Tax-Free Shopping

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Overview

Tax-free shopping enables international travelers to reclaim the Value Added Tax (VAT) on purchases made in foreign countries. Through Global Blue, the world's leading tax-free solutions provider and a Shift4 Company, POS providers can seamlessly support this workflow within their applications.

Merchants will find value by attracting more international shoppers to their stores.

Shoppers will find value by enabling reclaiming VAT on eligible purchases without having to navigate country-specific rules, regulations, and paperwork.

When a merchant is set up for tax-free processing, Shift4 returns card and transaction details in the Sale response that the POS app uses to interact with Global Blue. The POS app is responsible for checking shopper eligibility with Global Blue and submitting the issuing request that generates the tax-free documentation for the shopper.

Availability

Tax-free shopping is currently available in the following countries:

• Germany
• Spain

The offering is expanding to more countries in Europe soon.

Requirements

The following are required to support tax-free shopping:

1. Global Blue Integration — The merchant's POS app must have an integration with Global Blue for Eligibility Detection and Issuing.
2. Card Present Integration with Commerce Engine — A card present integration with Commerce Engine, either on-premise or cloud-based.
3. Data Mapping — During the standard Shift4 REST API integration process, the POS app must map the data returned from Commerce Engine (the taxFree object and card.token.value) to the Global Blue Eligibility Detection and Issuing integration.

How It Works

The following describes the end-to-end tax-free shopping flow:

1. The shopper presents payment at the POS.
2. The POS app sends a Sale request to Shift4 via Commerce Engine.
3. Shift4 processes the transaction. If the merchant is configured for tax-free processing, the Sale response includes:
   • The taxFree object containing card and transaction details
   • The GTV token in card.token.value
4. The POS app sends the taxFree fields to Global Blue's Eligibility Detection API to determine if the shopper qualifies for a tax-free refund.
5. If eligible, the POS app submits an issuing request to Global Blue, including:
   • The taxFree fields and transaction details
   • The GTV token from card.token.value
   • The Shift4 Access Token
6. The merchant issues the tax-free documentation to the shopper.
7. The shopper presents the goods and documentation at customs upon departure. The shopper will then receive their refund on their preferred payment instrument. For cards, Secure Card Capture will make this seamless and secure. For cash payments please find the most convenient Global Blue refund office located at airports in over 40 countries.

Secure Card Capture

After the tax-free form is issued, Global Blue asynchronously retrieves the encrypted card data from Shift4 using the GTV token and Shift4 Access Token provided during the issuing request. This happens seamlessly in the backend between Global Blue and Shift4. The POS app does not handle actual card data at any point during this process.

Shift4 Sale Response Data

The taxFree Object

When a merchant is configured for tax-free processing, the Sale response will include the taxFree object. This object contains card and transaction details that the POS app passes to Global Blue for eligibility detection and issuing.

Example Sale Response

Below is an example Sale response for a tax-free eligible merchant showing the taxFree object and GTV token:

{
  "result": [
    {
      "dateTime": "2026-02-14T10:30:00.000-05:00",
      "amount": {
        "total": 150.00
      },
      "card": {
        "token": {
          "value": "8044540000000043"
        },
        "type": "VS",
        "number": "XXXXXXXXXXXX0043"
      },
      "transaction": {
        "invoice": "1001",
        "responseCode": "A",
        "authorizationCode": "123456"
      },
      "taxFree": {
        "maskedPAN": "476173******0043",
        "cardCountry": "124",
        "cardBrand": "VISA",
        "cardType": "CreditCard",
        "expiryMonth": "12",
        "expiryYear": "31",
        "cardholderName": "TaxFree Shopper",
        "pspReferenceNumber": "112215bf-93a3-4856-b1ca-23d175dd2fa9"
      }
    }
  ]
}

See the Sale endpoint for the complete response schema.

Integrating with Global Blue

After receiving the Sale response from Shift4, the POS app interacts with Global Blue in two steps: checking eligibility and submitting the issuing request.

Eligibility Detection

1. Extract the taxFree object fields from the Sale response.
2. Send the fields to Global Blue's Eligibility Detection API to check whether the shopper qualifies for a tax-free refund.
3. If the shopper is eligible, proceed to the issuing request.

Issuing Request

1. Submit the issuing request to Global Blue, including:
   • The taxFree object fields and transaction details
   • The GTV token from card.token.value
   • The Shift4 Access Token
2. Global Blue processes the request and issues the tax-free documentation for the shopper.
3. Secure Card Capture is enabled through the tokenized card details and the Shift4 Access Token.