I may be wrong but I think he means there is a booth that will issue you with the necessary paperwork for any purchases within Galerias Pacifico instead of each individual shop having to do it. You still need to present the paperwork and the goods to customs when leaving EZE. I doubt they issue refunds on the spot as there is no way of verifying the exportation of the items purchased.

We have always been successful with the VAT refund, and it worked smoothly at EZE each time. In truth, the line also was not long and moved quickly. The refund posted to our credit card about a month later or so.

In my prior experiences I haven't been asked to show the purchases. (Though that did happen in Asia once, and of course everything was in our bags and already checked.) Since most items that you get the refund on are large, or likely not to be in your carry on, like clothes, shoes, artisan items, etc., how do the authorities expect you to have the items available for inspection? I recognize their concern is that you get the refund but never take the goods out of the country yet, if that's the issue shouldn't they place the "inspection" office before you check your baggage?

+1 on it working.

...but with the following caveats:

1) It *is* a hassle and does require following directions. Something that it appears is not easily done by everyone. ;)

2) The agency that is responsible for the refunds does take a decent percentage...and additionally you likely will not be able to secure as favorable a price if you are going to utilize it (draw your own conclusions about tax compliance in Argentina). Finally not all businesses participate in the program. The end result is the savings are quite a bit less then they may seem at first.

3) When you get your refund, you can either opt for a handful of ARS to take back to the US. Or a credit in USD on your credit card. And it takes months to get the refund posted to your cc. It happens eventually, but basically you will have given up or forgotten about it.

All that said, here is the list of tasks that are needed to be performed in order to have a successful departure with tax refund.

1) Go to the customs desk (to the left of the UA counter IIRC) with your goods as well as your paperwork (tax-free forms and receipts) - [Stand in line] Get your tax free forms stamped. The agent may want to see the individual purchases.

2) Go to your airline. [Stand in line] Likely you will face a mini-pre interview where they check your passport and ticket, and ask you questions about your bags adding stickers and tags to your bags and passport. [Stand in line] Then you get to the counter hand off your checked luggage and get your boarding passes.

3) Go upstairs [Stand in line] and pay your departure tax. IIRC they put a sticker on the back of your BP.

4) [Stand in line] to show your passport and BP before entering the security check point area.

5) [Stand in line] to go through security. Go through security.

6) [Stand in line] to get through Passport Control. Get your Passport stamped.

7) Find the Tax-Free kiosk. [Stand in line] Hand in your paperwork and either get pesos or give them a cc to credit.

8) (optional depending on class of service and status) [Stand in line] for your Airlines lounge.

9) [Stand in line] at your gate to get the extra inspection for US pax.

10) [Stand in line] to board.

11) Feel really sad about leaving but excitedly planning your return.

An excellent summary VPescado apart from all the [stand in line] making it sound like an excruciatingly slow process ;) I am usually in the Admiral's club within 30-45 minutes after stepping out of the taxi and that included several recent trips travelling in the peak summer months

One thing that is now different is no queue to pay the departure tax. Since March/April last year, this tax is included in the ticket price so in a couple more months the departure tax booths will close and the employees can move over to collecting the reciprocity fee instead :D

Indeed.....last time I was through we had to pay the departure tax and there were no queues. To be honest I've never really found the process of going through security and immigration at EZE all that bad in all my years and at different times of the day and certainly not much different when travelling from any other International airport.
In fact if anything it seems to have got better.

This sounds more like it..... ^

To be fair, none of the lines are particularly time consuming except passport control and the ones at the airline counter (especially if you have no status). The customs line was a bit long but moved fairly quickly (and again is only usually necessary if yo are doing the Tax-Free thing).

I have not been back since late 2008, so I didn't realize about the no longer required departure tax payment. But I'll be back in May to check it out!!!! :D

Hopefully it will have stopped raining by then:D

Good info but..

Option 3 does not exist anymore and option 7 is (now) the new option 3 :D

Weather is perfect today.... ^ :D