Duty Free Shop airport | MAD | Madrid Barajas Terminal 4

Spain

MAD | Madrid Barajas Terminal 4

To shop Duty Free at Madrid Barajas airport you need to be a departing passenger leaving for one of the many intercontinental destinations served by this gateway which are outside the EU. Inbound, whether arriving from within the European Union or further afield, all the arrivals stores sell only tax-paid merchandise, so Duty Free on arrival is not available. Departure shops sell products at Duty Free or Tax Free prices and are available in all Terminals.

It can be confusing to understand the various Duty Free shopping rules, in simple terms only alcoholic drinks or tobacco products attract special Excise Duties, whilst all other products like perfume, cosmetics, sunglasses or watches, only have local Sales Taxes (VAT/IVA/GSM) included in the price.

Many retailers throughout EU airports absorb these local Sales Taxes and sell to you at one price, regardless where you arrive from or are travelling to. In effect, this simplifies prices and encourages more people to buy. The usual tell-tale sign is the description “Tax Free”. Meanwhile, cigarettes, whisky, cigars, wine, vodka or all the various products in these categories are often sold with two different prices: “for those departing the EU” or “for those travelling within the EU”. The reason being that most retailers cannot absorb the Excise Duty element on these products because it can be quite costly to do this, hence the dual-pricing.

In reality, your interest is to buy what you want at a better price than at home, or at your next destination and checking the various online duty free prices will help. If the retail operator at this airport has an online price list, we will link to it below. If not, you can check your next destination or your airline by searching in the box above.

The Customs regulation section, reached by clicking the red icon to the left, will tell you the various rules and Duty Free allowances into Spain. It features details of the exemptions or limits for each different type of journey.

If you are arriving from outside The European Union into an airport located in an EU Member State and then connecting on a flight to another EU destination, you will not be able to buy duty free goods, such as liquors and tobaccos, at duty-free prices.

What can you buy at the airport for this journey? Other goods, like perfumes, cosmetics and gifts are available at competitive 'tax-free' equivalent prices. Any available alcohol and tobacco sales, for EU-transfer passengers, are tax and duty-paid goods.

Some airline and airport retailers are yet to publish their online duty free prices and catalogues, others have now started incorporating online pre-order facilities.

We will publish the details for this airport as soon as they are available and where relevant to this airport, publish the airline in-flight price list, enabling you to make a comparison of the available products and prices.

If no local sites are available, we will provide links to a site where you can best check prices.