The UAE has made it easy for visitors to claim refunds upon their departure from the country. In 2024, the service was launched for online shopping, allowing visitors to buy goods online and then apply for a refund through e-commerce websites.

The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) in the UAE has authorised Planet, a service provider, to handle all VAT refund transactions. This system is entirely paperless and continuously updated, and is considered the world's first of its kind.

It offers a digital platform that allows tourists to easily scan their passports, complete purchase transactions, and automatically share them in the form of digital invoices.

Here is all you need to know about the procedure.

You are eligible for a tax refund if you are a visitor shopping in the UAE. The minimum spend eligible for a VAT refund is Dh250. Crew members are not eligible for the VAT refunds.

There are two ways to shop tax-free in the UAE.

Original method:

1. After shopping, request for a tax-free transaction from the merchant.
2. The merchant will enter your information into the digital tax-free system.
3. You will be given a tax invoice and a Planet tax-free tag. The latter has a QR code that connects to Planet's shopper portal, where you can review your purchases.
4. On your departure from the UAE, make sure you get your tax-free purchases validated at the designated checkpoints.

Paperless method:

1. After shopping, request for a tax-free transaction from the merchant.
2. The merchant will enter your information into the digital tax-free system.
3. You will be issued a digital tax invoice and an SMS will be sent to your mobile number. You can follow the link in the message to the shopper portal.
4. Validate your purchases at the designated Planet checkpoints on your departure from the UAE.

The Planet website says that you must leave the UAE within six hours of validating your goods, otherwise, you will have to go through the VAT refund process all over again.

• In order to get your purchases validated, you must visit Planet's validation points before checking in your luggage. These points are present at all civil airports, seaports and land borders in the UAE.
• Present your travel documents, goods and tax invoices (in case you did not go the paperless route).
• At this point, your transactions will be classified into Red Channel Validation or Green Channel Validation. The latter means that all your transactions have been validated and you can move on to choosing a refund method. The former means that your goods will have to be checked at a Planet validation point after immigration. Head to that point after immigration, and once your purchases have been validated, you can choose a refund method.

The available refund methods are credit card, digital wallet or cash in UAE dirhams. If you choose cash, you can get your refund immediately at the counter. According to the Planet website, there is a limit of Dh35,000 for cash refunds.

If you choose card, the refund will be processed within 9 days of you leaving the UAE.

There is a Dh4.80 fee per tax-free transaction. You will get back 87 per cent of the total VAT amount paid.

The time limit to validate your tax-free transactions is 90 days from the time of purchase. You have 12 months from the time of validation to claim the refund.

Here is a list of goods not eligible for VAT refunds:

1. Goods that have been consumed, fully or partly, in the UAE
2. Motor vehicles, boats and aircrafts
3. Goods that are not on your person when you are leaving the country
4. Services
5. Goods that have been used, fully or partially, in the UAE and do not have the original packaging