# Where tourists actually get the most VAT back

> We ran a purchase through 38 countries’ tax-free schemes to rank what tourists ACTUALLY pocket after operator fees — not the headline VAT rate.

**Dataset:** 38 countries · 2026 · Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 — please credit YouCalc with a link.

## Key findings

- **Top:** Croatia — 16%
- **Bottom:** Taiwan — 3.8%
- **Notable:** 3 countries

## Get the data

- [Download the data (CSV)](https://youcalc.com/data/studies/tourist-vat-refund-index.csv)
- [Full interactive study](https://youcalc.com/en/studies/tourist-vat-refund-index/)