Can I get the sales tax refunded when I leave?

There is no national scheme to claim against

Customs and Border Protection answers this directly: the U.S. government does not refund sales tax to foreign visitors. It is not an oversight or a form you failed to find — the tax was never federal in the first place. Each state, and often each city and county on top of it, levies its own.

That is the whole difference from a trip through Europe or much of Asia. A value-added tax is national, which is what makes an airport refund desk possible. A tax collected by fifty separate governments has no single counter to refund it at.

Louisiana is the exception, and it is a real one

One state runs a genuine tourist refund. Louisiana operates a tax-free shopping programme for international visitors, at participating stores, with refund centres including one at the New Orleans airport. If your trip happens to be there, it works.

Everywhere else, treat the tax as final. Budget with it included rather than planning to reclaim it later.

What this is often confused with

Duty-free shops at the airport are a different thing entirely. They sell goods that have not had import duty applied because you are taking them out of the country — that is not a refund of tax you already paid in a shop downtown.

Some retailers will ship a purchase abroad and not charge sales tax on it, because the sale is treated as out-of-state. That is a decision the shop makes at the till, not a claim you file afterwards.

Good to know

• Sales tax is a state tax — there is no federal refund for visitors
• Louisiana is the one state with a tourist refund programme
• Duty-free at the airport is not a refund of tax paid in shops

Sources: U.S. Customs and Border Protection — Refund of sales tax paid while visiting · Updated Aug 2026