Claiming local VAT on holiday purchases

[Pipe & Slippers]

Thought this was better off here than in GD…
Was in Madrid last week and bought some shoes for EUR 85.00, and noticed there was a sign saying claim your VAT back, so I thought why not?
Asked at the counter and they printed me off a form and said claim it back at the airport
After doing the requisite fannying around, I got a refund of GBP 4.65
Actually I received GB 4.00 because they didn’t have any small change
Anyone know how the EUR 14.75 morphed into GBP 4.65?
I’m not annoyed, just curious
(Actually had 2 other purchases as well, so all 3 were ~EUR 250, but the other 2 were claimed back in a slightly different way, and this was the one I still have the original receipt for)

 

[Pipe & Slippers]

Thanks for the replies
I reckon it was probably a processing fee of some sort, as some of you have suggested
I actually got the £4 from a currency exchange desk, so I'd guess the Spanish government has outsourced the whole process

 

[Pipe & Slippers]

Just found the receipt in my junk mail - EUR 6.12 was the refunded VAT amount, and the exchange rate applied was..

0.7598

Spoiler

which rounded to 0.6537 when they did have the GBP 0.65 in coins! Ouch

Today's rate is ~0.84

There's no mention of a transaction fee, so I've no idea how the Euros transformed from 14.75 to 6.12

 

[Pipe & Slippers]

I thought you claimed back all the VAT, but then were supposed to declare it when entering the UK (although you're allowed £250 Vat free)

Yeah, I guess that was my expectation. I can’t imagine the Spanish tax authorities handing cash over to HMRC