Buy It There

Global Blue or Planet: What Each Takes, and When It Matters

Mon, 14 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0200

You almost never choose between Global Blue and Planet. The shop chose, months ago, when it signed with one of them, and the form in your hand is whichever company’s form the till prints. So the useful question is not which operator is cheaper. It is what each one publishes, what neither publishes, and which of the deductions you can still change after the form exists.

Why 20% VAT Is Only 16.7% of What You Paid

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0200

To calculate a VAT refund from a gross price, multiply the price by rate ÷ (1 + rate). Not by the rate. At France’s 20% that is 16.67%, so €100 on the tag contains €16.67 of tax, not €20. Anyone who multiplies the tag price by the headline rate overstates their refund by 20% of itself before an operator has taken anything at all.

The Operator's Fee: Four Published Figures, and Which One Is Right

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0200

Four reputable sources publish the VAT refund service fee as 4%, as 30%, as 10–20%, and as about 25%. Those cannot all be true. They are all true — of four different bases — and once you convert them to the same one, the spread collapses from a factor of seven to a factor of 1.3. Per €100 spent in France, all four leave you with between €11.67 and €15.00. Call it €12.50.

What a VAT Refund Actually Pays: The Whole Sum, Not the Headline Rate

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0200

A 20% VAT rate does not return 20%. On a €1,200 jacket bought in Paris in September 2026 and carried home to the United States, the refund that reaches the card is €150 — 12.5% of the tag price — and by the time the card’s conversion fee and US duty are counted, the jacket has landed at $1,279.20 against a Paris tag of $1,393.80. The whole exercise is worth 8.2%.