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Shopping tourists and local residents are often annoyed by the traffic jams at the border. Each receipt must be manually stamped at customs. This will soon be over: there will be a digital export certificate for smartphones.
Shopping tourism is becoming more attractive for the Swiss. Germany wants to achieve this with the introduction of the digital export certificate. Until now, Swiss shopping tourists had to have every receipt or export document stamped manually at the customs office in order to get the VAT back.
German customs are pleased with SRF. “We hope for a reduction in personnel,” says Mark Eferl from the main customs office in Singen. In Konstanz, for example, several officials are exclusively occupied with stamping the export documents.
QR code when shopping
It is conceivable that there will be a separate app for the digital export certificates. After years of refusal, the German government has taken an important step. The Budget Committee of the Bundestag has approved the financial means for the project of the digital export certificate.
Claudius Marx from the Hochrhein-Bodensee Chamber of Industry and Commerce explains how this could work in the future: “When shopping, the customer receives a QR code that he scans. When he crosses the border, the data is sent to customs. This means that the VAT refund has been approved. Reimbursement is made directly or with the next purchase in the store.» It would also be conceivable for the money to be transferred directly to a bank account.
Thurgau demands measures from the Federal Council
In the border canton of Thurgau, people are less than happy. This makes shopping tourism even more attractive, says Economics Director Walter Schönholzer to SRF: “The Federal Council must step on the gas now. The value-free limit has to go. If you get a VAT refund in Germany, you have to pay it in Switzerland.”
Until now, goods worth CHF 300 can be imported without having to pay VAT in Switzerland. In Germany it is 19 percent for many products.