Refund amounts depend on the purchase band
The sticker price already includes 10% VAT (value-added tax), so the tax inside a ₩110,000 price tag is ₩10,000 — one eleventh, about 9.1%, the ceiling on any refund. The refund company deducts a fee, and Korean operators pay out from a stepped table. The following figures are from Global Tax Free’s refund table.
| Receipt total | Refund | In effect |
|---|---|---|
| ₩15,000–29,999 | ₩1,000 | 6.7% at ₩15,000 → 3.3% at ₩29,999 |
| ₩30,000–49,999 | ₩2,000 | 6.7% → 4.0% |
| ₩50,000–74,999 | ₩3,000 | 6.0% → 4.0% |
| ₩75,000–99,999 | ₩5,000 | 6.7% → 5.0% |
| ₩100,000–124,999 | ₩7,000 | 7.0% → 5.6% |
| ₩200,000–224,999 | ₩12,000 | 6.0% → 5.3% |
| ₩500,000–549,999 | ₩35,000 | 7.0% → 6.4% |
| ₩1,000,000–1,099,999 | ₩75,000 | 7.5% → 6.8% |
| ₩5,000,000–5,099,999 | ₩390,000 | 7.8% → 7.6% |
| ₩6,000,000 and up | 90% of the VAT | about 8.2% |
Other operators — Easy Tax Refund among them — publish tables of the same shape but not the same figures, so treat this as the pattern rather than a promise. Compare the actual bands for your planned purchases. A higher refund is not a reason to buy an unwanted item, and the rate is not a smooth progression: splitting separate items can help or hurt.
Does splitting ever win?
Splitting separate purchases can increase or reduce the refund, as these examples show.
| Buy it as | Refund |
|---|---|
| One ₩60,000 receipt | ₩3,000 |
| Two ₩30,000 receipts | ₩4,000 ✓ |
| One ₩100,000 receipt | ₩7,000 ✓ |
| Two ₩50,000 receipts | ₩6,000 |
| One ₩200,000 receipt | ₩12,000 |
| Two ₩100,000 receipts | ₩14,000 ✓ |
| One ₩1,000,000 receipt | ₩75,000 ✓ |
| Two ₩500,000 receipts | ₩70,000 |
| One ₩28,000 receipt | ₩1,000 ✓ |
| Two ₩14,000 receipts | ₩0 |
The differences are a few thousand won. The last line is the one that matters: two receipts under the floor are worth nothing, and that is the failure a real shopping trip produces — several purchases below the minimum. Combining eligible items at the same participating shop may produce a qualifying receipt, but purchases from different shops cannot simply be combined into one.
Before paying: keep small purchases above the ₩15,000 minimum where practical, then compare the actual operator’s bands. Splitting separate items is not automatically better or worse. Do not add something you do not need just to reach a band.
The two ceilings that change where you collect
At two numbers, written into the decree, splitting stops being about a few thousand won and starts being about *where you get the money*.
₩1,000,000 per receipt. A shop can take the tax off at the till only when the receipt, tax included, is under one million won. A ₩1,050,000 coat and a ₩120,000 scarf rung up together cost you the immediate refund on both; rung up separately, the scarf stays inside the till route. That is a legitimate two-item, two-receipt purchase, not a split.
₩5,000,000 in total, per visit. Once your purchases receiving immediate refund reach the five-million-won visit limit, every later purchase goes to a counter or the airport, however small. The ₩6,000,000 threshold applies to the electronic advance-refund procedure. It is not a blanket airport-refund ceiling. Ask a shop how it handles that before paying for a single item that size.
Eligible goods must leave Korea within three months of purchase. Missing that export deadline can affect eligibility for later immediate refunds.
The line you must not cross
Do not ask a shop to divide the price of one item across refund slips. The decree makes writing a single item up as two or more slips, twice in one VAT period, grounds for revoking the shop's tax-free designation, with no re-designation for two years.
- You may buy two separate items on separate receipts.
- You may make separate purchases on different days.
- Do not divide one ₩1,200,000 handbag into two ₩600,000 refund slips to avoid a limit.
Prepare the refund paperwork when shopping
- Compare combined and separate eligible purchases. Three ₩40,000 visits to Olive Young (Korea's dominant health-and-beauty chain)
return ₩6,000; one ₩120,000 visit returns ₩7,000.
- Check the shop is designated before you queue — the TAX FREE sign.
“What's excluded from the tourist tax refund” has what else is out.
- Carry the passport. Do not assume a shop will accept a photograph.
- Keep large single items apart from small ones, so the small ones stay
under the million-won till ceiling.
- Keep a running total. Past ₩5,000,000 of purchases receiving immediate refund, plan on the
airport — “Tax refund at the airport: kiosk first, then bags”.
- Do not chase the last few thousand won. A well-organised trip and a
perfectly optimised one differ by the price of a coffee.
