The day I quit Pablo indépendant: a Paris shopkeeper's story

26 May 2025 · Marc L.

By Marc L., shopkeeper in the Marais

I'm not one to chase digital revolutions. I've run a leather goods shop in the Marais for more than twelve years. We sell beautiful, durable, handmade things. And until recently, when it came to tax refunds, I did what everyone did: I filled in paper forms, printed, stamped, and queued at the post office to send off the paperwork. Pablo, the customs tool for validating tax refund forms, had become a "colleague" in misery… until the day I decided to stop.

Pablo, the colleague nobody chose

Let's be clear: Pablo isn't a person. It's a kiosk, a piece of software, a system set up by customs to validate tax refund forms when travellers leave the country. For my foreign customers, it was confusing enough. But for me, preparing those forms myself in "indépendant" mode had become a real burden.

Between typing errors, rejected forms, frustrated customers at the airport and follow-ups out of nowhere, I had reached the point where I almost avoided offering tax refunds at all. The irony! And let's be honest: printing three copies of a document to slip into an envelope, in the age of the smartphone, feels a bit outdated.

Discovering SkipTax

One day, a very tech-savvy Korean customer told me about an app that let her do her tax refund herself, in a few taps. I looked into it and found SkipTax: 100% digital, paperless, frictionless. I thought: "Too good to be true."

But curiosity won. I contacted the team, who explained how it works: nothing to print, nothing to post. I hand over an invoice made out to SkipTax, the customer makes their claim in the app, and that's it. No need to master VAT rates or prepare the form myself. And SkipTax takes no commission on my sales. So I gave it a try.

The day I quit Pablo indépendant

The first time I used SkipTax, I felt a strange mix of relief… and suspicion. It was too simple. But it worked. The customer prepared their tax refund on their smartphone without asking me for anything else, then validated it at the kiosk before flying home. No paperwork, no questions at the airport, no nasty surprises.

Since that day, I've never prepared a Pablo form myself again. And honestly, I don't miss a thing: not the errors, not the phone calls, not the brown envelopes.

Why I'm sticking with it

Today I tell all my fellow shopkeepers about SkipTax. Because tax refunds are a real way to attract and keep tourist customers. But if they become a burden, you end up neglecting them. Thanks to SkipTax, I enjoy offering this service again, without stress or friction.

Above all, I've saved time. Real time, which I can finally spend on my customers and my products instead of chasing paperwork.

A final word?

If you run a shop and you've had enough of Pablo indépendant, give SkipTax a try. You'll see: it can be simple, fast… and legal. Everything is explained on our partners page.