Texas Tax Back

What Texas Tax Back does

Texas Tax Back is a Houston-based customhouse brokerage firm founded in 1993 that helps international tourists recover Texas sales tax on qualifying purchases before departing the United States. The company operates four physical office and kiosk locations inside premium Texas shopping centers: one at The Galleria II in Houston and three in San Antonio (North Star Mall, plus two locations at The Shops at La Cantera, including an embedded Neiman Marcus kiosk). Its core service involves preparing and presenting export declaration certificates, known as "manifiestos," to participating retailers on behalf of foreign shoppers, who must present original receipts, passport documentation, and the merchandise itself for inspection within 30 days of departure. The company also offers an Early Refund Program enabling participating retailers to issue immediate refunds at point of sale.

Texas Tax Back is majority-owned by Farias & Farias, Inc., a Licensed U.S. Customhouse Brokerage Firm, which provides the regulatory supervision required by the State of Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Tax Code. The firm partners with over 150 retailers including Apple, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's, Nordstrom, Dillard's, Bloomingdale's, and luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Cartier, and Chanel. Customers receive 6.25% to 8.25% (Texas state and local sales tax) back on eligible purchases, paid in cash, traveler's check, or personal check with a US account, subject to a $10 minimum sales tax per store threshold and processing times of approximately 30 minutes to one hour.

The business model is a transactional, commission-based service with no disclosed headline pricing. Acquisition is driven by physical intercept inside shopping malls and by retailer partner referrals at point of sale. A multilingual website in seven languages (English, German, Chinese, Spanish, Dutch, Arabic, and Portuguese) supports inbound pre-registration. The company is privately held, has never raised external funding, and shows no enterprise-scale signals in headcount, geographic footprint beyond Texas, or product surface beyond its tax-refund core.

Name

Texas Tax Back

Legal name

Texas Tax Back

Website

https://txtaxback.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1993

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Texas Tax Back is a Houston-based customhouse brokerage firm founded in 1993 that helps international tourists recover Texas sales tax on purchases through four physical kiosks in major Texas shopping centers. The majority-owned subsidiary of Farias & Farias, Inc. processes export declarations and partners with over 150 retailers including Apple, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Tax Refund Services

NAICS

Tax Preparation Services (541213), Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services (5412)

akta.pro primary industry

Transfer Pricing & International Tax Services (BPAHABAI)

Keywords

• Sales tax refund
• Tax free shopping
• Customhouse brokerage
• Export declaration
• International tourist refunds

Headquarters

HQ city

Houston

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Sales Tax Rebate Processing Commission: Texas Tax Back charges a commission fee for processing sales tax reimbursement paperwork for international shoppers. The commission can be paid in cash, traveler's check, or personal check with a US account. The company operates under the supervision of Farias & Farias, Inc., a Licensed U.S. Customhouse Brokerage Firm, which is a majority owner of Texas Tax Back.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Texas Tax Back is a customhouse brokerage service that processes Texas sales tax refunds for international tourists and foreign shoppers. The company prepares export declaration certificates (manifiestos), coordinates with participating retailers, and delivers the sales tax refund in cash to qualifying customers who purchase merchandise in Texas and export it within 30 days of departure from the U.S.

Product overview

Texas Tax Back is a private agency that provides sales tax reimbursement services to international shoppers in Texas. The company offers a unified service that includes export declaration certificate preparation, retailer coordination, and cash refund processing. Founded in 1993 and majority-owned by Licensed U.S. Customhouse Brokerage Firm Farias & Farias, the company operates physical office locations and partners with over 200 participating retailers to help tourists obtain sales tax refunds within 30 days of U.S. departure. The service requires customers to present passport, immigration documents, airline tickets, and original sales receipts with a minimum $10 sales tax per store.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Sales Tax Rebate Processing Service Core in-person service where Texas Tax Back specialists process Texas sales tax refunds for qualifying international shoppers. Customers present their passport, original receipts, and merchandise for inspection at one of the company's four physical office/kiosk locations inside Texas shopping centers, and receive their refund in cash after export declaration certificates (manifiestos) are prepared. A $10 minimum sales tax per store is required, and refunds cover the 6.25% to 8.25% Texas state and local sales tax paid on merchandise exported within 30 days of departure from the U.S.
• Early Refund Program An expedited sales tax refund program where participating Texas retailers (more than 150 brands, including Apple, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's, Nordstrom, and Dillard's) deliver immediate refunds directly to qualifying international shoppers at the point of sale, bypassing the need for a separate office visit to Texas Tax Back.
• Export Declaration Certificate Processing Preparation and presentation of export declaration certificates, known as "manifiestos", which are the official paperwork required by the State of Texas and U.S. Customs to reimburse sales taxes on merchandise exported by international travelers. Texas Tax Back's specialists complete these certificates on behalf of customers and submit them to participating retailers for refund processing.

Quantifiable outcome

• Sales tax refund rates in Texas range from 6.25% to 8.25% (state and local combined)

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Farias & Farias, Inc.coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFarias & Farias, Inc. is a Licensed U.S. Customhouse Brokerage Firm and the majority owner of Texas Tax Back. They ensure compliance with all state and federal regulations for the tax refund service. The company was established in 1993 and operates under the State of Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Tax Code.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Taxback.com: Taxback.com is an international tax-refund and tax-return services company serving individual taxpayers and travelers. It offers tourist tax-refund services comparable to Texas Tax Back's niche, alongside broader personal tax services.
• Travel Tax Refund (TTR): TTR is a smaller U.S.-focused sales-tax refund service for international visitors. It overlaps with Texas Tax Back in providing tax-recovery assistance to non-resident U.S. shoppers, though at a smaller scale.
• VAT Refund (vatrefund.com): vatrefund.com is an online-focused VAT/sales-tax refund service for international travelers. It competes in the same tourist tax-refund category as Texas Tax Back, though with a more digital orientation.

Others

• CurrencyFair: CurrencyFair is a peer-to-peer currency exchange and international payments platform. It is adjacent to Texas Tax Back's business in serving international travelers' cross-border financial needs.
• Wise (formerly TransferWise): Wise is a cross-border payments and currency-exchange platform. While not a tax-refund specialist, its multi-currency refund payout capabilities represent an adjacent enabling technology for international tourist transactions.

Direct peers

• Global Blue: Global Blue is the leading international VAT/sales-tax refund service for tourists, partnering with retailers worldwide. It is a direct competitor to Texas Tax Back's core service of processing export declarations and delivering tax refunds to non-resident shoppers.
• Innova Tax Free: Innova Tax Free (now part of Planet) provides tax-refund services to international travelers via retailer partnerships. Its service model — partnering with luxury retailers to process tourist tax refunds — directly mirrors Texas Tax Back's offering.
• Premier Tax Free: Premier Tax Free is a global tax-refund operator serving international shoppers at major retailers. It is a direct competitor offering in-store and online refund experiences analogous to Texas Tax Back's service.
• Planet (formerly Planet Payment / Fintrax): Planet operates tax-free shopping and dynamic currency conversion services, having acquired Fintrax (Innova Tax Free). It directly competes with Texas Tax Back by offering tourist tax-refund solutions integrated with retailer point-of-sale systems.
• Fintrax: Fintrax (now part of Planet) is a long-standing tax-free shopping operator with global retailer partnerships. It is a direct comparable to Texas Tax Back's export-declaration-based sales tax refund service for international shoppers.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/txtaxback
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/texas-tax-back

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Texas Tax Back