Leaving China
Departure Tax Refund
What the refund is worth
Goods charged at 13% VAT use an 11% refund, and goods charged at 9% use 8%. The invoice says which, and this page does not choose it.
Enter the same-store, same-day spend and the estimate appears here.
At the airport
Show the unused goods, the form, the invoice, and your passport to customs before the refund desk. The desk is in the sterile area. Follow the signs — this page does not place a pin.
Shanghai
Pudong
Goods bought before the airport are verified at the customs exit declaration desk, before you enter the sterile area. A refund shop inside Pudong Terminal 2’s sterile area can verify those in-terminal goods at the shop. After the stamp, the refund desk is in the departure sterile area.
- Shanghai — Pudong Terminal 2 remote verification: https://kab.sww.sh.gov.cn/xwzx/001001/20241023/8287233a-fdac-44ae-a091-03bf743fc299.html
- Shanghai — Pudong and Hongqiao named as the first departure-tax ports: https://kab.sww.sh.gov.cn/gzzt/002010/002010002/20150703/d73a78c6-469a-4b15-a359-1b152e714243.html
即买即退, instant refund
Only a store that offers it can pay the refund in cash at the till. You sign an agreement and the store places a hold on a credit card, then hands you the same amount as the net VAT refund. You still take the goods, the form, the invoice, and your ID to customs. If customs verifies them and you leave from the port named in the agreement, the agent in the sterile area lifts the card hold and that cash is the refund. The agreement you sign says what happens if that check fails.
- STA interpretation — instant refund: https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/202504/content_7017657.htm