When renting a Gite, do Americans pay VAT on the rental cost?

You will always pay the VAT on anything that you consume or use just as anyone from France will pay sales tax at every restaurant where they eat when traveling in the US.

However, most all prices include VAT and the only additional price you will pay for a gîte would be the taxe de séjour.

Thank you for your comment. I am confused because it doesn't look like the car rental includes the VAT and when I order merchandise from France, there is no VAT, and it is known that after a certain limit is reached on purchases made in France, the VAT can be refunded.🙂

Joe, there is no VAT on exported goods. In order to claim back the VAT, the goods in question must be exported intact and unused. A French car exported to the US does not have VAT on it, but the US does add taxes to it (import duty and sales taxes).

Services (accommodation, restaurants, transport etc.) are all consumed inside the country, they are not exported. Your car rental will include VAT (and any fuel used in the car).

We do pay tax on a car rental, 20%, even if paid for in advance from outside France. We just don't pay as much on some other fees.

it doesn't look like the car rental includes the VAT

Car rentals include the VAT. What may not be included is:

• Environmental fees
• Additional driver fees
• Road taxes
• Location surcharges

when I order merchandise from France, there is no VAT

Items purchased and exported by a non EU citizen, such through the mail or internet, may receive a VAT refund.

after a certain limit is reached on purchases made in France, the VAT can be refunded

A portion of the 20% VAT is returned to the purchaser if the items total more than 175€, are purchased from a single store on the same day. The items must be neither consumed nor used while in the EU.

Thank you for these comments. It does help me understand that the VAT seems to have to do with where the use or consumption takes place, not the origin of the funds paying for the good or service.🙂and 😥

Also: In Washington state, we add sales tax on top of the advertised selling price, which some see as "transparent" and others see as "a nasty surprise." In Europe, VAT is normally built into the sales price and you won't necessarily see it listed separately nor have to think about it.

This is one of the advantages of VAT. Imagine a European renting a hotel room in the US and finding that the cost is a third more than they bargained for because there are several local and state taxes and 'resort fees' and other bogus charges added on top of the room cost. In Europe there is occasionally a very modest per head tax on a hotel room and that is recent, but generally you pay what you see. And in restaurants there is no additional fee added to the menu price. (and tips are not part of the culture either so you don't have to mentally add 30% to your bill when you order for taxes and tips)

The sales tax versus VAT difference can be very surprising to Europeans, especially when you add in language difficulties. I was once at a Starbucks at a rest area on the New Jersey Turnpike and a French man ahead of me in line bought some coffee and was very confused by the amount that the cashier was asking him to pay because he thought the price on the menu would be the amount he had to pay. Then, because of how he asked about the sales tax charge somehow the cashier thought he was accusing her of trying to steal the difference and the whole exchange went south from there.

What a plethora of good answers! Thank you!

The VAT tax is not charged, since it is a business, which sells goods and services.
You will have to pay the "taxe de sejour", though.

The car rental charges are built into the VAT.

This is one of the advantages of VAT

A single, final price has nothing to do with VAT per se. I have seen US prices which include sales tax just not very often. Many if not all bars sell alcoholic beverages at a price that includes the applicable taxes. Gasoline is sold at a full final price with all taxes included. What stops a US vendor from automatically adding in the sales taxi to the an item´s ticket price? As long as the tax is collected, what law prohibits a vendor from listing the full price for any given item.

What stops a US vendor from automatically adding in the sales taxi to the an item´s ticket price?

Probably nothing, but it's almost never done, particularly in a store. At farmers markets here, when there are taxable items (such as flowers and plants), some vendors include tax, and some add tax on. But I don't think I've ever seen that in a store.