The government mentioned it. Nobody really noticed. And the travel press, frankly, did a terrible job of covering it.

So most Brits arrive in Paris, shop normally, pay full price including VAT, and fly home. A smaller number find out at the airport — usually when they spot the Pablo terminal at CDG — realise they've missed it, and file away a vague intention to look into it next time. Next time, they forget again.

I was in that second category for an embarrassingly long time.

How the old system worked (and why everyone hated it)

The traditional way to claim VAT back involved stopping at a specific desk in each participating shop, asking for a tax-free form, getting it stamped, carrying the paperwork all the way to the airport, queueing at the Global Blue or Planet Tax Free counter, having everything checked, and then — finally — getting paid. In cash. At their exchange rate. After a commission of around 35–40%.

It was slow, confusing, and most shops only participated if they were large enough to bother. You couldn't claim across multiple small purchases. You needed a separate form for every retailer. And if you lost any paperwork, that refund was simply gone.

No wonder so many people didn't bother.

The app I used — and now use on every trip — is called Airvat. It's a London-based company, officially licensed by French Customs, and it makes the whole process feel less like bureaucracy and more like just... shopping.

What actually happens, step by step

I'll be specific, because the one thing that trips people up is not knowing what to ask for in the shop.

What I actually saved — the honest numbers

I'm aware that "I saved £340" sounds like the kind of headline that means £12 if you read the small print. So here's exactly what I bought and what came back:

That's £204 from the refund alone. The additional £136 came from the fact that, as a non-EU tourist, some shops already showed me a pre-discounted "tax-free price" at the till once I mentioned I was claiming. Combined, over four days, the saving was £340.

To put that differently: my flights and hotel together cost £410. The shopping trip effectively paid for most of my accommodation.

It works in Zara. It works in Primark. It works in the Apple Store.

There's a persistent myth that tax-free shopping is only worth bothering with if you're buying Chanel or Hermès. That it's a luxury-goods thing. It isn't.

Airvat works in any store that can issue a business invoice — which is essentially any store in France. Zara, H&M, Mango, Primark, Fnac, Decathlon, pharmacies, the Apple Store. There's no minimum spend per item and no list of approved retailers. If you can buy it in France, you can claim on it.

Pharmacies are particularly underrated here. French pharmacy brands — La Roche-Posay, Avène, Caudalie, Embryolisse — are significantly cheaper in Paris than they are on UK shelves, and then you get 13% back on top of that. I now budget a pharmacy run into every Paris trip as a matter of course.

What to do before your next trip

If you're heading to Paris — or anywhere in France — in the next few months, three things are worth doing now rather than later.

First, download the app and spend five minutes with the guide before you travel. The only way to get it wrong is to arrive at a shop without knowing what to ask for.

Second, practise the phrase: "Could I have a business invoice made out to Airvat?" It sounds slightly odd the first time. By the third shop, it's automatic.

Third, keep your purchases in your carry-on, unused, for the flight home. Customs can ask to inspect items — it's rare, but it happens. A jacket still in its bag is fine. A jacket you've been wearing all week is not.

That's genuinely all there is to it.

I'm going back to Paris in September. The list already includes a winter coat from A.P.C., a couple of things from the pharmacy, and whatever I end up buying on the day because Paris has a way of doing that.

I'll claim on all of it. It'll take me about ten extra minutes across the whole weekend. And I'll get a few hundred pounds back into my account by the time I'm on the Eurostar home.

For anyone who's been making the same trips I was making — and leaving the same money behind — I hope this saves you a bit of it next time.