Tax Free Vat Refound in Rome Airport

Tax Refund desk in Rome FCO airport
To claim back your tax refund at the airport, you have to show your goods and your Vat Refund Form to the Customs officials who will then stamp your documentation if they are satisfied that the goods presented match your Refund Form.
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The office in FCO airport is at Terminal 3

In Italy they have a consumption tax as opposed to income tax. So, there products have an additional ~10% added onto the prices. As visitors we do not have to pay this for goods over a certain amount. So, if you purchase goods with a value of over 150 Eur (check this...I am not certain of the exact amount) you are entitled to a refund of the tax. The store itself will fill out a form that needs to be stamped by customs upon departure (make sure you have the goods on you they may ask to see it) and then you place the form in a drop box in the airport.

Therein lays the problem. The Rome airport has been revamped and now american international airlines check-in in another satellite terminal and then make there way to terminal C. Terminal C gates 1-20 used to be where one would check in, leave luggage and then catch the monorail to Term C gates 20 > x, where american intl deps leave from. Term C 1-20 is where the office is to deal with the VAT tax, specifically right by C3.

So now if you want to get your refund. You have to make your way to Terminal C by gate 3 in order to get the refund. So, you will check in in the satellite term, go through immigration and get on a shuttle bus to another terminal. When you get off the shuttlebus you are by the train, get on the train and go to the other Terminal C and then they will let you go to the office. You do not have to go through customs again or anything (which I was scared of). And it was quick and painless once I finally found out where I had to go.

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Two methods for getting your tax refund:

Option 1:If you are hand-carrying your purchases, it’s easier to go through Immigration first and then sort out your vat refund at the Customs Desk past the Immigration point. Not many people are aware of this option.

Option 2:If you’ve done a lot of shopping and wish to pack your shopping into your check-in baggage, the process is as follows:

¦You must first do your airline check-in and obtain your boarding pass. Advise the check-in person that you’d like your luggage back as you need to do your tax refund.
¦With your tagged luggage, boarding pass, passport, goods purchased and tax refund form, go to the Customs Tax Refund Office which, at Terminal C, is next to the Departure gate. Once you’ve satisfied Customs that you have all the goods that you’re claiming the tax refund for, your documentation will be stamped and you can then pack all your goods in your case. The case must be deposited through a dedicated baggage channel next to the customs office
¦Your stamped tax refund document can then be deposited in the mail boxes provided by the respective tax refund companies, or if you prefer cash you can claim this once you’ve passed through Immigration. Generally, I prefer to have the cash in hand, but as our Customs wait was so long all we had time for was to go through Immigration and then board our flight.

Warning:

The number of times that we’ve used Option 2, we found the process to be excruciatingly slow and painful. This week’s experience is no different. The sign explaining the process is not very clear and many non-English speaking travellers do not understand it anyway. We were explaining to people partly by sign language what they needed to do.

The customs officials don’t seem concerned at the lengthening queue. One officer was giving a Taiwanese woman a really hard time asking to see every item on her extensive shopping list. After 40 minutes in the queue we finally make it to the head of the line and by this time a supervisor arrives. She notices from our boarding card that our flight is already boarding. The awkward customs official finishes turning the Taiwanese lady’s luggage inside out and now it’s our turn to be worked over by her. Fortunately for us, her supervisor instructs her to clear us through immediately without checking any of our goods. She wasn’t happy and muttering under her breath she lands her heavy-handed stamp on our vat refund form.

You doing a lot of shopping in Rome, you should allow ample time to get your tax refund document stamped. If you happen to be behind a group of keen Taiwanese shoppers as we were, it can take more than 30/40 minutes. There was a huge queue behind us and people were getting rather exasperated.