If you order stuff from Amazon and ship it to your Aramex Shop & Ship mailbox, you are probably aware that Amazon taxes you. Well as a customer based outside the US you aren’t supposed to pay tax and so Amazon allows you to get a tax refund. All you need to do is prove the package was shipped to a freight forwarder (Aramex in this case) and that the final destination was outside the US. Sounds complicated but it isn’t. This is all you need to do to get a tax refund.
1) Once your package arrives to Kuwait request an airway bill from Aramex
2) Then, email the airway bill (as a PDF) to [email protected] with your Amazon order number
3) That’s it. In under 24 hours Amazon will reply back confirming that they’ve received your documents and that you will get a tax refund to your original payment method within the next 2-3 business days
How cool is that? And how much do you love me right now?
47 replies on “How to get a tax refund from Amazon (Aramex Shop & Ship Users)”
How would they refund the money they taxed you for?
“you will get a tax refund to your original payment method within the next 2-3 business days”
Mark, how can an amount purchased by a credit card be transferred back to it? Amazon can only accept a payment but not refund it directly?
they refund back to credit card
To your credit card I assume, and that’s pretty cool but I still would rather use borderlinx over Aramex.
Problem with Borderlinx its like Russian Roulette. There is no way to know how much shipping with them would cost until the package arrives to them. For example ordered the Garmin eTrex 20 which costs KD48. Sent it to Borderlinx since I figured its going to be sent in a small box. Shipping with Borderlinx turned out is costing me KD30. With Aramex it would have been a lot less.
I love Borderlinx but it scares the hell out of me.
Yeah that is one huge downside I definitely agree. Thankfully in my case I have yet to send a shipment to borderlinx where the shipment price was too absurd for the item.
exactly..its roulette and in my two consecutive times that i’ve ordered from borderlinx, BOTH times the price and weight were exaggerated–i suppose to milk the customer for a few extra bucks.
Aramax sticks you with arbitrary fee’s
and borderlinx gets you with unpredictable shipping charges…:S will there ever be peace!
+1
Every time my package hits their mailbox, I click on the login button very delicately – hoping that by doing so, my shipping computations may somehow be in my favor.
It rarely works though.
We Like u , even without the Tax refund !!!! Thanks
and you post this right after I switch to PostaPlus…
All freight forwarder services can send airway bills right?
Yeah I believe so.
Lol Posta Plus is located in New Jersey which means you pay 7 percent in tax;P
God bless you ;D
Wow. Any idea if this works with bhphotovideo? I just bought the macbook pro from there and shipped through shop&ship, ended up paying 260$ new york state tax 🙁
Waiting for a reply eagerly, thxx
In theory it should but I don’t know how easy to make it for you. Amazon is like super great when it comes to customer service. I love Amazon.
I was checking and as it seems the tax I paid was the state tax and not the VAT, and it is also said that this tax is not refundable by non US citizens (maybe they require social security number or smtn).
But overall with that tax, I ended up paying 760 KD on a fully upgraded macbook pro (RAM-PROCESSOR-SSD-anti-glare screen) which otherwise here and in Lebanon was costing me aroung 1100KD. which is a pretty good deal right?
There is no VAT in the States at least from what I am aware of. The tax you pay IS the State tax and with Shop & Ship its the NY state tax and it’s refundable because the package is leaving the US directly via a freight forwarder.
pretty much
+1
Are you fing SERIOUS I paid so much tax for nothing
I wonder how far back I can get a refund? If Aramex saves all the airway bills I would love to go back a few years and email Amazon like hundreds of airway bills.
I’d expect you can’t refund further back than last tax year anyway
They only keep records for the last six months I think. I tried doing that but I couldn’t.
To me aramex is no more, no more lies and no more playing games I had enough and I am sure a lot of people are fed up with aramex increasing their prices twice a year for no obvious reason. If aramex are fair they should show us the whole shipping cost + 5% tax + stamp fees + release fees, when someone logs to his/her account through shop&ship.com but that won’t be available because aramex doesn’t want people to have any kind of proof against them and the hand written bill they hand you over when they deliver your stuff is in total without any cost breakdown. God you are so cheap aramex.
If a company is raising prices they usually aren’t profitable, I wouldn’t blame them entirely because I’m sure a lot of hidden costs are thrown onto them the same way.
You’re right though kinda lazy they don’t show the breakup, would even make them look better.
Dear mark
Can you reply me with email of Aramex ,I email thim but no respond ???
Thanks
Why email them when you could use their live support!
I’m planning to order a canon camera? Will. Kwt customs confiscate it?
I LOVE you!
Wish I knew about this sooner!
Any idea how far back would this work?
I ordered a camera last month. Think I van get refunded now?
Can this work with Apple (both UK & US) as the iPhone 5 release is soon..
holy tax refund mark !! i’ve been ordering stuff for years can I still get tax refund from everything I ordered ?
I love thee very much 🙂
Hello all,
please note that Aramex sometimes increase the shipping weight “by mistake!” as they claim; therefore, check your package’s weight if it is over 500g. here is my story; a couple of weeks ago i got 3 packages from USA & UK. I suspected one of the packages weight which was 600g, so i checked it and it was 400g. i went to aramex and they checked the weights for all my 3 packages and 2 out of 3 were increased by almost 200g each. I got a refund for both packages which was 2.600 KD/each.
it isn’t enough that we pay too much for customs so the employees get their salary increase from our pockets. Aramex now “mistakenly” increase the weight so they too could make 2.600KD extra from each package….
The airway bill that aramex scans is enough ? It does not proof that the shipment is sent to Kuwait. Guys do you scan the other airway bill sticker ?
The ARAMEX AWB is enough. Attach it to the Amazon order confirmation and they will reverse tax charges. Quite prompt too
How do I request the airway bill from aramex?
Thank you
Does this apply to Amazon UK also? thanks
Do you know how I can get tax refund from Apple web store !?
Nope. If you get caught using a freight forwarder, they’ll probably never ship to you again.
YOU CAN JUST EMAIL THEM THE ORDER NUMBER AND S&S TRACKING LINK. THAT’S IT. NO NEED TO CALL OR EMAIL ARAMEX.
You can do the same on Amazon UK [email protected]
Thanks Mark for the advice. I love MyUs and excellent advice on getting Amazon to refund sales tax. Question: can anyone recommend a freight forwarder for UK shopping? Anything BUT Aramex please!
Many thanks
Hi,
Does this still work?
Yes, see details here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202036770
This is still applicable?
And do you know if the same can be done with eBay?
Where do i get the airway bill from shopandahip?