In Europe a foreign passport holder can pay the VAT at the store in town ( which may offer discounts) but present your receipt and products at the airport to the refund centre and they return your tax in cash, (If my memory serves me well)
One of the benefits of holding dual nationality
In this day and age, duty-free is useful in that it lets you carry home a couple full bottles of the local liquor, packed separately in their own carry-on bag.
Yes, on my last visit to Japan I bought a camera lens duty-free in an ordinary store in Okayama, used it for about a week, packed it back in the box that it came in, and showed it and the documentation to the customs people at Kansai Airport as I was leaving. It went fine.
Were you required to show the physical item to the customs people? Given that your checked luggage is already checked (possibly even on the plane) when you pass through customs enroute to the gate, what happens if you tell them the item is in your checked luggage?
I bought a couple of watches in Thailand. I didn’t have to present the watch at the tax reclamation office, only the form the department store gave me.
On the other hand when I bought my MacBook Pro in Hong Kong, I kindly asked the Apple Store clerk if he’d throw the box away for me, as I didn’t want to be randomly selected to pay 20% duty and/or a large bribe/fine when reëntering the mainland.
Yes, another benefit of duty-free in this day and age is that you can purchase items that would not normally be allowed through security.
The duty-free also is a throw-back to the days before a much more open free-trade regime, when there was a painful import tax on everything, and even worse on “sin tax” items and small luxury goods like perfume and makeup - which still seem to constitute the majority of duty-free shop merchandise.
The idea was that because they were being taken out of the country, these goods were sold without the typical burden of local taxes; and since most countries had a moderate duty-free allowance for travelers returning (i.e. Canada’s 1.14L of alcohol, or 40oz.) if you bought a small amount, you would not pay duty at the arrival end either. As mentioned above, the classic example nowadays is cigarettes, which may have up to a 200% sales tax for health reasons.
I should point out that there are also some duty-free shops along the Canada-US border, both sides, with the same concept. You buy your duty-free items and then pick them up as you drive across the border (i.e. can’t turn around and drive back to source country). These are more of a bargain for Canadians than Americans. Our high taxes on liquor and cigarettes go to help pay for our free health care. Did I mention we have free health care in Canada? The duty-free shops’ prices are about the same on the American side as the regular stores, it seems. A funny thing I noticed in stores near the border- the price for a 40-ounce bottle of liquor (vodka, rum, etc.) is only a few dollars less than the much bigger size (65oz?). So the price on a border-legal bottles is elevated a bit because they know you have no choice.
Or you could be like the Russian tourists we saw at Sharm el Sheik, and drink your bottle(s) of duty-free vodka before boarding the flight.
I don’t remember if they actually looked at it, but I did carry it onto the plane. I’m not sue what happens if you put it in your checked baggage.
But you don’t go through customs leaving Japan: I had to find the customs office at Kansai Airport to show them my paperwork. Again, I’m not sure what happens if you don’t: maybe they catch up with you next time you enter Japan.
Where’s it at?
Don’t end a sentence with a preposition.
Okay, where’s it at, asshole? 
I’ve also not had my bag of duty free booze counted against my carryon, IOW, I had my carryon & an extra bag of bottle of booze.
Try PA sometime; where they’re just now coming into the late 20th century in terms of alcohol sales. :rolleyes:
Scotch was much cheaper in Germany than in the US, ¼ - ⅓ less.
Years ago I was on my way to Burma from Thailand.
I stopped at the Duty-Free Shop at the airport in Bangkok and bought one bottle of Black Label Johnny Walker Whiskey and 2 cartons of 555 cigarettes. One bottle of liquor and 2 cartons of cigarettes were the limit to bring into Burma duty-free. The total price came to about $20 US.
After arriving in Rangoon, the taxi driver bought the 3 items from me for the equivalent of $70 US with Burmese Kyats.
It was important to bring in exactly what the demand was as far as the brands of liquor and cigarettes were concerned. I was told not to bring in red label Johnny Walker and only 555 cartons of cigarettes.
I was rich in Kyats. Seventy dollars worth of Kyats went a long way during a week in Burma. I had enough left over for a nice lobster dinner at the old British built Strand Hotel on my last night in Rangoon.