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Paris Beauvais AirportUnofficial guide · BVA

After your flight

VAT refund at Beauvais Airport

If you live outside the European Union, are 16 or over and have spent less than six months in France, you can claim back the VAT on your purchases. Customs must validate the sales form when you leave the EU.

Residence
Outside the EU
Minimum age
16
Stay in France
Less than 6 months
Minimum purchase
Over €175 including VAT, on the same day in the same shop

Who is eligible

Tax-free purchases are exempt from value added tax (VAT), provided that certain conditions are met, which the shop checks at the time of purchase. You must:

  • be resident outside the European Union when you make the purchase;
  • be visiting France for less than six months;
  • be 16 or over;
  • according to the airport, have spent more than €175 including VAT on the same day in the same shop, and take the goods to your country of residence yourself.

In the shop you will have to prove where you live:

  • if you are a foreign national, with your identity document;
  • if you are a French citizen living outside the EU, with your consular registration card or another official document proving your residence.
  1. Ask for the form in the shop. When you pay, the sales assistant gives you an export sales form (three sheets: two pink and one green), which you must sign.
  2. Have it validated by customs when you leave the EU. Present the sheets together with the goods at the airport customs office, or at the last point of exit from the European Union, before the end of the third month after the month of purchase.
  3. Receive your refund. Once customs has stamped it, the seller is exempt from VAT and refunds it to you.

Two ways of validating

In France, customs validates the exemption in two ways:

If your purchases exceed your country’s allowances

If the value of what you are carrying exceeds the customs and tax allowances of your destination country, to get the refund you will need proof from that country’s customs that you have paid the import duties and taxes there. If it does not exceed them, you only need to show the refund slip and the goods at the French embassy or consulate in your country of residence to obtain an endorsement or certificate.

Without the export sales form there is no VAT refund on that purchase. Always ask for it in the shop.

More information on EU countries is available on the French customs website: Member States of the European Union (in French). If you live in the United Kingdom, see also its information on Brexit. And for the shops in the departure lounge, see shops and duty free.

Information checked in October 2026. Prices and timetables may change: confirm them with the operator before you travel.